The Impact of Illegal Immigration - Research Paper Example

? Immigration s 20 November Outline The Impact of Illegal Immigration: This section will explore the impact of Illegal immigration. The impact of the same on the other citizens of the US will be discussed. Problems like Medicaid will be thrown light upon under this section. Illegal Immigration: How people breach the border security and sneak into the US will be discussed in this part. The problems this menace causes will be discussed under this section. How the Country Suffers because of Illegal Immigration: A comprehensive analysis of how the US suffers because of illegal immigration. This also affects the jobs and the overall medical facilities and the same will be discussed under this subheading. Major Problems: Major problems caused by Illegal immigration will be discussed in this part and a comprehensive analysis of how to tackle the same will also be discussed in this part. Solutions to the problems: Once the problems are discussed, possible solutions will be discussed. The ways to stop illegal immigration will be discussed; this has been a long standing problem in the US and it is high time to deal with it. How to Restrict Illegal Immigration: This section will throw light upon the solutions to deal with this menace. Laws must be made stricter in order to ensure no illegal immigration takes place, only then can countries witness an unprecedented growth. Conclusion: Summing up the main points discussed in the paper and presenting a logical conclusion that will solve all the problems. Immigration can be of two types, one is legal and the other one is illegal. Legal immigration involves many hassles, there is a lot of paperwork involved but illegal immigration is different. People who know that they are ineligible for legal immigration try their hands at illegal immigration and many succeed immigrating into another country illegally. This has ramifications and this paper will shed more light upon the ramifications of immigration. The United States of America is a developed nation and there are many foreigners who have ensconced themselves in the country. There are many people in Mexico who try to sneak in illegally through the Mexican border into the United States, the personnel in the United States is well aware of this problem and have already taken measures to ensure that no illegal immigration takes place. People are always looking for shortcuts and they always find ways to simplify their work but at times these shortcuts can cost them dear. Immigration is a very complicated procedure, the paperwork involved can take months but this is the legal way of doing things, illegal ways are adopted because people have no time and patience to do things legally, there are many illegal immigrants in the United States at this moment. Legal immigration becomes illegal when a person whose visa has expired decides to overstay in the country, this is also illegal immigration. A person whose visa has expired must approach the concerned authorities and extend the visa so as to ensure that they do not have to face any serious problems. The personnel have become aware of this problem and the procedure has been changed to deter people from overstaying in the country once their visa has expired. “Ten million illegal immigrants live in the US, according to estimates by academic and government agencies, although Bear-Stearns investment firm analysts claim that the US illegal immigrant population "may be as high as 20 million people." (“Illegal Immigration”) Every year millions of people sneak illegally into another country by crossing the border line, this is very common in the United States of America. This is called illegal immigration, in other words, people who do not have work permit or any kind of permission from the government to come and stay in that particular country. The same affects the health facilities in the country and negatively impacts the overall healthcare facilities in the USA. Research has found that illegal immigration affects the citizens of that particular country, especially the poor people and the legal immigrants. It is also found that the taxes paid by these illegal immigrants are far less than the services received by them. Countries like United States of America are trying their level best to counter this by increased border patrol but this is not only reason for illegal immigration, most of the cases occur because of people who overstay even after their visa is expired. The United States of America provides Medicaid facilities to the legal and illegal immigrants but this results in a very big loss for the economy of the country because the people take undue advantage of the same by overstaying in the hospitals even after recovery. The Medicaid policies depend on state to state but there are some states in America which provide the young children and elders requiring medical attention with great facilities like free drugs, free nursing and proper medical attention. Of late, the federal law has brought in many restrictions to keep a check on the illegal immigrants; this also ensures a strict check on the money spent on the public welfare. Some of the services provided by Medicaid to the people are vaccines for the children, rural health care services, transportation services and these are just a handful of many services provided by the Medicaid in America. The funding of these services provided by the states comes from a partnership between the federal and the state government; this was established in the year 1965 and comes under the social security act. “States with lower per capita income get more government money, those with higher get less. This Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) in 2000 paid 76.8% of all Medicaid in Mississippi, 70 % in the District of Columbia, and 59.8% in Alaska. Alaska's FMAP increased markedly in 2005. The federal government also reimburses states for Medicaid administration and for Indian Health Service facilities.” (“Medicaid”) “Medi-Cal is California's Medicaid program. This is a public health insurance program which provides needed health care services for low-income individuals including families with children, seniors, persons with disabilities, foster care, pregnant women, and low income people with specific diseases such as tuberculosis, breast cancer or HIV/AIDS. Medi-Cal is financed equally by the State and federal government.” (“Health care services”) There are various programs under Medi-Cal; one of the most noticeable ones is access for infants and mothers which provides pregnant women with a very low cost quality attention. American Indian infant Health Initiative provides the Indian families with home management services to the families at high risk. According to the studies, the largest expenditure made on illegal immigrants was on their children’s education. There are many other facilities given to the illegal immigrants and there is so much spent day in and day out in providing these services to these people. Major Problems and solutions There are many people in the US who are uninsured with regard to the health care; children become very vulnerable in particular. An example will prove the point as young children who are uninsured have very less or no chance of being operated if they are diagnosed with a deadly disease like cancer or, for that matter, any other disease. The cost of health insurance has been constantly on the rise in the country and it is becoming very difficult for the people in the country to afford insuring themselves against the possible occurrence of any health related problems. “The uninsured people in the US owe a lot of money to the hospitals; the collection agencies are trying to collect the money from them. The children who have not been insured are very less likely to receive treatment even if they suffer from serious injuries. Even those who have been affected by lung cancer or other serious diseases that require a surgery to be done will not be operated if they are not insured. Patients suffering from diseases like heart-attack will not receive angioplasty if they are not insured. Patients suffering from Pneumonia are very less likely to receive facilities like X-Ray and other medication.” (“Health Care in America”) Racism in the US also affects the health of the people who are a minority in the country; the blacks are very vulnerable to developing chronic diseases and this is because their homes are located in poor localities, the same has a bearing on their health and makes them extremely vulnerable to developing diseases like cancer, HIV/AIDS etc. The blacks are treated differently than the whites in the US, for instance, the treatment or the medical prescription given to a white would be very different than that of a black who visits the same hospital. This not only affects the health care system in the country but it also affects the overall balance of a country. The government has to take initiative to improve the overall quality of health care in the country. First of all, the government should make sure that no discrimination of any kind takes place in the country; by doing this, the US would make sure that the blacks or the minority do not suffer from what they are suffering now, this would enable them to prosper inevitably resulting the growth and development of the country. Another thing which has to be done is that the government must take initiative to establish more hospitals in the country because there have been numerous cases when the shortage of hospitals in the country has resulted in the death of many people so to make sure that this is not repeated in the future, the government should establish more hospitals in the country. If these two steps are initiated than the overall health care system in the country is sure to develop by leaps and bounds. Solutions to Prevent Illegal Immigration in the US The US government had been ineffective in dealing with the problem of immigration, there are many ways by which the people violate the rules set by the US government, for instance, people who have got expired visas still stay in the country; this is illegal and the US government has to deal with this problem sooner rather than later. The same has devastating impacts on the economy of the US. The example of the Medicaid policies was just a small example to prove that the government of the US incurs hefty losses due to immigration of people. It is high time for the US government to make stricter rules and to follow those rules at any cost if they are to stand any chance of protecting their country from this serious problem. The security at the border has to be tightened to make sure that no person is given the liberty to sneak in the US. There are lapses in the security which is why the illegal immigration is constantly on the rise and the most worrying factor is that the government, in spite of knowing this, has been unable to take appropriate steps. Companies like Wal-Mart recruit immigrants extensively; whether they are recruited knowingly or unknowingly is a different question altogether, in the year 2005 the company had to pay a whopping $11 million to the US government when it was found that hundreds of thousands of employee working in Wal-Mart were illegal immigrants. This goes to show the failure of the US government to deal with this long standing problem. Some possible solutions can be fines, arrests, military service etc (“How Should the US deal with illegal Immigration”). The country has already suffered a lot of loss because of this problem; they cannot afford to ignore it. If they do so, the future of the US citizens is certainly not looking bright. Works Cited California Department of Health care services. Dhcs.ca. Web. 20 November. 2012. Health Care in America. Kottke.org. Web. 20 November. 2012. Illegal Immigration. US Liberal Politics. Web. 20 November. 2012. Medicaid. News with views. Web. 20 November. 2012. Read More