Argument Analysis/Critical Response Paper - Essay Example

full The Opinion Page /Editorial (Critical response paper) 07 February Detroits Immigration Solution The article chosen for this paper was written by the Editorial Board of the New York Times (NYT) and published last February 05, 2014. The gist of this article is the proposal made by the governor of Michigan State, Mr. Rick Snyder, to fix the problems of Detroit city with special visa program to attract smart immigrants and thereby re-populate the city of Detroit. It is unusual in the sense that federal immigration policy is a very contentious issue today.

His proposal is to grant these special visas only to certain qualified immigrants such as those with advanced degrees or exceptional abilities in the arts, sciences, and business. Detroit is a major manufacturing city, the home of the Big Three in the auto making industry and yet went bust due to global economic trends, fierce foreign competition through imports, and gross mismanagement. However, Gov. Synders proposal attracted attention because it is not a usual solution but something that is quite creative (NYT Editorial Board, para. 4).The title of the article is quite catchy, as it encourages the reader to read through all of it instead of just skimming because it piques the interest in terms of probable suggestions or solutions to a big problem like Detroit.

Its problem is multi-faceted and the immigration as suggested solution is a bit shallow at best. Even the editorial board admits this solution has a lot of holes in it which will not hold up to any intelligent debate. For one, it is discriminatory in the sense it grants visas to highly-skilled immigrants only although America as a country is built on the labor of everybody, including the nannies, fruit pickers, and blue-collar workers. A suggestion like this is bound to create more problems because the special visa is specific to one site only, in this case Detroit, and restricts the freedom of movement and abode.

However, as people like to say, unusual situations require unusual approaches. This is a clear case of thinking something out of the box because Detroit is now just a ghost city, so to speak. Its industries had been hollowed out by intense foreign competition and propensity of American businesses to outsource high-paying jobs to lower-paying countries elsewhere. It seems nothing worked before, so this proposal came along to revitalize an important city that used to symbolize the industrial might of America.

Giving special visas is bound to anger the many Americans who are left jobless by the economic recession from the collapse of housing market from the speculative bubble, but then these immigrants should be enticed to America because that was how America became great in the past by being the worlds melting pot.Extraordinary problems require extraordinary solutions but it seems this is not one of those situations in which a selective immigration policy is best suited for. Immigration brings with it additional unforeseen problems if done on intention instead of just letting the people choose do so on their free will or own volition; it should not be something that is forced.

It is not a guarantee it will solve the main problem in the first place because what is at issue is the lost competitiveness of American industry due to mismanagement at the top. But then again, as the old adage goes, if nothing works, then try anything. This is the hope a different approach of tackling a problem as massive as the bankrupt Detroit will work. The details of this plan should be studied further although the article did not cite figures or the statistics needed to back up this suggestion.

Additionally, all stakeholders should be consulted to earn the support of the business sector, labor unions, legislators, and the American public. A very effective rhetorical move by the editorial board is the last sentence in their article which states the good news: just such a plan had already passed in the Senate last June. This seems a very surprising turn of the discussion and renders whatever objections a reader may have had moot and academic but this had been done before; Toronto did it successfully decades ago.

Work CitedEditorial Board. “Detroits Immigration Solution.” The New York Times. 05 Feb. 2014. Web. 07 Feb. 2014. .