Immigration policy in the USA - Term Paper Example

Immigration Policy in America Perhaps America is the most heavily populated country as far as the number of immigrants is concerned. No other country in the world may have such diverse population from different ethnicities, cultures or religions. Immigration to America increases day by day mainly because of two reasons; America is a secular democratic country and it is the richest country in the world. Most of the immigrants in America will try to bring their relatives and friends to America through legal and illegal channels. Such tactics often results in increased competition for employment by the locals with their immigrant counterparts which will create dissatisfaction among the locals. Earlier, America welcomed all the people from the world irrespective of their ethnic or educational backgrounds. In 1980’s and 1990’s, America experienced enormous growth of small scale industries, mainly because of the contributions of the immigrants. However, at present America implemented many restrictions upon immigration because of the increased threats of terrorism and violence from both legal and illegal immigrants. 9/11 incident resulted in strengthening of the immigration policies in America. This paper discusses how immigration policy about whom and how many to let in has changed over time and what this change reveals about a society’s quest for national identity Changes in American immigration policies The immediate reasons for drastic changes in immigration policies are the threats from terrorists. 9/11 incident was a lesson for America’s immigration and naturalization department. Terrorists can enter America through legal and illegal channels. The war on terror and the disputes with the Islamic world made America vulnerable to terrorist attacks at any time. It should be noted that many of the Americans watching the Muslims in America with suspicious eyes after the 9/11 incident. It is difficult for the Muslim people to get American visa at present unless they have enough reasons to convince the authorities about their purpose of visit. Moreover, in many of the American airports, body screening is implemented especially for the Muslim people. All these policies reveal that America is not much interested in allowing Muslim immigration after the 9/11 incident. Another important issue which forced America to strengthen their immigration policies is the social problems associated with immigration. Uncontrolled Immigration can result in identity crisis. Middle East is facing such problems at present. In most of the Middle Eastern countries, or the Gulf countries, the number of immigrants is more than the number of locals which created lot of identity problems. No country would like to see more immigrants in its territory than the number of locals. The excessive number of immigrant people seen in the streets, workplaces and other public gathering places may create sense of unhappiness among the locals. Moreover, Americans cannot keep a friendly attitude towards immigrants especially when they are struggling to get out of the recession problems. Many of the Americans lost their employment because of the recession problems and the subsequent collapse of big organizations. At the same time, they are witnessing the survival of the immigrant community in America. Immigrant community mostly has their own small scale businesses and the recession has not affected their businesses very much. All ethnicities are not equal; all are not symbolic, costless and voluntary. When white Americans equate their own symbolic ethnicities with the socially enforced identities of non white Americans, they obscure the fact the experiences of the whites and non whites have been qualitatively different in United States and that the current identities of individuals partly reflect that unequal history (Waters, n. d., p.201-202) Even though racism is prohibited by law in America, it can be observed in many other forms in American social life. Whites always consider the supremacies of their ethnicity and they always treat blacks as inferior to the whites. It is a fact that a person of black origin is currently ruling America. However, it doesn’t mean that the attitudes of whites towards the black have changed considerably. Whites always like to have the company of whites rather than the blacks. They wanted to see whites everywhere in America. However, uncontrolled immigration resulted in heavy increase in number of blacks in America. For example, California State is currently facing many problems as a result of uncontrolled immigration. “Immigrants are most disconcerting to California because they are everywhere working, transforming the ethos of the state from leisure to labor” (Rodriguez, 1995). California is very close to Mexico which helped Mexican immigrants to cross the border easily in search of better living standards in America. “It is estimated that there are currently about 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States. In California alone it is estimated to be 3 million illegal immigrants” (Illegal Immigration in California, 2009). Immigration helped California in its economic growth because of the availability of cheap labor. Immigrants always ready to do any work for their survival. “Employers are turning to illegal exploitation because it is too inconvenient to let wages go up” (Romero, 2002, p.13) At the same time, immigrants are looting the job opportunities from the American people which resulted in increased unemployment rates in America. America cannot allow the looting of employment by the immigrants even though they are contributing to the economic growth. The ethics behind immigration is often controversial. This is because of the perception that immigration may bring fortune to the immigrants; but it may cause problems to the locals. In other words, through immigration, immigrants acquire more fortune at the expense of locals. That is why America started to put more control on immigration. America has realized that it is illogical and dangerous to allow uncontrolled immigration while the demographic balances were in jeopardy. President Barack Obama already revealed his intentions to control immigration. “Demanding much more responsibility and strengthening of the borders, Obama also asked Congress to help make it simpler for illegal immigrants that are currently on our borders to achieve legal status” (Federation for American Immigration Reform’s Take On Recent Immigration News, n. d). “The US economy welcomes highly educated professional workers from abroad, but in contrast to the early twentieth century, is less hospitable to the low skilled industrial workers or those less proficient in English” (Levitt, 2004, p.448). Semiskilled or unskilled labors are not much welcomed in America at present. Getting visa permit for these people is extremely difficult at present. Most of the people who are trying to immigrate to America are unskilled people. Even educated immigrants may not get a white collar job in America without proper American education because of the American standards and norms implemented in America for getting certain jobs. Skilled people may get good jobs in their domestic countries and they quite often satisfy with it. America is facing manpower shortage in skilled labor department. However, most of the people who are applying for green card are unskilled. The current immigration and welfare policy changes are intended to “control the flow of low wage workers available for domestic and nanny positions” (Romero, 2002, p.14). The shortage of servants and nannies may create problems in America since many of the Americans are working professionals who rely on the services of unskilled workers like servants, nannies etc for looking after their domestic works. In short, the new immigration policies may create some problems to Americans in the domestic circuits. “California State is spending approximately $7.7 billion a year to school the children of illegal aliens another $1.4 billion of the taxpayers' money to provide health care to illegal aliens and their families” (Longley, 2010). It is difficult for a state or country to spend such huge amount of money for the welfare measures of the immigrant community. Even after spending such huge amounts, the dropout rates among children of immigrant community are more than that of the locals because of various reasons. Children who left school may engage in antisocial behaviors which may create lot of social problems. The unluckiest children of immigrants drop out of high school. They speak neither good English nor Spanish. Some end up in gangs--family, man--"blood." They shoot other kids who look exactly like themselves. If they try to leave their gang, the gang will come after them for their act of betrayal. If they venture to some other part of the city, they might get shot or they might merely be unable to decipher the freeway exits that speed by (Rodriguez, 1995) Conclusions America is currently tightening the screws of immigration especially after the 9/11 world trade centre terrorist attack. The war on terror and the disputes with the Muslim world made America vulnerable to terrorist attack any time. Terrorists can enter America through legal and illegal channels. Earlier, it was assumed that terrorists enter America only through illegal channels. However, some of the recent terrorist incidents revealed that terrorists can make use of even the legal immigrants for conducting their mission. The above awareness forced America to put some control over immigration, particularly from the Muslim community. Apart from terrorist problems, immigration can create lot of social problems also. It can affect the demographic balances and generate race related problems. In short, American immigration policy has changed a lot and it allows only the entry of skilled people at present. Moreover, the Muslim people are currently facing more difficulties in getting entry pass to America. References 1. Federation for American Immigration Reform’s Take On Recent Immigration News, (n. d). Retrieved from http://www.immigration-laws.org/federation-for-american-immigration-reforms-take-on-recent-immigration-news.html 2. Illegal Immigration in California. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.usimmigrationsupport.org/california_immigration.html 3. Levitt P. (2004). Salsa and ketch up: transnational migrants straddle two worlds. Spring 2004 4. Longley, R. (2010). Illegal Immigration Costs California Over Ten Billion Annually. Retrieved from http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/immigrationnaturalizatio/a/caillegals.htm 5. Rodriguez R (1995) ‘Go North, Young Man. Retrieved from http://motherjones.com/politics/1995/07/go-north-young-man 6. Romero M. (2002) Maid in the USA. Publisher: Routledge 2002 7. Waters M.C. (n. d.) Optional ethnicities of white only. Retrieved from http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~jdowd/waters.pdf Read More