Does Illegal Immigration Help or Hurt U.S. Economy - Essay Example

?[Your full full November 25, Does Illegal Immigration Help or Hurt U.S. Economy? Introduction Before going to discuss whether illegal immigration helps or hurts U.S. economy, let us get a better understanding of what illegal or undocumented immigrants actually are. Samers states, “Undocumented immigrants are migrants who clandestinely enter a given national territory” (131). Illegal immigrants not only include those immigrants who enter the premises of a country illegally but also those people who although possess legal documents for the entrance but overstay in those countries. For example, some people go to other countries on visit visa but stay there for more than the actual duration. Sadowski-Smith states, “The focus of contemporary debates about undocumented immigration to the United States is almost always on Mexican border crossers who enter the country without legal documents” (779). Illegal immigrations are posing great threat to the overall U.S. economy. Although illegal immigrants are bringing some benefits to the U.S. economy, such as, increase in the GDP, increase in the available workforce, and increase in the number of hardworking individuals but these are all short-term benefits, which are unable to overshadow the large number of long-term harms associated with illegal immigrations. Let us discuss how illegal immigration affects the economy of the United States of America. Illegal Immigration Hurts US Economy Large-scale illegal immigrations also produce a negative impact on the economy of the United States. Some of the most obvious economic impacts of illegal immigrations include less job opportunities, increased poverty, increased educational costs, decreased foreign investment in immigrant-populated areas due to increased fear of crimes, and less number of skilled employees in the original countries of the immigrants. It is a fact that when the host country starts hiring illegal immigrants on low salaries, the number of available jobs decrease for the local citizens. Espenshade states, “Illegal immigrants have high rates of labor force participation but typically earn about 30% less than their legal counterparts from the same region of the world” (207). However, it also results in increase in the graph of poverty because when people will not have good jobs, they will not have money to spend which will ultimately increase poverty. Moreover, low salaries for the illegal immigrants also increase poverty. “Their wages are low and they are more affected by downturns in the economy” (“Immigration Policy”). Illegal immigrants do not have skills and qualification that are required to get good jobs. They just go to the United States to do low profile jobs for money, which also results in overpopulation and poverty for the local and poor people. Poor people do not have enough resources to get standard education, which makes them go for low profile professions, such as, waiters, dishwashers, petrol pump operators, sanitary workers, and plumbers. However, when employers fill such jobs with illegal immigrants on low wages, no place is left for the local citizens. According to Sterne, employers prefer to hire undocumented immigrants, as they are cheaper and unregulated (556). Increase in the number of illegal immigrants also impose burden on the taxpayers. Illegal immigrants receive all social services and do not pay the taxes that they should actually pay in return of those social services. Increase is the number of crimes is one of the major drawbacks associated with immigrations. Sadowski-Smith states, “Undocumented immigrants are also increasingly criminalized within punitive local, regional, and national legislation that further exacerbates vulnerability to exploitation” (799). Some percentage of the immigrants falls into criminal activities when they do not find jobs or any kind of work in the countries where they migrate. Some of those crimes include kidnapping for ransom, stealing money, rape, robbery, physical attacks on the local people, and harassing other people. Researches show that illegal immigrants have increased the overall number of crimes in the country and the main reasons behind that increase are the social and financial issues of the immigrants. Increase in the terrorist attacks and threat of terrorism are also associated with the issue of illegal immigrations. The incidence of 9/11 was also an outcome of illegal immigrations in which a group of Arab terrorists hijacked a couple of planes and hit them with the world trade center causing a large number of deaths and injuries. The incidence also put a negative impact on the economy of the United States of America. Drug trafficking is also one of the most critical issues associated with large-scale illegal immigrations to the United States of America. USA is one of those countries which are facing the issue of drug trafficking as it holds a large number of illegal immigrants. A major part of the illegal immigrants living in the United States of America belongs to Mexico. Espenshade states, “The typical undocumented migrant is a young adult Mexican male who comes across the southern border near a major US city” (197). Some studies show that approximately 13 millions of all illegal immigrants living in the United States of America are Mexican-Americans who come from Mexico to the USA for different economic reasons and a large number of such immigrants get involved in drug trafficking. Drug trafficking is a business which earns huge money to the drug dealers, manufacturers, and all other people involved in this business. Go states, “The US suffers an annual loss of about 70 billion dollars due to drug-related illnesses, death, and drug related crimes”. The immigrants involved in this business harm the roots of the society and economy. Although drug trafficking earns a huge amount of money for the drug traffickers but it spoils the young generation of the United States. Bailey states, “The link between illegal immigration and illegal drug trafficking has become almost indisputable and crime-related problems for law enforcement officials” (97). Increase in the cases of illegal immigration cases is the main factor behind increase in drug trafficking in the United States of America. Some reports from the CNN new channel reveal that most of the illegal immigrants who come from other countries to the United States of America have a single purpose to smuggle drugs to the drug dealers who are already present and working in the United States. Such people make use of illegal immigrants who are inconstant fear of arrest and are unable to do proper jobs due o that fear. Most of the illegal immigrants are usually uneducated and they do not have any educational certificates to get a good and respectable job. Therefore, they enter the United States illegally and get involved in Criminal activities, which are able to earn them good money. Let us now discuss the impact of crimes on the economy of the United States. Impact of Crimes on U.S. Economy The impact of increased number of crimes, increase in the rate of unemployment for the local people, and drug trafficking is not good for the United States of America. In the U.S., crimes such as drug trafficking, violence, rapes, and terrorist attacks cause fear in the minds of the citizens. Increased rate of crimes due to immigrants put a negative impact on the minds of local citizens, which makes them start thinking negatively about all immigrants. Along with terrorism and different types of violent crimes, drug trafficking also puts a negative impact on the youth of the United States of America. Drug trafficking harms the lives of local citizens as a large number of young adults become addicted to drugs and different controlled substances. Agents of drug traffickers mostly target the youth because young generation is more likely to become their victims. Go states, “Illicit drug users are unaware of the fact that drug abuse indirectly or directly affects their family, their neighborhood, their business, their education and their health adversely”. Drug trafficking also leads to very critical health diseases, such as, HIV/AIDS. Some studies show that almost 50 to 60 percent of the newly registered AIDS cases include those people who are involved in using controlled substances using same needles. Drug use harms the thinking abilities of a person making him/her unproductive for the society. Law enforcement agencies of the United States need to take preventive measures, such as, intercepting a high percentage of illegal drugs to end all businesses of illegal drug manufacturing and smuggling. Researches show that at present, only a small percentage of illegal drugs are being intercepted by the agencies, which is one of the main reasons behind increase in the business of illegal drug manufacturing. Conclusion Summing it up, illegal immigrations are not good for the United States of America because they are helping less and causing more harm not only to the U.S. society but also to the overall economy. Illegal immigration causes many problems for the United States of America, such as, drug trafficking, increase in violence, and increase in the number of crimes. Increased rate of crimes and drug trafficking are two such issues which put a negative impact on the minds of local citizens regarding all immigrants. The government of the America needs to take effective steps to control illegal immigration because it is giving rise to a number of problems for the economy of the United States. Works Cited “Immigration Policy Issues.” Newsbatch.com, May 2010. Web. 23 Oct. 2011. Bailey, Rayna. Immigration and Migration. New York: InfoBase Publishing, 2008. Print. Espenshade, Thomas. “Unauthorized Immigration to the United States.” Annual Review of Sociology 21 (1995): 195-216. Print. Go, Pauline. “How Drug Trafficking Affects The United States And Its Youth.” Ezinearticles.com, 07 May 2008. Web. 22 Nov. 2011. Sadowski-Smith, Claudia. “Unskilled Labor Migration and the Illegality Spiral: Chinese, European, and Mexican Indocumentados in the United States, 1882–2007.” American Quarterly 60.3 (2008): 779-804. Print. Samers, Michael. “"Here to Work": Undocumented Immigration in the United States and Europe.” SAIS Review 21.1 (2001): 131-145. Print. Sterne, Evelyn. “Making Illegal Aliens.” Reviews in American History 33.4 (2005): 553-560. Print. Read More