Immigration in America - Essay Example

America, in other words, is an admirable place to live and it is a mistake for those who currently wish to take extreme measures to restrict immigration to assume that all immigrants come to this country simply for the money. A common misconception among those who are the most vehemently opposed to lax immigration laws is that people from other countries-especially Latin American countries-put their lives and freedom on the line to make the difficult and dangerous journey so that they can take good jobs away from native-born Americans.

The facts, of course, are that most immigrants take jobs that most native-born Americans would just as soon avoid: maids, gardeners, slaughterhouse employees, fast food cooks, etc (Waters & Eschbach, 1995). It hardly seems logical to assume that most foreign residents are not already aware that these are the kind of jobs they will more than likely wind up taking. If that knowledge is firmly in their hands and they still consider the journey to America worth the risk, then surely it is valid to raise the question that there must be something besides the promise of a big paycheck in a glamorous job that brings them here.

If the debate over illegal immigration that has heated up to a near-boiling point in recent years is based upon the idea that quality, high-paying jobs are being taken from American citizens and given to illegal aliens, then those who are framing the debate should review the reality of the situation. Beneath that debate is the kernel of an idea that Americans would be less outraged if these immigrants arrived via legal means and took the proper steps toward becoming legal citizens, but would that really make any difference.

Immigrants who come here both through legal channels and illegal channels cannot be so easily distinguished. There is literally no Anglo-Saxon who could look at a Latino or Asian and individuate between who is the legal and who is the illegal alien. Discrimination against immigrants isn't based on the knowledge of who has a green card and who doesn't, but rather purely on physical features. It is this fact that prompts an overwhelming agreement among US citizens to a statement like: "why should they [immigrants] pull themselves up by the bootstraps, become productive members of our society, and assimilate into the American culture when government policies make it easy for them not to do so"(Mcgrath, 2005).

Assimilation for most of those in favor of tightening immigration laws means just one thing: speaking English, paying taxes and staying off welfare. The fear that immigrants will destroy the American economy by becoming a drain upon the social services is misguided. America lags far behind most of the world in offering social services such as universal health care coverage and paid education; logic does not apply when making the suggestion that most immigrants come to America to take average of the welfare state.

Since the Reagan era, in fact, social service revenue for native-born residents has consistently been on a downward slope. Immigrants looking for a free ride in should set their eyes on Scandinavia, not America. (Greenwood, Mcdowell, Waldman & Zahniser, 1999, p. 64). The money argument simply does not hold up; what immigrants have historically come to America for are the intangible