Reading Questions - Essay Example

The Know-Nothings was a movement against immigrants that surged during the middle of the 19th century. The Know-Nothing was originated because the members of the group when asked about the secret organization were supposed to reply “I know nothing”. The Know Nothing eventually evolved into a political party known as the American Party in 1854. This party did not last long and within a couple of years the party was dissolved. One of the key issues that brought internal combustion within the party was discrepancies over the slavery issue.

The United States should not pass any laws that forbid in any way, shape, or form the access to immigrants to student visas. Education is the foundation of our current global economy which is driven by knowledge. Many Americans enjoy the privilege of obtain student visas to study in renounce universities outside the United States. Student visas foster professional development by allowing foreign people to study in the United States. The knowledge economy of the 21st needs more people to sacrifice themselves studying in order to improve themselves.

There should be any imposition on student visas and the government should create new mechanism to make it easier for foreign student to stay in the US once the graduate. There is a shortage of talent in the US, thus keeping these professionals contributing to our economy once they graduate is in the US best interest. Based on the assumption that immigrants created cost for US taxpayers a remedy for this situation is to create a special tax bracket for illegal immigrants so that can contribute to our fiscal situation.

Another way for immigrants to contribute to our economy is by creating special programs in which immigrants would have to volunteer their time free of charge to contribute towards social causes. Another way to generate income towards the national economy is to place a price on visas. For example a visa can cost a person $10,000; the money would not have to be paid up front in order to eliminate discrimination against poor people. The immigrants would have to pay the fee by working legally in the United States while their visa is valid.

These strategies would be independent of the criteria to become a legal resident. There are differences between the immigrants now and the immigrants from a century ago. A100 years ago the United States was not as populated and it actually needed the immigrant labor to meet the demand for jobs. Nowadays the US economy is not even able to create jobs for its own residents. The current unemployment rate in the United States as of July 2009 was 9.4% (Mckenzie & Baribeau). Another key different between the current immigration and the immigration in the 19th century and early 20th century is the place of origin of immigrants.

Back then Europe was the primary source of immigrants. In today’s reality Latin America, Asians, Europeans, and Arabs are four of the primary groups that are coming to America. If the claim that 10% of the Mexican population is living illegally in America, then this issue is a problem. It is a social-economical problem for America. The Mexican community that is illegally in our country is not getting the basic health and social services they deserve as human living in the land of opportunity.

If the claim is true our economy is also being helped by this occurrence. It is likely that a lot of these Mexicans are working in low paying agricultural jobs that American citizens do not desire. This helps our economy. The problem has to be solved at the macro level. The United States should increase its foreign investment in Mexico in order to help out their economy so that so many Mexican do feel that their only alternative for survival is crossing the border.Works Cited PageMckenzie, M.

, Baribeau, S. 7 August 2009. “US jobs report spurs stocks.” 8 August 2009.