Immigration in the United States - Term Paper Example

Immigrant inflow in the US is about 25 million people per year which accounts for 40% of the growth annually. About 35-40% are undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Central America with low education levels and limited English skills. The period between 1901 and 1930 was known as the classic era when there was mass European immigration (Massey, 1995). Some 19 million people arrived on the American shores yielding an annual average of 621,000 immigrants. The composition of the immigrants was overwhelmingly European as industrialization spread across America. After this during the long hiatus period between 1931 and 1970 immigration fell to very low levels and the predominance of European immigrants came to an end. According to the Immigration and Naturalization Service 9% of immigrants during this period were Asians. The period of new regime followed when non-European immigration began around 1970 which continue till date. The period 1931-1970 with slow inflow could have been due to major shift in the US immigration policy. Prior to World War II immigration from Russia was massive with most of them being Jews who escaped the rampant anti-Semitism and programs of Czarist Russia. Due to restriction in the Russian emigration law, immigration from Russia fell drastically (Massey, 1995). During the period of Great Depression there was mass unemployment in the United States and the demand for immigrant workers evaporated. Soon after this Cold War in Europe resulted in low immigration from European nations but the postwar boom in the US created a huge demand for workers. Eastern Europe was cutoff and Western Europe was itself attracting labor, Latin Americans started filling up the demand. They entered American under regulations of the 1920s. During this period Cubans, Dominicans and Columbians also entered America. During this period the ban on Asian entry was lifted and all the nations were on an equal footing. This brought in unexpected flow of immigrants from Korea, Taiwan, China and Philippines. There was a sharp and sudden increase in immigration from India, China and Korea by 1980s and as a result the population of Asians in the US started rising. As the economic and political condition in Vietnam deteriorated, the US government had no alternative but to allow them to enter US. For different reasons immigration from Latin America and Asia surged during the 1980s. It is also estimated that by 1990 there were additional 3.3 million undocumented immigrants living in the US of which 75 percent were from Mexico. In 1996, the total Mexican population in the United States was 7.15 million of whom 2.35 million or 38 percent were unauthorized (Durand, Massey & Zenteno, 2001). The chart below gives the figures: Cited by Massey (1995). There was a backlash against the immigrants in the mid-nineties when federal immigrant law became punitive and restrictive. The immigrants were blamed for the social and economic problems. There was a fear that Americans of European descent would become minority and this projected shift is already evident in urban areas like Los Angeles and Miami (Massey, 1995). Immigration is changing the size and composition of major cities in the US. Card (2007) says that immigrants are usually drawn to expanding cities particularly to cities with historical enclaves of earlier immigrants. Immigrant arrivals increase the local population with limited outflow of other groups. The immigrant arrivals affect the skill composition in different cities. Skilled immigrants come in from India, Canada and Western Europe while unskilled immigrants come from Mexico, El Salvador and Guatemala. There is an unbalanced skill distribution and it has been observed that high-immigration cities have more low-skilled people in their local population. Increase in the relative supply of a particular skill group will lower the relative wages of that group while raising average wages for workers as a whole. However immigrants do not compete with native workers and do not have strong impact on the US wage rates and employment levels (Massey, 1995). Immigration inflow affects the quality of urban life. It affects the rents and housing prices leading to changes in the welfare of the pre-existing residents. Initially there is an increase in the rent as the families compete for a fixed stock of housing units but in the long run new housing units are built and some residents move out to the new units thereby offsetting the initial rent increase. The fiscal effect of increased immigration is relatively small. Immigrants are perceived as an undesirable peer group for two reasons – a majority of immigrants are either non-White or Hispanic. Neighborhoods and schools with a higher fraction of either group are perceived as less attractive (Card). Whites are even likely to leave neighborhood. Immigrants have less education and low income compared to the natives which makes them less desirable as neighbors and as parents of the children in the local schools. Parental income and education are supposed to contribute to better results from the students and hence such immigrant children are considered as “bad” peers. Ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity pose an obstacle to effective governance and growth. People from different groups have trouble of getting along or interacting leading to social tensions and weak or ineffective institutions. The Asian and Pacific Islander population more than doubled by 1980s in the US and the US Census Bureau predicts that by 2009 it would double again (Frisbie, Cho & Hummer, 2001). Three fourths of this population has been due to immigration. As far as the health is concerned, the Asian and Pacific Islander immigrants have been found to be less likely than their US-born counterparts to have activity limitations or to report being in bed due to ill health. Research suggests that immigration status exercises a powerful influence on the health of Asians and Pacific Islanders. It has also been found that immigrants have less adequate access to formal medical care. The immigrants and the US-born population differed significantly with respect to age, ethnic composition, marital status, urban residence, educational attainment, occupation, and family income. Immigrants experience much lower mortality than the US born citizens from several major causes of death (Singh & Siahpush, 2001). This pertains to all major diseases connected to heart or cancer or even from liver cirrhosis, pneumonia and influenza. The cause for low mortality and better health is that the immigrants have more of the favorable behavior and the social support characteristics that are conducive to positive health. There has been resistance and attempts to restrict immigrants’ access to the health care system. Research in 1997 found that almost half of the immigrants lacked health insurance (Carrasquillo, Carrasquillo & Shea, 2000). The immigration policies tried to make public coverage less available to immigrants which make them dependent on the private sector. For the immigrants that are not citizens, the government health insurance does not serve as a safety net. This is especially so in the case of poor non-citizen immigrants. Due to lack of education and low skills, the poor immigrants obtain employment in low-wage occupations where the employers do not provide health insurance coverage. Many of these immigrants are undocumented which further aggravates the situation. In mid-nineties immigration law was amended to obstruct undocumented entry into the US. This was prompted due to professed links between urban crime, welfare abuse, terrorism, inner city drug addiction, the failure of the melting pot citizenship model and the growth of undocumented migration (Coleman, 2007). The changes did not deal with the birder enforcement and the provisions expanded the criminal grounds for deportation from the US. The general public expresses dissatisfaction with federal enforcement of immigration laws and majority wants immigration reform or better enforcement of immigration laws (Fandl, 2007). The number of people crossing the border, whether legally or illegally was quite high. These people are coming into the interior and competing for US jobs either as illegal aliens or as legitimately documented foreign workers. Ineffective immigration policy is increasing illegal immigration but the government failed to acknowledge this fact. Globalization has changed the content of the global workforce and hence the domestic laws should synchronize with the need for effective and efficient worker exchange. The economic conditions in the US are better so illegal immigration is prospering. As the American economy demands cheap labor, if the flow of illegal immigrants is controlled, it would adversely affect the American jobs and businesses. These are the jobs that the Americans would not opt for or even if they do, they would demand higher wages which would affect the profitability of the organizations and eventually the economy of the country. Without low-cost workers these jobs would be sent overseas, outsourcing would increase, or the US businesses would become less competitive due to higher domestic labor costs. Outsourcing and shifting jobs overseas would reduce the jobs available for the US citizens. Thus, according to Fandl, temporary work visa programs should be looked into. At the same time, the citizenship application process should be streamlined. The reform advocates should also look into foreign domestic assistance which would reduce the demand for emigration from the developing countries. The immigration laws need amendment to facilitate the transition of the legal and the illegal immigrants into either permanent lawful residents or legal temporary workers. There are a number of undocumented immigrants that contribute to the US economy by way of taxes and have not committed any crimes. They desire to continue to live and work in the US and such amendments would greatly help not only those immigrants but the country as well. If they are offered a clear and effective mechanism for legalizing themselves, it would prevent the jail and detention facilities from overflowing with illegal immigrants who are charged for not having proper documentation. The Latin American and Caribbean immigrants send money back home to their families which are the major source of income for their families. According to the World Bank (2007), more than $87 billion were received by Latin American and Caribbean countries in 2004 in the form of migrant remittances (cited by Rivera-Batiz, 2007). The income received from the service of the workers abroad has become a major source of balance of payment for many countries. Remittances also constitute an improvement in the standard of living of the recipients. Therefore such remittances increase savings and investment in those countries. The maximum immigrants to US have been from Mexico but they have helped the US economy take a lead in the industrial revolution by keeping labor costs low. The difference between the wages earned by an immigrant Mexican to America and that of a domestic worker in Mexico is more than double which prompts them to take the risk of death and deportation from crossing the border (Fandl, 2007). There have been suggestion of a border fence but this would do little to keep the people from crossing the border because they make several attempts even after being caught. In fact it would only spoil the relations with Mexico and if the border is meant to be general protection of the borders, then a fence is also required at the Canadian border. A border at the Mexican end would hence only increase illegal immigrants. It is hence advisable to have joint worker exchange program with the foreign governments and temporary immigration program that would facilitate open and regulated border policies. It can thus be concluded that while legal and illegal immigration has been rampant it has not caused adverse effect on the economy. It has not even led to serious health problems. While temporary increase in housing rent has been observed, the flow of immigrants has helped the US economy. Socially people are averse to the immigrants especially when they come from uneducated background and low-wage earning segment. The problem lies with transition of the illegal workers which can be handled by reforms like granting temporary work visas. This policy should be left at the discretion of the individual state but should be part of the federal law as it is a human exchange across national borders. America needs immigrants but legal immigrants and immigration policy should reflect this goal. The need for immigrant labor in the future has to be considered before arbitrarily being against immigration. The public has to understand the long-term consequences of restricting immigration. Besides, with technology advancement, the workforce is no more totally uneducated and the quality of life has undergone improvement. Immediate reforms are needed to curb internal tensions and to prevent local efforts to bypass federal laws. References: Card. D., (2007), How Immigration Affects U.S. Cities, Centre for Research and Analysis for Migration, 18 Oct 2007 Carrasquillo, O., Carrasquillo, A. I., & Shea, S. S., (2000), Health Insurance Coverage of Immigrants Living in the United States: Differences by Citizenship Status and Country of Origin, American Journal of Public Health, June 2000, Vol. 90, No. 6 Coleman, S., (2007), Immigration Geopolitics Beyond the Mexico–US Border, The Author, Editorial Board of Antipode Durand, J., Masset, D. S., & Zenteno, R. M., (2001), Mexican Immigration to the United States: Continuities and Changes, Latin American Research Review, Vol. 36, No. 1. (2001), pp. 107-127 Fandl, K. J., (2007), Immigration Posses: U.S. Immigration Law and Local Enforcement Practices, 18 Oct 2007 Frisbie, W. P., Cho, Y., & Hummer, R. A., (2001), Immigration and the Health of Asian and Pacific Islander Adults in the United States, American Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 153, No. 4 Massey, D. S., (1995), The New Immigration and Ethnicity in the United States, Population and Development Review, Vol. 21, No. 3. (Sep., 1995), pp. 631-652 Rivera-Batiz, F. L., (2007), oMnA ©R KBElaTckwell Publishers Ltd. 2006 How Do Migrants from Latin America and the Caribbean Fare in the US Labour Market? The World Economy (2007) Singh, G., & Siahpush, M., (2001), All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality of Immigrants and Native Born in the United States, American Journal of Public Health March 2001, Vol. 91, No. 3 Read More