The Attitude of the United States of America Towards Immigrants - Essay Example

Bao Ping Yang Engl 3001 Sec#4 May 24 09 Second Draft Out Essay #2 The United s of America always had a history of friendliness towards immigrants. The work power and the human resource of the nation depend highly on the migrants. However the increasing number of illegal immigration into the country is causing huge concern. The number of people illegally entering the country and also the count of people overstaying after the visa restrictions are on an increase. The cultural, economic and linguistic divide within the country has increased due to the number of illegal immigrants in America. The unaccountability of the illegal migrants is posing concerns over a lot number of nationally relevant issues. The accuracy of policy decisions on any such issues gets deterred due to this unaccountability. Thus it has become highly important for the United States of America to put halt on illegal migration. The cost that the government has to pay culturally, economically, socially and ethically makes this an urgent deal. The objective of this essay is to critically analyze the importance of putting a halt to the American illegal migration by analyzing the impacts of illegal migration on national security, economy, culture and the social aspects. While analyzing the urgency to check the possibilities of illegal immigration, it is necessary to examine the risks that illegal migration poses to the country and its people. The most important and potentially risky impact of illegal migration is the concern that it poses over national security. The Commission report on the 9/11 has stated that the visas given to terrorists are as harmful as the most detrimental weapons (Hayworth, John D & Eule, Joe, 2006). The report has revealed interesting statistics on t illegal immigration. It has been stated that almost 500 million people cross the US borders of which 330 million are non citizens. Hayworth, John D & Eule, Joe (2006) has opined that the major concern is over the other 500,000 people who enter the American soil illegally or who overstay in the country despite the visa expiry. This population may cause irreparable damage to the country and would spread antinational feelings. A factor of increasing concern is that the production of fraud travel documents has more or less become a business. The investigations on the 9/11 attack has revealed a number of forgeries relating to driving licenses, Social security cards, vehicle registration ,insurance documents and many other nationally sensitive documents (Hayworth, John D & Eule, Joe, 2006). In general, illegal immigrations, sham marriages to attain permanent residency and forgery of documents to extend the stay, all has been observed in association with terrorist activities. Thus for the sake national security, it becomes very important for the government to put an urgent stop to illegal migration and the allied activities. Illegal immigration is raising doubts over the precision of the immigration policies and the border security setups. Policies like Visa Waiver Programs, which promotes citizens of twenty seven friendly countries to travel into the country without going through stringent rules, can prove to be one among such policy gaps. This should be read together with the fact that the London Subway and train bombers also belonged to this elite category (Hayworth, John D & Eule, Joe, 2006). It has been found that there are lacunas in securing the borders of the nation from such illegal migrants. Such challenges in the border security have been highly observed in Arizona-Mexico border. There had been ample evidences on terrorists trying to sneak in through the southern border. In 2004, the border patrol agents have arrested 650 suspected terrorists from different countries while trying to get into infiltrate through this border (Hayworth, John D & Eule, Joe, 2006). This very fact points towards the possibility of other illegal migrants getting into terrorism and antinationalistic activities. Thus controlling illegal migration becomes very important in the context of the modern world terrorism and other antinational activities. Scott (2009) has urged the need for closely monitoring the national borders. The American government has to take care of the problem of antinational elements getting into the country. For the sake of the national security, it must be ensured that the national borders are not sneaked through and the policies must grow stronger to stop illegal migration. The increasing count of illegal migration can cause acute impacts on the national economy and its distribution among the citizens. The average government spending on the eligible citizens would divert in multitudes as the illegal migrants would take the share of these in varied levels. This economic impact would spread across to all the areas that the government tries to intervene economically. For example, the illegal immigrants may take a large count of the skilled jobs for which the American government would have spared much from its budget so as to help its people. Adding to the complexity of this scenario is the fact that these illegal workers won’t alternatively contribute to the economy through tax returns. Thus the illegal immigrants can act as a hole in the economy. Vang (2007) has agreed with this argument in the article on ‘benefits of illegal migration offset costs on the US economy’. Scott (2009) has explained the increased cost on economy caused by the illegal migrants emphasizing on the case with Southern California. Thus for the Americans to have the appropriate benefit of its economic environment and the social cost that the government bears for them, illegal migration must be stopped. The impact of illegal migration on the cultural and social setup of the country is also a matter of concern. The illegal immigrants from different nationalities create isolated cultures and communities of themselves. These different cultures would associate only within themselves and would form isolated cultural groups. Vang (2007) has quoted the case of isolations in job classifications created by the illegal migrants. This causes active stratification within the community in account of the jobs undertaken. This is because particular job titles and profiles are being created within the nation which are only meant for and dealt by the illegal migrants. The stratification process is also evident in culturally important areas like standard of living, consumer pattern etc (Vang, 2007). The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) in one of their documentaries aired on 30th May 2005 had predicted the conversion of California into a predominantly Spanish speaking population within next few years from then (Hayworth, John D & Eule, Joe, 2006). This prediction was well backed by the indications in the American society towards centralization of cultures as a result of non Americanization of the immigrants. The multicultural approach of the immigration policy has within it the danger of forming cultures within the culture. A backup strategy to ensure the assimilation of different immigrant cultures into the American society should be included. However, more dangerous is the fact that the illegal immigrants are getting assimilated into cultures of minorities belonging to their country, religion or other classifications. This in general is detrimental to the integrity of the nation. Thus for maintaining the cultural integrity and the sovereignty of the nation, it is important to put a halt on illegal immigration. There are few counter arguments trying to point out some of the benefits of illegal migration. Vang (2007) has pointed out the economic benefits that illegal immigrants brings forth in terms of the productivity and economic growth. However, taking into account the ethical aspects of it and comparing the benefits with the actual losses in economy, the argument of Vang (2007) cannot be substantiated. Vang (2007) has also argued that the illegal migrants are filling the gap of skilled labor in the country. This argument cannot be agreed to taking into account the economic, cultural and ethical cost. The importance of stopping illegal migration is becoming more relevant from day to day. The impact that illegal migration is causing on the economy, national security, cultural and the national standards are substantial. A stricter approach on the illegal migrants would be an ideal warning helping to stop further illegal immigration. The laws will have to be made stronger to deport and punish illegal immigrants. This would for sure discourage the immigrants to overstay and the use of forged documents for entry into the country. Fake activities like sham marriages have to be properly checked and stopped. So as to stop the illegal entry through the weaker borders of the nation, the border security force has to be equipped properly. In totality, beyond doubts it has been reiterated that putting halt on illegal migration has to be dealt seriously by the American government. Works Cited Hayworth, John D; Eule, Joe. "Extract" in Whatever It Takes : Illegal Immigration, Border Security, and the War on Terror , Hayworth, John D & Eule, Joe , 2006 a, 5-15 . Vang Bruce, ‘benefits of illegal migration offset costs on the US economy’, 2007, Associated Content, 25 May , 2009, http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/464357/benefits_of_illegal_immigratio n_offset.html?singlepage=true&cat=9 Scott Michael, ‘America Must Take Stronger Measures to Halt Illegal Immigration’, 2009, Stormfront, 25 May, 2009,http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php?t=285517 Read More