Political, Social, and Economic Impact of Illegal Immigration in Texas - Term Paper Example

Effects of Immigration on Texas Introduction Texas surpassed New York two years ago as the country’s most famous state. This may due to the hospitable nature of the Texan people. In less than one generation, the Texas population grew from a paltry 3 million people to more than 18 million today. The main drive of this high rate of growth is immigration, which is considered to be the highest in any US state. According to analysts, immigration which has been the greatest contributor of the population growth has brought along with it political, social, and economic factors in Texas (Camarota, 2010). This paper analyses the political, social, and economic impacts of illegal immigration in Texas. Effects of Illegal Immigration When the issue of illegal immigration is brought up, one of the biggest concerns that are raised is how it affects the American taxpayer. Much of the effect is actually however on the federal government but instead on the states where the challenge of illegal immigration is concentrated. While the bulk of the taxes that that immigrants pay ends up in Washington, the weight for services is loaded on the state through various entitlement programs, health care expenses and most importantly education. Texas which claims nearly of the U.S. border with Mexico has received the brunt of illegal immigration. In essence, Texas has suffered exponential growth in terms of illegal migration spanning over the last four decades. In the early 1970’s, there were just slightly above 300,000 foreign-born citizens in the state. By 199, this number had grown exponentially to total over 1.5 million. The immigration level since then has skyrocketed with the 2004 national census showing that the number of immigrant in Texas stood at 3.45 million. This marks an 1100% increase from the figure posted in 1970. In the 1970s, the total figure of foreign born individuals in Texas stood at only 3% with this figure jumping to 8% and 15.7% in 1990 and 2004 respectively. Although Texas has witnessed widespread immigration from other states within the U.S., the illegal immigration has brought with it far-reaching social, economic and political impacts (Camarota, 2010). The bulk of these immigrants is constituted of legal immigrants but an ever increasing number is from illegal migrants. Research done in the last few years has shown that even though immigrants have some economic benefits on the economy, their presence is often associated with net loss. Although there have never been an agreement on the contribution of immigrants on the country, there has been consensus that immigrants are a net loss. Despite the much data that is available on the illegal immigrant problem, the truth is that there is no accurate statistics on the immigration challenge in Texas. The main reason for this is that immigrants do not want to be discovered and this makes them to try as much as they can to stay away from avenues that can expose them (Borjas, 2003). Over the years, analysts have tried to establish the economic effects of illegal immigrants in the US. One of the effects that have been identified is that of hiring translators or develops new programs to deal with immigrants. An example of this is the recent grant of $340,000 given to Texas to help immigrants to become acquainted with the U.S. traffic laws. Although this was federal money, the problem that it presents is on the state level. In a way, this is also a social problem since there have been numerous road accidents caused by the inability of immigrants to observe traffic rules. The Texas state government has been forced to deal with this problem since it poses a threat not only to the immigrants but also to the Texas residents as well (Borjas, 2003). Another social effect of illegal immigration in Texas is that they have taken up majority of the working force. Although trends show that there have been a large number of jobs created in the last three decades, the number of the jobless Texans has been going up significantly. What this means is that the jobs created within this period have gone to illegal immigrants who have been flooding to Texas within this period. While an equal chance is presented to the native people, illegal immigrants would be more willing to take up these jobs since they are usually of low pay (Borjas, 2003). According to researchers, a large number of illegal immigrants are illiterate, and on the United States, the amount of money that one earns is usually in direct proportion to their level of education. Since a big part of immigrants are illiterate, their probability of getting well paying jobs is minimal. Ideally, most of them work as domestic servants or in the construction industry. Due to their low income, a large number of illegal immigrants are forced to live in slums where the living conditions are deplorable. Experts have repeatedly pointed out that illegal immigration has a direct relation with increased levels of crime in Texas. In the last few years, there have been numerous cases of gang rape recorded in the slums and this has been termed as a direct result of illegal immigration (Borjas, 2003). Over the years, authorities in Texas have been trying to deal with the problem of drug misuse in the state. Analysts point out that the reason why this has been a perennial problem in Texas is that illegal immigrants have access to secret routes that they use to smuggle the drugs from Mexico. Over the years, this trend has led to the establishment of criminal gangs within this route that engage in criminal activities within the state. Some of the crimes that these people are involved in include human trafficking across the border as well as supplying and offering protection for drug cartels in Texas (Borjas, 2003). Apart from the social effects, illegal immigration has also had political effects in Texas. Ideally, there exists a strong link between the legal and the illegal immigrants in Texas and an attack on one group is seen as an attack on the other. This has led to a scenario where nearly all the politics of the state is centered on the immigrant’s issue. During electioneering years, politicians and the major political parties try as much as possible to develop policies that seek to protect illegal immigrants and to fight for their rights. Due to these vested interests, majority of the programs that seek to deal with the illegal immigrant’s problem fail to take off as initially planned. This explains why the illegal immigrants issue has continued to persist over the years (Bean, Van, & Glick, 2004). The main economic effect of illegal has been in the education sector. Although the data on this area is not clear, there have been indications that the number of school going age children belonging to illegal immigrants has been rising significantly in the last few years. Nationwide, it is estimated there are over 2 million U.S. born children of illegal immigrants. A large section of these children live in Texas. This means that 12% of the student age population is illegal immigrants. At a cost of $7000 per each school child, Texas spends over $2 billion for their children and a total of $3.7 billion for the illegal immigrant’s children. A larger burden is also placed on the state government given that a larger amount of money is allocated to each child that is deemed to be Limited English Proficient (LEP). Majority of the illegal immigrant families are only capable of speaking their native languages and as such the government has to spend more money in training them to be proficient in English. Texas has a funding program that offers subsidized higher education for students who are unable to pay for their school fees. Majority of the illegal immigrant student’s fall into this category and this means that the government spends extra money to educate such children (Bean, Van, & Glick, 2004). Another area that is greatly affected economically by illegal immigration is healthcare. According to health experts, the rising level of immigrants in Texas has placed an even bigger strain on the already stressed heath care system. This has in turn affected the welfare and wellbeing of all Texan people. Nearly all the research available on this area shows that the government spends a large part of its revenue on funding illegal immigrant health care. Some of the research has indicated that illegal immigrants receive up to 50% of the amount of money received by the natives. Given the high number of immigrants in Texas, there is a high likelihood that most of the health care expenditure is used on illegal immigrants. The biggest part of the costs is spent on emergency room care since the law does not allow medical attendants to check the status of immigration at the emergency room. In addition to this, policymakers are scared that asking people about their immigration status would scare illegal immigrants with life threatening conditions from assessing medical care. When such an individual is treated in any health facility, the government pays for the service through Medicare or the hospital is forced to cancel the debt. Due to the high costs of emergency room treatment, they are presumed to be colossal (Pew Hispanic Center, 2013). Conclusion The last two decades has seen a sharp rise in the number of immigrants comes in to the United States. A large number of these immigrants have found their way into Texas due to its proximity to the Mexican border from where most immigrants are situated. While a sizable number of immigrants are legal, an even larger number of them are illegal. These illegal immigrants are considered to have social, economic, and political effects to the Texas state. Illegal immigrants are linked to the rising level of drug use as well as human trafficking cases in Texas. In addition to this, the high number of immigrants in the region forces the political scene in the state to be changed to suit their situation. The high number of illegal immigrants in the region also carries economic effects especially in relation to education and health care funding. References Bean, F., Van, H., & Glick, J. (2004). Poverty and Welfare Recipiency among Immigrants in Texas, Claremont. Borjas, G. (2003). The Labor Demand Curve is Downward Sloping: Reexamining the Impact of Immigration on the Labor Market. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1370-1373. Camarota, S. (2010). Immigration from Mexico: Assessing the Impact on the United States. Center for Immigration Studies, 12(3), 10-20. Pew Hispanic Center (2013). Size and Characteristics of the Unauthorized Migrant Population in the U.S. Retrieved from http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=61 Read More