Annotated Bibliography - Does Illegal Immigration Help or Hurt the US Economy - Essay Example

The author realizes that illegal immigration persists in the United States since old times. Those who enter the United States illegally come from various nations, such as Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, and the Caribbean. In particular, the author notes that in recent years illegal immigrants from China, Mexico, and other European countries increase dramatically in the United States. In that sense, Sadowski-Smith is one of the various thinkers and analysts who try to tackle the subject of illegal immigration in the United States, trying to push the country to adopt strict measures to control this negative phenomenon.

According to the author, the current illegal migration from Chinese and European countries much exceed the case of Mexico, which was long believed to be one of the major producer of illegal immigrants to the United States. In that sesne, this article takes a comparative view in attempting to study the negative consequences of illegal immigration on US economy. As stated clearly by the author, the main goal of this article is to “examine European and Chinese migratory movements as precursors to and contemporaries of Mexican undocumented immigration.

” In trying to analyze Sadowski-Smith’s article, one may realize that the author makes a good job analyzing many of the negative consequences of illegal immigration to the US. . Also, Sadowski-Smith puts much of the blame on US businessmen and companies, which seek to hire unskilled labor among illegal immigrants to pay them low wages. In this context, she cites the example of U.S. railroad companies, which “asked entrepreneurs to help them recruit unskilled labor from China in the mid-1870s.

” Accordingly, Sadowski-Smith, in this article, succeeds in determining and analyzing some of the historical factors that have led to the severity of the phenomenon of undocumented immigration in the US. Samers, Michael. “’Here to Work’: Undocumented Immigration in the United States and Europe.” SAIS Review, Volume 21, Number 1, Winter-Spring 2001, pp.131-145. Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press Michael Samers, in this article, makes a close and significant link between the phenomenon of illegal immigration to the US and the increase of informal labor in the country.

To enrich his argument, the author makes a comparative study between the statuses of illegal immigration in the US to the case in Europe. In this context, Samers argues that “the United States and the European Union have witnessed a historically relative transnationalization of their economies and societies,” and this aspect is strongly marked by “a demand for low-skilled production and service workers.” In addition, the author also realizes that regional integration, in both cases of US and Europe, plays a significant role in spreading the phenomenon of illegal immigration in both the United States and Europe.

In the case of the US, regional integration is embodied in NAFTA, while in Europe, it is embodied in the European Union. As the