Since the immigration has always been a matter of concern within the legislators, the main topic that is going to be touched upon in this paper is immigration’s pros and cons. The two vitally important issues this paper will be devoted to are why the immigrants choose the US as their ultimate home, and what the emigrants actually face when coming legally to the US. So, in order to make it clear, the essay will touch upon ethical advantages and disadvantages of immigration for the countries of origin and for the US.
The first ethical concept should sound like ‘the US is an ultimate opportunity for those seeking an advanced life level’. America is truly full of legal and illegal immigrants constantly attracting those as an implementation of the American dream. Taken closely, immigrants are people looking for a better standard of life, tired of unemployment and autocracy. As a result they settle in America, though sometimes illegally, in order to have at least a ‘low skilled job’ and real estate for bringing up children in the better society and better state system. Therefore, helping employers use those foreign human resources and help economy grow.
The positive side of legal immigration is having completely law-abiding citizens come to the country. When adhering to the laws of the US legal migrants accept the democratically powered society; which also serves a wonderful lesson of Americans’ power to the rest of the world. Foreigners assimilate into the society well. Moreover, they bring their own cultural experience into Americans’ one; which is by all means very beneficial for both sides. Americans are now used to accept multiple religions within a country and foreign communities due to legal migration.
The bad thing about legal immigration is being somewhat unequal in rights in comparison to native citizens. Therefore, the entire world’s economic inequality rises up since this is a prior reason for the inequality of the nations all over the world. Ethically would be spending a huge amount of money to leveling the global economy or opening the borders to immigrants. However, so far the immigrants cannot acquire some rights citizens do, like voting. So, being an immigrant in a socially and economically developed country does not necessarily mean being absolutely equal and happy.
The second disadvantage in terms of ethics would be the brain drain. Every year the developing countries lose the highly skilled workers once those immigrate to the US, for the immigration is an attractive solution for the college graduates and skilled personnel. Hence, immigration affects the social and economical politics of countries of origin: immigrants pay sales taxes, for example, not to their native country and, besides, Americanization is a great ethical loss for their home countries. However, this also spurs the economy’s growth in the developing countries. Overall, the country cannot function well without sufficient manpower. Retaining the most valuable assets would be the best thing to do for the developing countries.
Concluding the rights-based approaches to the issue of immigration, it must be said that giving an opportunity to personnel of other nations to work in a developed country is very ethical and gracious. Besides, the permission to stay in the country helps develop its power and reputation all over the world, though emigrants are strictly limited in some civil rights. Moreover, the brain drain affecting the developing countries is a total disaster for the world economy.
References
Anthony, W. (2001). A 21 st century ethical toolbox, second edition by Anthony Weston. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
David, C. (2006). The Oxford handbook of ethical theory. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.