International migration affects the social, economic and political aspects of a country. Immigrants were not only instrumental in founding the United States, but also helped to build it. In the past, immigrants have contributed positively to the U.S economy, besides filling numerous job openings. However, a deterioration of the country’s economy in recent years has culminated in high rates of unemployment and other negative consequences, and this has resulted in the resultant increase in negative opinions towards immigrants.
The U.S is home to 38.5 immigrants from all walks of life. The immigrants represent 12.5 % of the country’s population. The U.S economy relies heavily on immigrant workers as a source of valuable labor, who account for 15% of the country’s labor force. Moreover, immigrants have in the past made and continue to make significant technological and scientific contributions in various sectors of the U.S.’s economy.
As such, immigrants are vital to the U.S economy. Opponents of immigration contend that immigrants have contributed to a decline in the country’s cultural heritage. However, such negative public opinions are not justified because immigrants have turned the U.S into a melting pot of diverse but rich cultural heritage.
The impact of immigrants on employment and wages has also been a main focus of some of the negative public attitudes towards immigrants. For example, some of the Americans are fearful that immigrants will take away their jobs. Other economic aspects of immigration that could have an impact on negative public opinions towards immigrants is the fear by American citizens that immigrants are actually a burden to public finance by either causing social problems like unemployment or through extensive use of public services.
Such negative public opinions are also unjustifiable. Although there is a generally held assumption that immigrants have an economic cost on the US economy by taking away jobs meant for the American workers, in addition to accepting lower wages than the American workers, on the other hand, several economic studies on immigration are in agreement that immigrant workers have little or no impact on wages/employment of Americans.
Most economists are also in agreement that because the U.S labor market is highly segmented, immigrants are less likely to take away jobs meant for Americans. This is the case even in such cities as California and New York where we have high percentages of immigrants. Also, most immigrants take the low-paid, difficult and dirty jobs that Americans would otherwise not take. Furthermore, Americans are on the higher segments of the labor market while immigrants are on the lowest segments.
The argument that immigrants tend to use social welfare and public services at the expense of poor Americans is also unfounded and hence not justified. Economic studies show that an increasingly higher number of Americans of the same wage/socioeconomic status with immigrants use social welfare more. As such, they are more welfare-dependent than immigrants. Moreover, the tax contribution of immigrants exceeds what they take away in the form of public services/social welfare.
Negative public opinions as regards immigrants are not only misleading, but also questionable. Economic studies suggest that immigrants do not affect unemployment rate or wages of Americans negatively, and neither do they overburden public services/social welfare. Moreover, immigrants pay more taxes than what they get in the form of social welfare/public services.