Thousands of immigrants from developing nations migrate to the United States hoping to secure jobs and lead better lives. Immigrants in the United States enjoy numerous economic benefits; nevertheless, they also suffer from a number of socioeconomic challenges. This paper will focus on the pros and cons of immigration to the United States.
Most of the immigrants take the jobs that the Americans dismiss as poorly paid. Despite the nature of the jobs, immigrants get income from the jobs thus raising their living standards.
One of the factors that makes people migrate is the desire for a better life. Hence, immigrants enjoy better living standards in the United States relative to their home countries. Most of the immigrants work in the middle and semi-skilled sectors. Consequently, they are assured of getting jobs easily since a number of new jobs keep on emerging in these sectors.
The United States has a welfare system that caters for all people regardless of their background. Hence, all the immigrants enjoy health and education services at subsidized rates. This aspect in return cuts down on the cost of living. Apart from employment, numerous immigrants have started their own businesses in the country.
Currently, Asians and Hispanics have established businesses across the United States. Some of these businesses even do better when compared to those owned by the Americans. The opportunity to invest in business helps the immigrants enhance their living standards.
In spite of the economic benefits enjoyed by the immigrants in the United States, the immigrants face a stiff discrimination from the Americans. The Americans blame the immigrants for the seemingly soaring unemployment rates experienced in the country. In addition, increase in the number of immigrants entering the country leads to cheap labor.
Most of the immigrants are willing to work for whichever amount of money as long as they get jobs in America; hence, they are willing to take the first job that comes their way. Consequently, some American employers take this opportunity to exploit the immigrants. For instance, such employers hire immigrants at lower wages instead of Americans who ask for higher wages.
Immigrants in the United States face economic insecurity. In spite of the fact that most immigrants work in middle and semi-skilled jobs, the rate of job loss is higher amongst the immigrants than among the Americans. During the economic recess, many immigrants in the United States lost their jobs as companies embarked on cost cutting strategies.
Job insecurity among the immigrants is high. In addition, most of the immigrants do not understand the employment policies of the United States. Hence, they do not realize when their employers violate their employment rights. Therefore, as aforementioned, some employers take this advantage to exploit immigrants and dismiss them whenever they do not require their services.
Language barrier and literacy level inhibit the long-term socioeconomic mobility of the immigrants. Most of the immigrants do not understand English; hence, it is hard for them to interact and work freely with the Americans. Besides, as most of the immigrants are semi-illiterate, it is hard for them to secure jobs in the formal sector.
Even though the immigrants enjoy some economic benefits in the United States, they are yet to overcome the numerous negative socioeconomic challenges that affect them. Discrimination and job insecurity are still high in the country; hence, it is hard for immigrants to acquire and retain stable jobs.