Introduction
For the longest time now, immigrants have continued to shape the history of America. Due to many opportunities present in the US, many foreigners move to America from across the globe. As a matter of fact, the fact of cultural diversity has been cited as one of the strongest aspects of America in regard to development.
In the past, there were no restrictions on immigration to the US but the country now is characterized by many immigration restrictions. However, even with the current strict restrictions, there are estimated undocumented immigrants adding up to 12 million today.
The imposition of these restrictions does not necessarily mean that immigration only impact the host country negatively but rather it is meant to maintain the country’s stability in all aspects. This paper will evaluate how the US Government should encourage the immigration because of its benefits to the nation.
US immigration policy
Due to the increasing volumes of immigrants, restrictions were made to regulate this number which was rising gradually. Although there were initial several restrictions to US immigration, the Immigration and Nationality Act was and still is the most effective policy although it abolishes quotas that were previously based on national origin.
This was replaced by several preferences which have been used to determine who gains entry to the United States. Family members are among those who gain entry without restrictions. Other preferences include professional workers such as scientists and artists among others although their entry is only acceptable in a short supply.
This restriction was meant to create equality among people from all nationalities and particularly to remove the previous restriction that had been imposed on Asia (Cohn 1).
Reasons for increased immigration to the US
There is no particular reason causing the ever rising immigration to the United States. Some of the contributing factors as reported by various economic historians include political and economic stability in the USA, great differences in real wages between United States and other countries, high degree of urbanization and industrialization in the United States, previous immigrations from other countries and population growth rates in the home countries of the immigrants. The factor of real wage difference between the U.S. and other countries carries a lot of weight in immigration rates to the United States of America (Cohn 1).
With economy fluctuating in many nations nowadays, many employees are receiving very low income which can barely sustain their basic needs alone. Additionally, life has become very expensive with prices on basic commodities spiking up year in year out. While many countries across the globe are facing economic crisis, the United States of America have always maintained its economy stable.
This has been depicted in various aspects of life including rates of wages for employees at various levels. For instance, in a country such as Kenya, university graduate employees earn a monthly salary of around Kshs. 30,000 which is equivalent to an estimate of $ 400.
On the other hand, in the United States of America, an ordinary messenger with no further education beyond high school may be earning up to $ 500 a month with possibilities of other employee benefits. It is precisely for this factor that many people from economically instable countries immigrate to America purposely to seek for sustainable sources of income ad better livelihood (U.S. Immigration Support 1).
Additionally, the high degree of industrialization and urbanization in the United States of America has been another contributing factor to the increasing immigration from many countries. Due to its economic stability, The U.S. has been in a better position to develop in industrialization.
This provides more employment opportunities in the U.S. which are very rare in other countries due to lack of technological knowhow and other factors which facilitate industrialization. These countries lack economic and industrial development as they are only stuck to traditional modes of gaining income which are insufficient to maintain the ever rising population.
Additionally, many countries have broken their traditional ties creating a free workforce and more mobile laborers. Besides, young graduates now prefer working in a place where they have opportunities to be creative and develop experimental projects.
Many countries do not have the equipment to facilitate these developments and this causes many young people to move to U.S. not only as graduates to work, but also to further their studies where the level of education is way above the rest.
The factor of urbanization has also contributed to the increasing immigration to the U.S. with many people moving to the United States of America due to the attraction of urbanization which is directly associated with industrialization and economic stability.
Another very important reason causing the increase in immigration to the U.S. is the need to earn extra cash. Many people are moving to the U.S. not for the desire for development and education opportunities, but simply to earn money. These people do not care about the kind of job they land into it as long as it is paying them well enough to take care of their families back home.
As a matter of fact, most of them do what many would call low class jobs such cleaning, cooking, helping in personal houses as house helps but this does not matter to them because what they earn in these jobs is way much better than what they would earn back home even with more decent jobs.
Due to border restriction, these people are stuck in the foreign countries for several years not because they want to but because they have to. However, this does not hold them back, as they send the greatest part of their earnings back home most of who use unofficial means of sending money to evade taxation and recording procedures (Walt 1).
This has been demonstrated by the amount of their earnings they send home while they keep very little for themselves characterized by low standards of living they are exposed to.
However, despite the suffering of being separated from families and unfavorable living conditions as well as the risks of importation, the efforts do pay handsomely as research shows that almost all of these immigrants have changed the lives of their families a great deal from house ownership to educating their children and improving their lives at all levels (Walt 1).
Impacts of immigration to the United States of America
Positive impacts
Despite many people thinking that immigration causes a reduction in the general wage rate of workers in the United States, the fact is that immigration does actually result to an increase in wage rates. However, this is only possible if the immigrants bring in new economic resources or at least work towards providing additional resources.
A good example of a positive result of immigration is the expansion of the westward part of the United States resulting from the large scale immigration from Europe. This move in turn resulted to an increase in natural resources and land and kept the wages high.
This was possible through establishment of new job opportunities thus maintaining the ratio between job opportunities and job seekers. Even in the event that immigration does not result to increase in wage rate, the rate is kept constant with no change at all.
Besides having impacts on wage rate, immigration also benefits the labor force by availing new employees with different skills and expertise thus creating a diversified workforce within the U.S. This diversification is very significant in development and invention of new technologies as ideas are much diversified and based on a wider global scale (Friedberg and Hunt 32).
This means that such developments and advancements can be made based on different target markets and this would in return result to more income for the country hence more economic stabilization. Additionally, increased labor force relieves the pressure of multitasking and facilitates division of labor and specialization. This helps improve production in all aspects of the economy.
Economic benefits have also been reported in the U.S. in regard to immigration. Some of these immigrants do not just move to the United States of America for pleasure or better lifestyle, but to seek scientific opportunities which are hardly available in their home countries.
Once they get such opportunities, they do not hesitate to engage in innovative activities which are beneficial to all. Since America has been a leading nation in technological advancements, scientific individuals are encouraged to move there even if temporarily since there is an already existing conducive environment for such activities.
This way, the country gets to be the primary beneficiary of scientific and other related developments. Most of the immigrants moving to the United States of America are already educated individuals who are ready to work immediately. This way, living conditions of citizens are generally improved.
Government income may as well increase from taxes paid indirectly through purchases made on commodities by the illegal immigrants as well as other taxation income. Lastly, the fact that the number of individuals migrating to the U.S. to seek employment is regulated during periods of low job opportunities proves that the U.S. has nothing to lose after all.
Negative impacts
Despite all the benefits that the U.S. has to gain from immigrants, there are a few challenges facing the U.S. due to the increasing rates of immigrations. Pressure on population is the most common challenge faced, not only in the U.S. but in any other country in which immigrants move to.
Physical overcrowding in residential areas as well as in urban centers and industrial areas poses a great environmental risk due to the consequent pollution associated with overcrowding. Besides environmental risks, high immigration rates result to overcrowding in government social services and amenities such as public transport means and hospitals among others (Hanes 55).
This results to inadequate provision of social services to the Native American citizens which may have serious national ramifications. In this case, the U.S. government is forced to invest more of its income on such services instead of using it on other economic development aspects. This pulls the country back economically as it remains stagnant with no economic advancements.
Although we discussed earlier that immigrations may result to increased wages in the native country, this is not always the case.
This is because if the inflow of more labor force continues to increase without a similar inflow of new resources and capital, an imbalance between the two factors is created and resulting to decreased wages as the labor force becomes more than the resources in the market.
When this happens, many of the native job seekers as well as the immigrants are left jobless and this creates a setback in which the living standards of such individuals are lowered.
Conclusion
Immigration to the U.S. has been very high going back to historical times such as World War I (Chiswick 904). People from all over the world have been moving to the U.S. at an alarming rate up until the nationality and immigration Act was implemented to regulate persons gaining entry to the country.
This has been done by imposing quotas to people who are non-native American citizens. However, the restrictions differ depending on the different groups of immigrants which include professionals, students and relatives to U.S. native citizens among others. Despite these restrictions, immigrants have been beneficial to the U.S. in various fields including economy, workforce and diversity among others.
However, high rates of immigration do put pressure on the U.S. in terms of population, use of government services and sometimes by causing a reduction in the average wage rate of American employees. As a result, proper evaluation between the positive and the negative sides of immigration should be made prior to imposition of immigration restrictions.
Works Cited
Chiswick, Barry. “The effects of Americanization on the earnings of foreign-born men”. Journal of political economy 86. (1978): 897 – 921. Print.
Cohn, Raymond. “Immigration to the United States”. EH.net: Economic history services. (2010). Web. <http://eh.net/encyclopedia/immigration-to-the-united-states/>
Friedberg, Rachael. and Jennifer, Hunt. “The impact of immigration on host country’s wages, employment and growth”. The journal of economic perspectives 9. (1995): 23 – 44. Print.
Hanes, Christopher. “Immigrants relative rate of wage growth in the late nineteenth century”. Explorations in economic history 33. (1996): 35 – 64. Print.
U.S. IS. “Immigration to the United States”. U.S. Immigration support: online guide to U.S visas, green cards and citizenship. (2011). Web.
Walt, Vivienne. “Follow the money”. Time magazine world. (26 November 2005). Web. <http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1134698,00.html>