The debates about immigration may never cease, but the fact of the matter is that immigration is something the US needs.The main argument in the immigration debate rests on the fact that immigration effects the American wages. People believe that by allowing immigrants to work in the country they are lowering working wages and they are taking jobs away from Americans. In reality, this is not true at all. For one, American laborers and immigrants dont compete for the same level of jobs. This is because of their levels of education. Also, the majority of immigrant workers are concentrated at the lowest of occupations. Immigrants choose this type of work because it is available to them in high demand and the money they are getting is most likely better than that of their previous work. These jobs, like dishwashing in restaurants, landscaping work, construction work etc..... are occupations that U.S.-born people find unappealing and unworthy. So when it comes down to it, immigrants do not hurt American workers, rather they supply labor that is essential to the American way of life. So when you look at it, the competition is between immigrants themselves not immigrants and american workers. Personal anecdote, I lost "TO BE" my summer job to an immigrant .... pretty funny actually... but maybe he deserved the job because he needed to take care of a family or maybe because he would have worker harder than me but at a lower wage. Im not being racist, thats just the truth.
- ming dynasty
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Immigration is a pillar of American heritage. With that said, current immigration is likely to spark passionate debates from both sides as the issue has polarized much of the U.S. In the past Presidential election, not much was actually said about the topic as candidates tried to appeal to both groups in the same sentence. To tackle the immigration issue we must first separate legal immigration from illegal immigration.
ReplyDeleteFor legal immigration, a Gallup Poll from summer 2008 found, 39% of Americans think immigration levels should be decreased while another 39% think it should stay at the same rate. Based on that data, it seems legal immigration needs to be dealt with and not to increase immigration levels.
So how to solve the problem based on aggregate happiness? Well, we would first have to determine if we would count the illegal immigrants in America as voters… PollingReport.com offers people a glimpse into the opinion Americans presently have on immigration. Also, FAIR is a group which works for immigration reform and has a bunch of interesting stories. There’s a story about an annual talk radio on immigration reform – that will share American sentiment.
http://www.pollingreport.com/immigration.htm
http://www.fairus.org/site/PageNavigator/homepagenew
Obviously, Americans want to deal with illegal immigration; and rightly so. In that same Gallup poll, 63% of Americans think illegal immigrants cost too much as they rely heavily on government assistance, education, healthcare, etc. Funny these are the biggest issues pressing Americans right now. Connection? Definitely since healthcare and education spending for illegal immigrants is equal if not higher than that for Americans; it’s a huge financial burden.
Sounds like motivation to deal with the issue of immigration. I don’t think erecting a fence anytime soon is a good idea but maybe dealing with the illegal immigrants that are here currently and making sure new immigrants are documented would be a good idea. Although it might not make Obama popular with every voting group, taking a stance on the issue with the majority of Americans would be the right thing to do. He might even gain supporters….
-Eleanor Roosevelt
Although it may be argued that immigration is the basis of American heritage. Illegal Immigration is not. Even though many people argue that illegal immigrants are taking American jobs, they are not. They are just doing the jobs which most Americans will not do. However, with this said, Obama and the rest of Congress need to take immediate action into stopping illegal immigration. These immigrants can enter the coutry legally and then take the jobs. They will become American Citizens and also will help the American economy by paying taxes and paying for medical bills. When illegal immigrants need an operation, they have the operation and American citizens are forced to pay for their operation. Obama needs to make this issue one of his major priorities to help the nation escape from this depression. Although Obama stated that he was going to speak of this issue this past summer, I have not seen him make much of an effort to stop illegal immigration. This is the most recent article I could find on Obama's intentions to end illegal immigration. (This article is from April 8, 2009. Shows how much he's done.)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/09/us/politics/09immig.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=obama%20immigration&st=Search
~Andrew "Old Hickory" Jackson