Sample Essay: Immigration

Throughout the history of the United States, employment opportunity has been a constant factor that drives immigration. Until today, the U.S. is still looked upon as a country where the opportunity to great wealth by toiling hard abounds—the “American dream” as we call it. Thus, the amount of employment opportunity will either slow down or speed up immigration to the U.S. Various issues on allowing illegal immigrants to work and live in the U.S. have been pervasively argued by the U.S. citizenry. They feel that legalizing the status of these immigrants would have negative effects to the country. However, despite the continuous criticisms, the illegal immigrants in America prove their worth in terms enhancing the country’s productivity in various aspects like employment and economic perspectives.

As millions of immigrants, both authorized and unauthorized, continuously enter the United States every year more and more American workers, specifically those in the middle class category, are losing their opportunities to land a job that suits their qualifications. Simply, the native-born American workers are being put out of place in the labor market by immigrants (Friedberg and Hunt 23).  During the past years, immigration to America has steadily increased partly due to the migration trend associated with globalization. Roughly, about 1,200,000 immigrants, both legal and illegal, arrive in the United States yearly and approximately one fourth or 300,000 of the total flow are illegal immigrants (Martin). The Obama administration seems to realize the economic benefits of the immigrants in the United States, and sympathize with the immigrants’ need for acknowledgement, citizenship basically, and in his first major speech he clearly expressed the need for immigration reform legislation that would become the gateway for approximately 11 million illegal immigrants to citizenship (Superville).

However, what the current administration does not understand in legalizing these more than 11 million illegal aliens in America is the negative consequence it can bring to middle class American workers whose main objective is to find a job suitable for their qualifications but, unfortunately, fail due to employers allocating available jobs to immigrants who are willing to do the same work for less payment. Indeed, the millions of illegal immigrants, if would be provided with amnesty, would further take job opportunities away from native-born Americans. In year 2008, the number of immigrants in the labor force of America increased by 43.7 percent between 2000 and 2008 (MPI Data Hub). To translate this statistical data further, year 2008 recorded for 23,103,654 immigrant workers in the labor force. Additionally, immigrants in America, still according to 2008 data, basically comprised 24.1 percent of the recorded 17,530,416 low-salary earners in the United States, and out of the 20,307,738 high-salary earners in the United States 13.4 percent were immigrants (MPI Data Hub). Consequently, the America’s middle class workers are being displaced by jobs provided to immigrants who are more than willing to receive lower payment for the same kind of job, and with the planned legalization of the 11 more million of unauthorized immigrants more native-born men and women of the United States would be left powerless as their jobs disappear. Legalizing millions of illegal immigrants in the country would further encourage American corporations to sacrifice native-born American workforce merely for the sake of financial gain. Take for example the case in Colorado where more than 200,000 unauthorized immigrants flocked the job market in the state and taking away the job opportunities which are supposed to be for the American framers, roofers, pavers, or landscapers (West 11). Years ago, a television news broadcast presented an American worker who had been laid off and now earning $11 for an hour worth of doing delivery truck driving as compared to his previous income of $22 per hour—a financial reality that his family had truly a difficult time coping with. In other words, these illegal aliens either steal the jobs which are supposedly for the Americans or depress the salaries to the level of legalized slavery.

On the other side of the argument, immigrants both legal and illegal want to work and carve out a place for themselves in a land full of strangers. Consequently, immigration provides positive effects in the economical aspect for both the immigrants and the country. By working in America, immigrants do their share for the economy through increasing the productivity of the country.

Indeed, there are jobs in America which currently face significant lack of qualified workers. This is particularly true for nurses and health care providers. Qualified immigrants fill up employment gaps that the American labor force cannot supply (Clearfield & Batalova para. 2). If we observe the demographics of the employees in different hospitals and health institutions in the United States, we can see that there are an increasing number of foreign born doctors, nurses and health care providers (Clearfield and Batalova, “In 2005, 15 percent” section para. 1). Some of them may have finished their degree in the U.S. This situation is also observable in other career fields like business and education. This just suggests that immigrants are not just mere competitors in terms of employment in America but are also qualified and competitive employees who may also be considered the best in their field and have the potential to function in various levels of jobs. Moreover, for the case of unskilled immigrants, they fill up menial jobs that Americans are not willing to take, such as those of helpers and nannies. These immigrants who are acting as helpers and nannies play an important role in providing protection and assuring development of the American children while the parents are working. It minimizes the fears of the parents regarding the welfare of their children while they are away and therefore increases their productivity in work. Immigrants do not directly cause unemployment and underemployment for Americans as what most of the American people accuse them of. There are other factors that should be considered in order to appropriately address the issue on the displacement of American workers. For one, Friedman (qtd. in “YaleGlobal” para. 42) noted with some alarm that young Americans are not educationally prepared to compete globally with the volume of university graduates from China and India. Moreover, the quality of education in the United States has been said to be lagging behind that of China especially in the engineering, mathematical, and industrial aspect (Li & Palmquist para. 5). Therefore, employers seek for the services of immigrants, like the Asians, who are more competitive and capable of efficiently performing the job (Friedman qtd. in “YaleGlobal” para. 39). Hence, the remarkable contributions of the immigrants to the aspect of employment in America eventually bring higher profit and productivity to the entire nation.

The subject of employment seems to be one of the issues about immigration that is troubling and halting America from awarding citizenship to the millions of immigrants entering the United States each year. It appears that competition, specifically for the middle class Americans, in the market is becoming stiffer as more immigrants, both the authorized and unauthorized, penetrate the country.

The major concern of most Americans is that while the number of immigrants participating in the labor force increases the number of middle class American workers plunges into worsening unemployment. On the other hand, the kind of competition in the market brought by the immigrants actually serves as a wake up call to those Americans who are too complacent, or just too indolent to strive harder towards a better life. The best solution, therefore, is for the middle class Americans to find ways in furthering themselves in terms of knowledge and skills in order to competitively compete with the immigrants. Meanwhile, the government needs to consistently protect its people from any injustices and unfair competition through assuring that employers strictly follow laws pertaining to hiring immigrants.

In spite of the downsides of immigration, that fact that it brings real benefits to th economy of the United States is undeniable. If the Americans, specifically those in the middle class, will consider striving harder and improving themselves instead of excessively worrying about losing jobs due to the immigrants taking the jobs away from them, a healthy competition in the labor market will be expected. Also, if the government will be able to strictly implement the enacted labor laws pertaining to hiring immigrants, then employers will not see any opportunity to abusively allocate available jobs to immigrants who are willing to do the same work for less payment.

References

Clearfield, Esha & Jeanne Batalova. “Foreign-Born Health-Care Workers in the United States.” Migration Information Source. Feb. 2007. Web. 24 Mar. 2011.

Friedberg, Rachel M. and Jennifer Hunt. The Impact of Immigrants on Host Country Wages, Employment, and Growth. The Journal of Economics Perspectives, 9.2 (1995), pp. 23-44.

Li, Guian & Bruce Palmquist. “Opinion: Three Things We Can Learn From Comparing the Chinese and American Education Systems.” Daily Record News. 18 July 2007. Web. 24. Mar 2011.

Martin, John L. Reducing Illegal Immigration: The Options. Sept. 1993. Web. 24 Mar. 2011.

MPI Data Hub. The United States Workforce Characteristics. 2008. Web. 24 Mar. 2011.

Superville, Darlene. Obama Immigration Reform Speech: President Argues for Immigration Overhaul. 1 Jul. 2010. Web. 24 Mar. 2011.

West, Darrell M. Brain Gain: Rethinking U.S. Immigration Policy. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2010.

YaleGlobal. “Wake Up and Face the Flat Earth: In an Interview, Columnist and Author Thomas L. Friedman Says Globalization Has Outspaced its Critics.” YaleGlobal Online. 18 Apr. 2005. Web. 24 Mar. 2011.