A Negative Effects of Immigration essay will show you how foreign workers have had to keep track of the many immigrants entering the United States each year. Immigration policies, welfare programs, immigration reform, population growth, and more are all captured in a Negative Effects of Immigration essay. Find out more on what is included in such an essay below.
Who is an Illegal immigrant?
A person who enters, lives in, or works in a country without government permission is an illegal immigrant. A person who has entered the United States illegally remained longer than permitted by U.S. immigration laws or violated the terms of legal entry is an illegal immigrant.
Illegal immigration has many adverse effects on the U.S., its economy, culture, and society. The most obvious effect is the strain it puts on social services like schools, hospitals, and prisons.
Thanks to illegal immigration, public education enrollments are skyrocketing in some areas where immigrants settle. School-age children account for 9.2 percent of the total immigrant population in the U.S., according to statistics from 2013.
As immigrants send their children to public schools, class sizes increase, and funding is diverted away from students who are legal residents of the country. Overcrowding is common in classrooms, especially those on the lower levels, where some classes have as many as 35 students in one classroom.
Federal law requires all children between the ages of five and 18 to attend school, but many illegal immigrants send their kids to school before they are old enough, according to federal law. Though illegal immigrant parents know this is against the law, they send their young children to school because they want them to have a better life.
Compounding the problem of overcrowded schools, more and more illegal immigrants are moving to areas with better school systems because they want their kids to get a good education and be with other children who share the same language and culture.
Another area that suffers from large numbers of illegal immigrants in the healthcare system. Many medical providers must care for the uninsured and under-insured who cannot pay for medical services. That creates a strain on an already strained healthcare system.
Many in New York, Florida, and California hospitals have shut down because uneducated immigrants do not get regular check-ups. They also don’t get treatment early enough for conditions that could be manageable if caught earlier or fail to seek help when they are sick.
Undocumented immigrants also use emergency room services for non-emergency procedures resulting in many hospitals closing or cutting back hours because of the number of undocumented immigrant patients. Many Americans complain that undocumented immigrants are already in the waiting room when they show up to an emergency room even though their conditions do not require immediate care.
In 2012, 20 percent or about 615,000 hospital visits by illegal immigrants were non-urgent and cost $5.7 billion in medical treatment and research. The American College of Emergency Physicians warns that hospitals cannot sustain the high costs and will have to start cutting staff and services impacting legal resident patients who require immediate attention.
Causes of Illegal Immigration
The causes of illegal immigration can be attributed to several factors that motivate individuals to leave their homes and relocate.
Poverty and the lack of economic opportunity within a country are often at the heart of illegal immigration. Individuals who live in countries where jobs are scarce feel there is no other option than to move elsewhere and seek employment. This poverty and lack of opportunity are often the results of corrupt and repressive regimes that prevent their citizens from success.
Unemployment can be a driving force behind illegal immigration as individuals seek employment elsewhere to seek better opportunities. However, they do not immigrate legally because most countries have restrictions on acquiring citizenship.
Within some countries, such as China and Mexico, there is a disparity in income between citizens. The citizens who can benefit from the economy have access to better wages and job opportunities. This leaves those who do not have citizenship with fewer choices and can lead them to go for a country where there is a demand for cheap labor, such as the United States.
Many illegal immigrants are forced to leave their home country due to war and conflict. For example, the Syrian civil war began in March 2011 and has caused millions of Syrians to flee and seek refuge elsewhere.
Political oppression is another significant cause of illegal immigration, as citizens who attempt to fight against their government can find themselves persecuted by an authoritative regime. The oppressive regimes throughout Latin America have a history of silencing those who tried to reform or overthrow the government.
In other cases, illegal immigration is caused by oppressive conditions within a country. Thailand has been accused of severe human rights violations as it continues to oppress and persecute Muslim minority groups along the southern border. In Mexico, citizens who live along the southern border have been subjected to attacks and illegal detainment by Mexican authorities.
Floridians who live along the border claim that they and their property routinely come under fire from smugglers and criminal organizations within Mexico. The combination of these factors has left many people feeling as though they must leave their home country behind and relocate.
Many people in Latin America have been affected by natural disasters or environmental degradation, which leaves them without a home and no choice but to leave their country behind in search of a better life.
Effects of Illegal Immigration
According to The Numbers Game, about 12 million illegal immigrants are living in the United States. About 9 million undocumented immigrants account for 5% of the total workforce and 24% of all agricultural workers. Though there is no official consensus on this issue, these statistics gave rise to concern that illegal immigration may be causing serious economic problems for America. However, the real effects of illegal immigration on America are more nuanced and complex than is usually allowed.
It would be wrong to assume that most illegal immigrants enter the US only searching for jobs. In truth, it’s a lot more complicated than that. For example, suppose an undocumented immigrant and his family come from a developing country with high levels of poverty and poor education. In that case, they will probably see America as a place where opportunities abound.
In a place like the United States, an undocumented immigrant can help his family escape from abject poverty, increase their living standards through remittances, and provide them with better education – all this without fear or risk of deportation.
It is a fact that America’s economy benefits from illegal immigration. Undocumented workers perform jobs most Americans would never want – they have been known to work in extremely low-paying and laborious jobs such as farm work, construction, and other forms of manual labor.
However, the economic advantages gained by the US may not be as large as most people think; the illegal immigrants themselves benefit more from their labor than do the institutions and companies that use their services.
The biggest losers in this scenario are undoubtedly the Americans who compete with illegal immigrants for jobs. The threat of job loss can even be felt among higher-skilled, better-paid American employees such as technology experts and programmers; these workers often find themselves competing for employment against illegal immigrants willing to work for significantly lower pay.
America’s free enterprise system has led to the rise of businesses that knowingly employ undocumented workers to maximize their profits. This is true for everyone from large corporations to individual professionals such as architects and lawyers. The Obama Administration estimated that about 2/3 of undocumented workers are employed by the private sector, underscoring how common it is for them to be employed in places you might not expect.
How does Illegal Immigration affect the United States Economy?
When people think about illegal immigration, one of the first thoughts that come to mind is how it affects our economy? While there are some negative aspects that illegal aliens bring with them, the impact of illegal immigrants in the United States economy is primarily positive.
For example, consider the fact that illegal immigrants contribute to the tax base of the United States. As of 2013, there were approximately 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States, and about 8 million of them were employed. They made an average income of $30,000 per year which comes out to about $250 billion.
Unfortunately, not all of this money is being taxed, but most of it is. And this money doesn’t just have a significant impact on federal taxes. It also has state and local taxes, which vary depending on where you live.
Another positive effect that illegal immigrants have on the U.S economy is that they take lower-paying jobs that citizens don’t want to do. In some cases, illegal immigrants are paid under the table and aren’t taxed. But this is more of an exception than a rule.
Illegal immigration also provides cheap labor for companies that would otherwise have to raise prices on their goods if they had to pay legal workers higher wages. The cheaper labor allows these companies to make a greater profit and hire more people.
The last economic benefit of illegal immigration is that illegal immigrants spend their money on goods and services, which helps the economy grow. This leads to business expansion or relocation into areas with large concentrations of illegal immigrants. These typically low-income areas see an increase in jobs as a result and more tax money comes into the area.
Pros and cons of Immigration
Pros
- Legal skills: When legal immigrants arrive, they have an entire skill set that can help grow the US economy or improve living standards within the US. With new legal workers entering the market, more jobs are available for Americans looking for work. Legal immigrants also bring legal businesses, legal tax dollars, legal schools for legal children, legal neighborhoods, legal hospitals.
- Legal immigrants have helped with economic growth: The most recent study on this issue was done by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. The report stated that legal immigrants had been a huge factor in economic growth since 2000. Three-fourths of legal immigrant households were using welfare in 2013, even though legal immigrants only account for about a third (33%)of the US population and 44% of all immigrants or less than 1:8 legal households or 4:3 legal immigrant households.
- Legal immigrants bring legal skills: Legal immigrants contribute to making the U.S. a great place to live. Legal immigrant workers add their legal businesses, tax dollars, schools, and neighborhoods. The 40 million legal immigrants in the United States have done things legally because of the immigration system.
- Legal immigrants bring legal businesses: Legal immigrants add to legal businesses in the US, tax money, and legal neighborhoods, among other things. Business owners create jobs for Americans looking for work, and employees also contribute their share of taxes which is good for the economy and public services like roads and legal law enforcement.
- Legal immigrants contribute tax money: Many legal immigrants pay a great deal in taxes, and this money goes towards things like roads, enforcing laws, providing legal services to the poor, which helps them financially, other public services that are helpful for Americans, and much more.
Cons
- Higher Unemployment Rates: One major concern with the undocumented immigrant labor force is that it affects the unemployment rates in the United States. The arrival of illegal immigrants drives down salaries because they are willing to work for less pay. Thus, employers hire them instead of native workers.
- Higher Crime Rates: Another concern with illegal immigration is an increased crime rate. Because illegal immigrants live in the shadows, they are willing to take jobs that pay them under the table. This enables employers to use them as a source of cheap labor and not be responsible for their welfare. For this reason, many illegal immigrants resort to criminal activity such as theft and prostitution.
- Fiscal Drain on America’s Resources: Many illegal immigrants must resort to free medical assistance, food stamps, and housing benefits. They also do not pay any taxes, which means that they absorb America’s resources rather than contribute. As a result, American citizens must shoulder the cost of social services for these illegal immigrants with their already strapped budgets.
- Illegal Immigrants Pose a Threat to National Security: The illegal immigration system poses a threat to national security because it enables terrorists and extremists to enter America without scrutiny. Terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda have been known to take advantage of the loopholes in the immigration process and enter America legally, posing as immigrants.
What happens to illegal Immigrants when caught?
If the person has no criminal record, they are placed in removal proceedings for deportation. Then, their case is reviewed to see if it meets legal guidelines for deportation.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) can detain illegal immigrants without a court hearing if it believes they pose a danger to the public or have a criminal record. The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement also releases immigrants if they fit in certain categories, such as being a primary caretaker of children, having serious health conditions, or having U.S. family members who need caretaking.
Once released, an immigrant will be given a limited time to check in with immigration officials and possibly seek asylum or permanent residency (Green Card). If they fail to make contact, the immigrant may be deported immediately after the release period has expired. Immigrants can also be deported immediately if they do not meet asylum or permanent residency guidelines.
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Illegal immigrants affect the economy negatively, and as such, they need to be dealt with using proper immigration laws. Legal immigration should be encouraged because the United States government is very keen on the dangers that illegal immigration poses. If you want to get a professional positive and negative effects of immigration essay, visit galaxygrades.com and make an order!