1. Introduction
The United States of America is composed of fifty states and its capital is Washington D.C. It is commonly known that immigration is the movement of a person from a country to other; it has started because of the natural human instinct towards the demand for economic stability, educational suitability, warfare getaway, welfare seek, health reasons and so on. It also was seen since our ancestors’ time, and this reality does not exclude the U.S. which has always been a land of immigration.
This report will be approaching 3 different factors in the U.S. immigration, namely economic, humanitarian and social, which will be individually analysed in order to recommend the most important the government should considerate when setting policies toward the entrance of immigrants into a country.
2. Background
The population in the USA is estimated at 322 million people in which more than 43.3 million i.e. 13.5%, are immigrants and the working age population goes from 15 to 64 years. Even though America is a well-organised state the number of unemployed people is around 96 million. (Worstall,2017)
One of the causes for unemployment is the population augmentation. The rate of people in the U.S. is increasing; therefore, the demand for jobs is also increasing. Although the number of population is amplifying the government continues letting immigrants in into the country, because of the role they play in society.
As mentioned in the introduction, America has been an immigration territory since the past centuries. The graph below shows the total of immigrant population from 1970 to 2015. (Zong & Batalova, 2017)
In the past 45 years, the immigrants’ number have increased dramatically, which indicates that immigrants have found comfort and opportunities within the country. Additionally, observing this trend it is possible to conclude that the rate is going to keep growing, since the fact people are looking for better living conditions.
(Source: Zong & Batalova, 2017)
In 2015, the GDP (Economy) in America was estimated in $18 billion. The U.S.’s GDP represents approximately 29% of the global economy. (Trading Economics, 2017)
As it shown above, immigrants represent 13.5 percent of the American population. Regardless being legally or illegally in the country, immigrants have always contributed to the U.S. economy; mostly working on construction and/or cleaning business under low salaries. yard
(Source: Krogstad, 2017)
According to Krogstad, 2017 there are different views in relation to foreign people. 51% of the natives claimed that immigrants contribute hugely to the nation’s improvement by working hard and sharing original competencies. Oppositely, 41% of the Americans suggest that they are the main cause for the local’s unemployment, as well as the lack of sufficient housings and health care. However, the American’s acceptance of immigrants is getting more and more accessible comparing to the 90’s, when only 31% of them would say they are a benefit and 63% would call immigrants a burden. (Krogstad, 2017)
(Source: Pew Research Center, 2016)
The chart above demonstrates a dramatic growth of illegal immigrants in America since 1990 until 2008; it is also indicating a stabilisation from 2008 to 2015. (Pew Research Center, 2016)
Federal statistics show that unauthorised aliens are three times more likely to commit crimes than the 3.5 percent of the authorised would. (Bandler,2016)
In details, the rise of illegal aliens implicates the increase of crime, owing to inadequate habits many bring from their countries that consequently leads to issues in their integration with natives.
3. Presentation of factors
There are various factors that must be taken into account when making immigration policies, yet the focus will be given to:
_Economy Factor: indicates the benefits and drawbacks immigrants will bring to the nations they are hosting.
_Social Factor: points out the different positive and negative attitudes and behaviours between immigrants and locals.
_Humanitarian: expresses the compassionate acts towards the immigration of foreign people experiencing difficulties.
Economy Factor
Immigrants have brought diversity of thinking and innovative methods into workplaces, as many of them are also owners of various businesses which provide jobs for the American workers. (Furman & Gray 2012)
Currently, the United States have been hosting the largest number of immigrants in the world, and the setting of policies regarding their entrance and/or stay in the U.S. can affect crucially the economy of the country.
Immigrants in the U.S. were responsible for adding $1.6 trillion to the total American GDP in 2013. (Estrada, 2016) Furthermore, high-skilled immigrants are the America’s Engineers, Scientists and key players in the nation’s development.
Immigration has also brought its negative effects. When no possessing a higher degree immigrants tend to work for low paid jobs which may conduct to exploitation, and thus provoking a chain of allowance to ignore productivity and innovation. Overpopulation has proven as being one of the main causes of unemployment, and the higher the rate of unemployment, the bigger is the crime growth (as mentioned in the background). (Embrace, 2016)
To be precise, because of the lack of jobs and the constant raise of the population people start to look up other survival approaches, i.e. crime, for instance.
Social Factor
It is believed that immigrants enrich host countries with the cultural diversity and that their growth leads to stricter security monitoring, as the streets have more people’s movement. (Embrace, 2016)
Having immigrants in a country is an opportunity to learn about other nations, cultures, food and languages, exploring new visions and ways of thinking, leading to innovation and consequently evolution. Through this interrelation, people tend to develop not only acceptance skills, but also the improvement of involvement with people of different skin colours and habits. Furthermore, accepting racial and cultural distinctions allow people to cohabitate putting aside discriminatory attitudes.
On the other hand, conflicts between immigrant-local start to be evident when immigrants do not provide the respect due to natives, creating an environment of disagreement among them. Actually, this is a natural behaviour for unauthorised aliens, which are the ones who usually compromise the security of the country, create integration issues and cultural shocks through unsuitable habits (organised crimes, people trafficking and drug dealing, for example) they carry from their countries. (Embrace, 2016)
Humanitarian Factor
Live in community means live in family, as human beings we all have the responsibility of taking care of others in need. Helping other countries means providing them hope and faith of a better life, as well as creating a good opportunity to make allies and establish strong relations between both nations.
America has always been solidary towards refugees whose lives were jeopardised by wars, and those who are hounded by living according to what they are and what they believe in.
Yet, the current reality has been showing the contrary to the past years. The U.S. is restricting immigration for refugees running away from terror. (Amnesty International, 2016)
(Source: Amnesty International, 2016)
Despite a country having its leaders, public opinion in democratic countries remains the most important at the end of the day. For example, the current decisions of Donald Trump (president of the United States) have been creating rebellion and protests among American society, because a great part of American does not agree with his decision; which can lead to Trump’s defeat in the next elections.
Additionally, when immigrants get into the host countries there is a possibility of locals not being so welcoming, as there are several cases of refugees being victims of discrimination including xenophobia, racism and hatred attitudes because of being different or carrying distinct beliefs from the locals.
4. Recommendation/Conclusion
In order to a country succeed in development and in democracy, conditions such as economy, social and humanitarian should be taken into account. It is undoubtedly true that each one contributes importantly to a state’s efficiency.
The three conditions play very important roles in the society, yet it is believed that the most relevant when deciding immigrants’ policies is the socioeconomic position. To be more specific, the junction of both social and economic are basically the fundamental keys in the country’s infrastructure, since capital and people are the ones that drive the society forward.
Economy covers the minimal needs of the country, such as education, health, food, clothing, housing, scientific researches for the nation’s sake and many others. Social is responsible for suppressing the society’s needs, provide well-being and security, as well as listening to the opinion of each individual regarding any issues involving the nation. Based on these points it is recommended that during the policies setting toward immigration social and economic factors should be evaluated so that repercussions can be avoided.
5. Reference
Donald Trump's Entirely Correct — There Really Are 96M Unemployed Americans
Tim Worstall. JAN 13, 2017
https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2017/01/13/donald-trumps-entirely-correct-there-really-are-96-million-unemployed-americans/#24cab98065ab
Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in the United States
http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/frequently-requested-statistics-immigrants-and-immigration-united-states
MARCH 8, 2017
SPOTLIGHT
By Jie Zong and Jeanne Batalova
Trading Economics, 2017. United States GDP
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/gdp
How Immigrants Positively Affect the Business Community and the U.S. Economy
By Cesar Maximiliano Estrada Posted on June 22, 2016
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/immigration/news/2016/06/22/140124/how-immigrants-positively-affect-the-business-community-and-the-u-s-economy/
Jens Manuel Krogstad, 2017
What Americans, Europeans think of immigrants
http://www.pewresearch.org/author/jkrogstad/
pew research center
no author 2016. Unauthorized immigrant population trends for states, birth countries and regions.
http://www.pewhispanic.org/interactives/unauthorized-trends/
9 Things You Need To Know About Illegal Immigration And Crime
The daily wire, 2016 BY: aaron bandler
http://www.dailywire.com/news/10155/9-things-you-need-know-about-illegal-immigration-aaron-bandler
Ten Ways Immigrants Help Build and Strengthen Our Economy
Furman,2012 & Danielle Gray
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2012/07/12/ten-ways-immigrants-help-build-and-strengthen-our-economy
THE PROS AND CONS OF MIGRATION
(Embrace, 2016)
President Trump: Don’t Ban Refugees from the United States
Amnesty international.2016
https://act.amnestyusa.org/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1839&ea.campaign.id=42390