Due to steady increases in high school completion rates, native-born U.S. workers with low schooling levels are increasingly hard to find. Yet these workers are an important part of the U.S. economy -- they build homes, prepare food, clean offices, harvest crops, and take unfilled factory jobs." (Hanson, 2007)
Another important area of debate is healthcare. Why illegal immigrants should be given access to healthcare? The rationale is simple. Better healthcare means improved health which translates into fewer communicable diseases. More than 5 million illegal immigrants are uninsured but the close quarters in which they live are breeding grounds for communicable diseases. But since they lack healthcare, many of them would never visit a doctor hence aggravating the problem. (Stahl, p. 286)
"The lack of insurance contributes to poor health, because uninsured people are more likely to delay seeking care. They are more likely to receive less or no cancer screening, which delays diagnosis and treatment and leads to premature death." (Stahl p. 287)
This means uninsured people are more likely to contribute to health problems in the country. Apart from this problem, the cost on healthcare system and especially taxpayers increases when uninsured people are given charity care at reduced or no cost. According to the law, illegal immigrants cannot be denied emergency care. The cost of emergency care is in turn borne by the taxpayers and the healthcare system. This can be avoided by making healthcare more accessible to illegal immigrants so they won't end in emergency care. "This care does impose a cost on society. It gets paid for indirectly by insured patients, whose charges are increased as a result." (Stahl, p. 287)
Conclusion
Illegal immigration problem is further compounded by the delays in receipt of a green card after application (Martin, 2006). Many illegal immigrants who are seriously trying to legalize their status might find it very difficult to obtain it. This is because not only do they have very limited opportunities to gain legal status, the process also takes a long time which makes their illegal status even more of a problem.
The right to work and access to healthcare to illegal immigrants is likely to lessen the economic...
Open competition for jobs would not only make it easier for illegal immigrants to pay taxes but also allow Americans to compete for jobs with immigrants. The solution to the problem of job loss is not to bar illegal immigrants from working but allowing them to work under same laws as anyone else. This will create an environment of open competition. Similarly allowing better access to healthcare should be seen as a preventive measure where government can seriously reduce the burden of emergency care by providing affordable healthcare to illegal immigrants.
References
Gordon H. Hanson, The Bernard and Irene Schwartz Series on American Competitiveness -- the Economic Logic of Illegal Immigration
CSR NO. 26, APRIL 2007
Passel, Jeffrey S. "Estimates of the Size and Characteristics of the Undocumented Population." Pew Hispanic Center, 2006.
Michael J. Stahl. Encyclopedia of Health Care Management SAGE Publications; 1 edition (October 21, 2003)
Barbara Ehrenreich. This Land Is Their Land: Reports from a Divided Nation. Metropolitan Books (June 24, 2008)
U.S. Department of Homeland Security. "2005 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics." Office of Immigration Statistics, 2006.
Kossoudji, Sherrie A. And Deborah A. Cobb-Clark. "Coming out of the Shadows:
Learning about Legal Status and Wages from the Legalized Population." Journal of Labor Economics, Vol. 20, No. 3 (July 2002), pp. 598 -- 628.
Hanson, Gordon H. Why Does Immigration Divide America? Public Finance and Political Opposition to Open Borders. Washington, DC: Institute for International
Economics, 2005.
Lawrence F. Katz and David H. Autor, "Changes in the Wage Structure and Earnings Inequality," in Orley Ashenfelter and David Card, eds., Handbook of Labor Economics, Vol. 3A (Amsterdam: Elsevier Science, 1999), pp. 1463 -- 1555.
Martin, David A. "Twilight Statuses: A Closer Examination of the Unauthorized
Population." Migration Policy Institute Policy Brief No. 2 (June 2005).
Martin, Susan. "U.S. Employment-Based Admissions: Permanent and Temporary." Migration Policy Institute Policy Brief No. 15…
