Sources of conflict in immigration policy and national identity

Conflict and disagreement can provide the ground work for higher performance in organizations if Human Resources professionals can funnel and transmute that energy into a positive force for growth and sustained development. Conflict is seen at a levels of human interaction, and all stem from the same principles of achieving or maintaining a certain power source or maintaining independence from an another powerful influential force.

The purpose of this essay is to examine conflict at the national level and determine some of the qualities and signs of conflict that can be used for developmental purposes. This essay will simply focus on the sources of conflict, as this procedure is very useful for human resources professionals to determine in order to fix them and correct the situation.

This essay will examined the sources of conflict for the national issues that deals with immigration. This current hot topic in the news is national but has international implications. The argument stems from allowing free and easy access to American citizenship from other countries. The sources of conflict are many and the power issues that arise are also very complex, leaving a clear cut solution to this problem hard and difficult to identify and ultimately correct in a useful and productive manner.

At the heart of this issue, lies many complicated issues that suggests who or what group of people determine the outcome of a nation. Also, the effectiveness of policy making, democracy and the rule of law are significant issues in this conflict as the sources of conflict are many and cross over into many areas of the national population and provides a practical example for human resources professionals to investigate for learning purposes.

Sources of Conflict

To identify the necessary stakeholders of a particular conflict it is necessary to determine who and what is at stake. In the immigration debate, the stakeholders are in conflict about money, jobs and power. Immigration poses certain threats to the economic status of the country by providing cheap labor on one hand, however many opportunities may seemingly be disappearing to native born Americans who feel that immigration is too costly.

Tax Payers

Immigrants that come to this country without a job or source of income may or may not require government assistance to provide for their living. In some countries, the economic situation is so dire, that a life of poverty in the U.S.A. is much better than a relative higher standard of living in their own country. Many nations from South and Central America have many able people who want to work but there is simply no jobs for them in their home country. America, known as the land of opportunity, is a perfect breeding ground for these poor immigrants due to the quality of life improvements that are realized when they become citizens of the U.S.

Conflict arises from the taxpayer due to the fact that any nationalistic views of growth and maturity are stepped on by immigration policy makers. To be an American, in taxpayers eyes, requires some sort of sacrifice in terms of paying taxes and immigrants are excluded from not only paying taxes in many cases, but are the recipient of tax dollars that are used to treat, invite and keep immigrants working here.

Border Patrol

Another source of conflict in this problem deals with the people responsible for keeping America's border secure. Immigrants are often allowed many opportunities to cross the border along Mexico, creating a confusing setting for those people hired by the government to keep them out. This source of conflict suggests that border patrol agents are unaware of how to perform their job and causing more problems.

Politicians

The weight of this conflict falls mainly on the local and federal lawmakers who are in continual struggle for the right answer on this problem. Local politicians where immigrant labor may be harmful to voting electorates, may clash directly with the interests of larger governments who see immigrant labor as a means to competitive advantage. Politicians are left to hammer out this policy in a way that represents fairness. This source of conflict must also include the politicians own self-interest in the matter as well.