Undocumented Immigrants Deserve Citizenship

Immigration can be defined as the voluntary movement of non-native persons into a different country with the goal of settling and living there (Boneva & Frieze, 2001). The major reasons that people immigrate from one country to another is that they want to improve the quality of their lives, improve the future prospects for their families, or to be closer to family or close friends (Boneva & Frieze, 2001; Skrbis, 2008).

Illegal immigration has been a problem in large countries like the United States that border on other countries where the standard of living is significantly lower (such as the case of the United States and Mexico). People find these relatively unprotected borders easy to transverse and are motivated to do so by the promise of a better life for them and their families.

When large numbers of people legally immigrate to another country barriers are created between the immigrants and the native residents of the country regarding such issues as assimilation, enculturation, and marginalization of the immigrants (Skrbis, 2008). Interestingly, immigration, when performed through legal channels, has actually been quite a positive force in countries like the United States and other countries in terms of economics and culture (Hoeing, 2013; Ruhs & Martin, 2008).

The incorporation of immigrants into countries is typically most problematic when there are large numbers of recent immigrants in the country and/or where large portions of the immigrant population are undocumented (Ruhs & Martin, 2008; Skrbis, 2008). The issue with undocumented immigrants in countries like the United States and other countries is made even more problematic by the policies of those countries.

For example, many countries such as the United States have made it extremely difficult for undocumented immigrants to legalize their status as citizens and when these countries escalate the enforcement of their borders it actually makes it much difficult for undocumented immigrants to leave the country and also results in them being more reluctant to do so (Skrbis, 2008). The result of these types of policies is that they create a large underclass of non-native individuals who are denied the opportunity for upward mobility in the country.

This creates even more tension and polarization between native and undocumented non-native individuals, resulting in stricter policies, more publicity, and discord. Thus, undocumented immigrants are unable to assimilate and remain marginal members of a society. Some individuals have advocated for some type of guest -- worker policy that offers undocumented immigrants access to employment and still satisfies the more traditional or right wing groups by denying full citizenship.

However, this type of policy simply creates a permanent class of temporary workers who are part of the workforce but do not assimilate culturally and politically (Ruhs & Martin, 2008). This type of policy is not conducive for a democracy as it further stratifies people into different classes. The solution is to either deport all undocumented immigrants or to create a path to legal, permanent, citizenship for these individuals. The better choice is to allow undocumented immigrants a chance at full citizenship. There are several reasons why this is true.

First it is good for the economy by allowing greater specialization of labor and a broader tax base (Hoeing, 2013). Secondly, most undocumented immigrants are law abiding, but are marginalized because of their status (Ngai, 2014). Allowing them the opportunity to become full citizens will allow assimilation, multicultural exchange, and less.