Waves in the Mass Immigration

¶ … waves in the mass immigration movement that existed in the United States occurred over the period from 1860 to 1930. This movement involved the immigration of individuals from mainly eastern and south, south eastern European countries, the British Isles, and Western Europe. These new inhabitants immigrated legally through Ellis Island and settled primarily within the boroughs of New York City where their respective culture and ethnic food establishments thrived and flourished. "The United States has experienced four periods o immigration (Martin and Midgley 1999).

The United States facilitated an open immigration policy that enabled many new immigrants into the country to form the new working class necessary to achieve strong economic growth. The overall sentiment was positive and favorable toward the acceptance of the immigrant population as the wealthy saw an opportunity to exploit these individuals for their ability to provide cheap labor, willingly. Current issues with immigration policy stem from the more recent waves of immigrants into the country. The most recent wave brought illegal immigrants into the U.S.

primarily from Spanish speaking countries, primarily Mexico, Puerto Rico (before U.S. annex), and Latin America including Columbia, Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, El Salvador, and others. The wave of illegal immigration is a newer issue as recent years has seen an exponential increase in the number of illegal immigrants into the U.S. "The number of illegal immigrants into the U.S.A. is estimated to be anywhere between 14-20 million." (Joch, 2010) Over time, the conditions, values, and perceptions of immigrants has changed significantly over time.

Each wave of immigration effectively created additional strain on the social welfare system that prevents working-class American citizens from falling through the cracks during hard economic times and landing into poverty/homelessness. However, with a large number of legal/illegal immigrants that were not physically born within the borders of the United States, the ability of the social safety net to prevent American poverty has failed to protect or save the very people it was created to protect or save.

The values of subsequent immigrant populations have changed from that of 'seeking a better life for them and their children, and 'escaping political and religious persecution', to 'coming for the purpose of acquiring U.S. dollars to send back to family members across borders' and to 'receive assistance from a system of social welfare'.

"They feel that illegal migrants quite simply violate the law and threaten American values, threatening the character of the country beyond recognition." (Joch, 2010) Today, immigration is largely viewed upon in a negative light as the electorate has strongly expressed an opinion in the support of a closed-borders policy that limits by restriction the influx of immigrants. Illegal and legal immigration are each viewed as eroding the fabric of a nation that cannot stand when divided.

Current economic, social, and political realities present the new wave of immigrants as not engaging the American spirit in the same form that previous generations of immigrants have. There have been 2 proposed solutions to address the current influx of illegal immigrants into the U.S. However, prior to that discussion it is important to discuss the legal immigration policy and resident alien status of many individuals. Educated immigrants are granted H1b visas by the government when sponsored by an American employer for a foreigner to work in America.

The H1b visa enables legal resident status for the immigrant while gainfully employed with an active visa. This form of legal immigration ensures that the U.S. has a healthy supply of educated labor capable of transcending American business into the next century. Illegal immigration is the process of generally unskilled workers finding an illegal means to gain entry into the United States without going through the formal administrative process of obtaining citizenship. Additionally, through the process of marriage to an American citizen, an illegal immigrant may gain citizenship.

The process of giving Amnesty to illegal aliens is to provide legalization for all immigrants that have been living exclusively within U.S. borders over x period. "Amnesty is the only option. If there are 14-20 million illegal immigrants on your territory, reality requires their legalization." (Joch, 2010) the second option is to pass the DREAM Act, which would provide legal status to college educated or military experienced children of illegal immigrants who brought their children here, illegally.

So for instance, for an American that went to high school with illegal immigrant students in the 1990's, the free rider issue that prevailed at that time will be compounded by the increase in services provided to the new immigrant population should such legislation pass in the House and Senate. Recent developments prove that the Dream Act did not pass the vote in the Senate. This leaves room to completely redo the broken immigration policy within the U.S.

To effectively provide a framework to facilitate an economy that can support Americans before immigrants. Certainly, this is more unstructured a policy than what was negotiated in the 1965 Act or the Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments of 1965 The objective of these programs is to alleviate the economic burden that illegal immigration has on social service systems such as public hospital administration and school administration.

The cost for providing service to non-paying illegal immigrants means that the cost basis to American citizens will increase to offset the increase in the use of services and the increase in the billing default rate. The Amnesty Act, in enabling citizenry to millions of illegal immigrants sought to identify and track this rather large population and enter them into a system where personal information can be recorded and traced to monitor health care access, track criminal activity, and tax their labor.

Illegal immigrants do not add to the tax base of the economy since their wages are largely paid in cash. Possessing no paperwork means that these workers cannot legally be gainfully employed within the U.S. Additionally, as much of the money earned by illegal immigrants is sent to families at their overseas homes, the earned income is not spent and reinvested into American businesses. Instead, this fiat money leaves the U.S. And generates 0 in economic benefits for the U.S.

But costs the country in jobs and results in higher prices as demand for goods across the board increases with fewer dollars available to purchase the goods. The major change in immigration policy since 2000 is best stated; "This effectively means that anyone, from anywhere in the world, can come to America and work; they will not, however, necessarily have access to all welfare benefits." (Joch, 2010) The level of funding required to meet the financial obligations of a growing immigrant population is immense.

Just consider the health care costs of illegal immigrants alone. As an uninsured population, these individuals collectively drive up costs for American insurance paying citizens since hospitals increase the burden on insurance provider reimbursement when illegal immigrants use services such as the ER for alcohol related emergencies without payment. And this is not in consideration to the excess property tax expenses that American taxpayers must pay to subsidize the cost of the children of illegal immigrants in U.S. schools.

This extra cost to educate a non-paying child increases the cost of education for all stakeholders in the system. Given the constraints inherent in the complexity of this situation, a comprehensive strategy is needed to address the current state of illegal inhabitants within U.S. borders. This is not a black and white issue and certainly involves a tremendous amount of grey area and grey matter to solve it.

The most pressing constraint remains a tenuous global economy that cannot support the increase in the cost associated with illegal immigrant activity. The system,.