Value of immigrants in the United States

¶ … Value of Immigrants in the U.S.

America is a nation that was created by immigrant population from England and other countries. The immigrants also include the population that was brought in as plantation workers and slaves in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The descendants of these immigrants are the current citizens of the U.S. However the U.S. is fast growing in population today and the cause of this is the legal and illegal immigration into the U.S. Of large groups from all over the world. The U.S. is seen by many to be the place that would provide plenty and is the ideal place to migrate. Though some immigrants bring in special skills, a lot of immigrants are illegal immigrants who add to the population and depend heavily on the Native Americans. They are in fact a drain on the entire resources. The question then is if the immigration be stopped, with the illegal ones deported back -- will it benefit or harm the country?

Population Problems:

The population of the U.S. is increasing in leaps and bounds, and over a quarter of this increase is from immigrants. This would in course of time create a population explosion - and this is not a myth. There is a problem that science and social science has overlooked. That is the problem of overcrowding. This may cause irreversible environmental damage and the problem will result in what Hardin calls "democratic coercion." (Hardin, 27) When the population which is of the domestic kind and the immigrant kind increase; the resulting chaos in a few years time will force the government to address issues like immigration policies and other human side questions. (Hardin, 27)

The immigration also leads to exploitation -- the employer knows that the immigrant has lesser options and -- can be squeezed that much harder. First point to be noted is that just like ethnic groups that is found within the U.S., the immigrant is bound to find discrimination at the work place, because most small employers prefer his or her "own kind." (Waldinger; Lichter, 43) And the reason is that the employer knows the ones from the same class better than outsiders- and since the outsider's options are limited, employers know that they can be squeezed hard.

The Employment Problem:

Since the immigrant has no bargaining power, he is paid less and working conditions are not enforced for them. As a result businesses choose the immigrant over the natives. Thus the unabated immigration causes apprehension among the Native Americans over job loss. This of course has been seen throughout the nation's history. Before the problems that came in 2000, there is the argument that the natives are displaced from the jobs by immigrants who come to the U.S. In large numbers. There is evidence that the employment of native-born workers is indeed being affected by the immigrants. Further the illegal aliens in the country are more than one quarter of the country's population. The controversy is mostly on illegal immigration, with over 11 million illegal residents in the U.S. Over 7 million legal migrants are recruited into important professional specialties. They also bring their relatives in, as in the case of Indians. (Swain, 16)

Though the Indian government does not give any special status to immigrants to the U.S. from India, there has been a spurt of immigrants from India to the Silicon Valley -- California. These immigrants are mostly selected for special skills and there are other immigrants who fill positions in services like nursing and doctors. The immigrants from India are mostly centered at Silicon Valley, the hub of computing and inventions. This is because immigrants from India come from some of the biggest and best electronics and engineering schools from India notably the IIT. These professional immigrants are often brought in by businesses themselves and are not a strain on the U.S. economy nor do they take over the jobs of the locals because they are employed in jobs that are highly specialized. The immigrants from India for example come equipped with a technical education and are mostly professionals who contribute to the growth of business and the U.S. economy in various ways. Neither the U.S. state nor business have social overheads over this population. The integration of the population into the mainstream production activity does not take time even if the social integration does. (Parekh; Singh; Vertovec, 30)