Illegal Exodus: Is Immigration Good Or Bad For Our Economy?

The United States has often been called the melting pot of all countries because of its copious diversity of different ethnicities, cultures, and traditions, which makes America the great country it is today. This is derived from the opulent tradition of immigrants coming to the United States legally and illegally looking for a better life and the pursuit of happiness. Although many Americans believe that immigration has an unconstructive outcome in the economic development of the United States, sociological inquiries have proven otherwise, but the U.S. government still considers immigration as an austere problem for America. As a consequence, over the past two decades the U.S. Senate has failed to pass an immigration reform bill that would likely answer many of the questions people have towards immigration. Furthermore, supported by the Bush administration are the pragmatists that say that America should acknowledge the fact that there is a projected twelve million illegal inhabitants in the U.S. and that they are here to stay, so we should find a way to offer them a path to citizenship (see left). On the other side are the optimists who dispute that illegal immigrants are no more than criminals who are breaking the law. They argue that illegal immigrants should not be remunerated and in doing so only encourages more illegal immigration into the U.S. While different views of immigration will continue to take place in the White House, the uncertainty of whether immigration is good or bad for the United States still remains.

Buried in this ongoing deliberation is the question of the prospective economic effects on a measure that could change the composition of the labor force of America in considerable means. The United States Senate believes that by cracking down on illegal immigration, they can constrict the future supply of workers in the provinces of agriculture, construction, and the restaurant and hotel industries. By moving to an evaluation form for visas that is weighted more on the skills of a person rather than the family ties they might have in the U.S., the senate judges that they can provide more jobs for flourishing industries such as technology and biotechnology. Peter Cappelli a professor at Wharton in the University of Pennsylvania was quoted in a television report by its local news center utv13 “saying that what is troubling him about the legislation is that it is being marketed as if it does not involve any tradeoffs, that the move to employment-based criterion will be good for the economy and good for the country.” In fact Cappelli argues it will create winners and losers, and whether one approves of the legislation or not depends on how one feels about those winners and losers. However, the matter of fact is that majority of the jobs in the U.S. are not high-tech, most of the obtainable jobs concentrate within the fields of agriculture, and manufacturing for illegal immigrants. Nevertheless, many Americans still believe that by reducing the number of immigrants, whether legal or illegal that come into the U.S. would help alleviate some of the unemployment problems that America is facing today.

Conversely, Bernard Anderson, a practice professor of management at the University of Pennsylvania, “says he is not worried about the economic implications of immigration reform, mainly because he sees it having little long-term effect.” As a former assistant secretary in the U.S. Labor Department during the Clinton administration, Anderson also states, “that illegal workers already in the United States are likely to remain, regardless of whether they are offered citizenship or not.” Despite that, many traditionalist still rail against reprieve, but they do not offer a resolution on the twelve million people that are already in the U.S. Many if not most of the illegal immigrants that come to the United States looking for employment concentrate in the areas of agriculture, food preparation, construction, and hospitality and personal service. Numerous jobs in these industries are considered and are part of what labor economists call “non-competing” jobs. The truth is that many natural born citizens are not rushing to fill the job vacancies provided by these businesses. Take California for example, it is one of the most diverse states in America. When examining California’s construction sector, a television report aired by CNN stated that there are no illegal immigrants constructing high-rise buildings in Los Angeles or Sacramento. Instead these jobs are being filled by native-born citizens that belong to unions such as the Operating Engineers Union or the United Steelworkers Union. On the other hand going into the suburbs or residential housing developments, most of the work is being done by illegal immigrants. So ask yourself, whose jobs did illegal immigrants really take? The answer is simple, they did not take anyone’s jobs because native workers were simply not willing to do these jobs or take the salary or hourly wages that are being offered.

In general, many illegal immigrants tend to search for jobs in states were immigration officials such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the department of Homeland Security is not as hard-hitting as in many border states like Texas and Arizona, they tend to seek employment in states like North Carolina, Utah, and many cities in Northern California were agricultural jobs are plentiful (see right). While many Americans argue against immigration the truth is that many illegal immigrants help support the U.S. economy. Illegal immigrants do the jobs that many Americans would not even consider doing and they have to pay taxes like everyone else, without receiving any benefits in the end. This is due in part to their employers still paying Social Security for them, even though they do not receive any benefits when they retire. They keep the economy flowing and they safeguard the size of the country’s labor force. Excluding the illegal immigrants who are fleeing their native country because of criminal activities, many of the people that come to the United States illegally come to work hard and pursue the “American Dream.”