The US Immigration Today

THE US IMMIGRATION1

The US Immigration Today

Name

Course

Professor

March 4, 2017

The US Immigration Today

Immigration remains a valuable source of the labor force for the contemporary US. Economic experts unanimously claim that despite the competition rise the overall impact of the US immigration is positive. However, the recent ban on Muslim countries refugees considerably lowered the general entry rates. The research aims at evaluating the US immigration from the economic, cultural and social viewpoint. It suggests the overall significance of immigration as an integral part of multicultural, tolerant and democratic society.

The immigration is contemporarily beneficial from the economic aspect. The long-term research in the University of Pennsylvania revealed profit rise and “unlikely replacement” of the native-born workers by the immigrant semi-skilled ones (PPI, 2016). In addition, the entry of the immigrant force into the labor market created the pretext for competition intensifying. This specialty indirectly influenced the quality of services and goods that worked in two ways. On the one hand, it motivates native workers to improve their qualifications not to be replaced. On the other, the native-born workers are “pushed” into higher-paying occupations and the overall pace of innovation moves forward (PPI, 2016). This opinion is supported by Dustmann, Glitz, and Frattini (2008, p. 477), who support the idea that immigration waves do not “depress wages… or lead to negative employment.” Consequently, the major argument of the anti-immigrant lobby is invalid from the practical viewpoint.

From the social viewpoint, the US immigrants enable cultural and demographic enrichment of the culture where none of the races is dominant. The understanding of this particular aspect is crucial for the modern isolationist tendencies in the government, that apparently exaggerates the terrorist threat from the immigrants (Singhvi & Parlapiano, 2017). The recent immigration ban for seven Muslim countries signified reactionist policies remaining since the excessively broad Patriot Act that gave plenty of space for defining suspicious behavior. Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen were outlined as the countries concerning full immigration ban with an exception for diplomats. At the same time, the majority of modern immigrants and refugees come from the countries mentioned above due to religious, racial and military conflicts. These people have no place to go except for seeking shelter in a more democratic country able to treat them with humanity.

From the cultural viewpoint, the US diversity is “historically predisposed” (Lichter, 2012, p. 3). The crucial term of “community” served the best illustrative example of “economic and political incorporation” in the rural US. Though the attitudes to Hispanic newcomers were estimated as “changing,” they were deemed an integral part of the community without the direct initiatives to oust them from the society. Accordingly, the diversity within the American society has never been observed problematic after the Civil rights movement that outlawed discriminative tendencies on the governmental level.

To conclude, immigration issues have recently become one of the most controversial topics in the US policy. On the one hand, the term of citizenship is a guarantee of protection for the newcomer. On the other, immigration ban contradicts the principles of democracy deemed fundamental to the American people. The negative immigration cannot exceed the positive one that enriches the country economically, socially and culturally. The majority of Muslim refugees should not be perceived a threat but rather a sign of drastic changes necessity in their homelands. The diverse and vivid neighborhoods are crucial not only for the cultural exchange but for the delivery of the bigger picture of the world to the upcoming generations.

References

Dustmann, C., Glitz, A., & Frattini, T. (2008). The labor market impact of immigration. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 24(3), 477-494.

Lichter, D. T. (2012). Immigration and the new racial diversity in rural America. Rural Sociology, 77(1), 3-35.

PPI, W. (2016, June 27). The effects of immigration on the United States’ economy. Retrieved March 3, 2017, from

Singhvi, A., & Parlapiano, A. (2017, February 3). Trump’s immigration ban: Who is barred and who is not. Politics. Retrieved from