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Statement of Issue


The U.S. is not unique in considering immigration a difficult issue, but the vast immigrant numbers and constant upheaval due to immigration are defining characteristics of the US. Everyone on the continents of North and South America is an immigrant. While the struggles of the early immigrants may still be unclear, the more recent history of the U.S. has been marred by the forced displacement of Africans along with a flagrant disregard for their well-being. The same goes for Native Americans where “a flagrant disregard for their lives” would be an embarrassing understatement. The issue as it stands today is in a less immoral position, but it is still tainted by racial divides.

There have been two great waves of immigration in the U.S. One which peaked in the 1920s, and the one that is happening today. Until 1965, the U.S. focused on family reunification as the primary reason for legal entry. After 1965, the U.S. set up a quota system for different countries allowing a wider range of peoples to legally reside in the country. In 1976, Asians began to dominate the legal immigrant population previously dominated by Europeans.

Perhaps the greatest cause of uncertainty in the issue is the influx of illegal immigrants each year, about 275,000 according to reports from 1996 and almost half a million according to more recent reports making a grand total of 11.6 million foreign-born residents as of 2006. Many studies show that immigrants, legal and illegal, contribute to the economy more than anything else. Immigrants may sometimes add stress to the social services and public schools, but they also fill jobs that most Americans do not care to do. While a certain demographic is affected in their jobs, the demographic is mainly young men without high school diplomas of any race. The immigrants lower the wage of this demographic, but they also lower the cost at the supermarket and other retail locations. Studies do not show that anyone is losing jobs because of immigrants except for native born Hispanics. They are often not hired by people wishing to avoid the illegal immigrant stigma.

Immigrants also help maintain population growth for America whereas most industrialized nations are experiencing population decline. Immigrants usually do not have health insurance and require other social services which cost money. Many immigrants have entered or stayed in the country illegally which is a violation of the law. As a result, immigration is a particularly difficult problem to solve because the country cannot enjoy the economic benefits of immigration without paying some of the social costs and the country cannot “solve” the problem of illegal immigrants without increasing the cost of goods and services in the country.

Right now, both presidential candidates support similar plans on immigration—securing the borders, addressing the illegal immigrants through some form of amnesty, enforcing the laws which prohibit employers hiring illegal immigrants, and fixing the lagging immigration system to keep families together and keep workers available for hire. Perhaps, the major difference is Obama's desire to promote economic development in Mexico. McCain does not support this officially, but he supports NAFTA and other free-trade agreements which may create jobs in Mexico and other Central and South American countries.

No matter who is elected president, according to a study by Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education of the National Academy of Sciences in 1997, both the non-European immigrant population and the average age of the US population will rise dramatically regardless of the immigration policies taken. While the CBSSE's study is 11 years old, little has changed in these two aspects.

The immigration issue pages have been populated by Dennis D. Draeger with a generous amount of supervision by his professor Dr. Peter Bishop. Please feel free to view his account profile here: http://thefuturesoftheus.wetpaint.com/account/DennisDD. You may message him through it or just e-mail him at dshusaku@yahoo.com.