Along with almost everything on this
earth, immigration in the United States has both pros and cons. The
debate on whether immigration has improved the United States or has
harmed it has been under great controversy. Coming from a small
community, I was never introduced to almost any type of diversity.
Since my community never saw any effects from recent undocumented
immigrants, I am only left to deal with statistics and small
experiences instead of bias.
Those that are for undocumented
immigration in the United States first start out with the argument of
how the USA has been the site for immigrants throughout history which
has given the United States its name as a great melting pot. Without
immigration, the US would not be introduced to foreign cultures. I
have seen from being a part of NIU that it is very diverse. I've seen
that because of being immersed in such diversity, the students become
more open to different cultures and learn to see people as equals
despite their differences instead of judging them by their ethnicity.
This effect can further improve us as a society.
Although diversity helps in some
cases, the same diversity can also create more conflict. With
language barriers and other differences, people can sometimes become
frustrated and see these differences as a negative aspect of
immigration. I have seen in many instances that if people hear an
unknown language being spoken, they become instantly frustrated and
jump to conclusions. With this, a bias for those people begin to
grow and they then start to blame undocumented immigrants for this
issue without having much knowledge of the people in front of them.
This in turn causes dissonance between those of the same community.
Another point that is under great
scrutiny is with the issue of jobs and the economy. For some
communities, the labor that undocumented immigrants provide greatly
benefits them, while in other communities, there are not enough jobs
available for Americans to begin with so more tension arises as
competition for jobs increases. According to a website provided by
ProCon, a charity who's goal is to promote education on controversial
topics, around 8,258,000 jobs in the United States are held by
undocumented immigrants out of
154,135,000
jobs in total.1
Those
against undocumented immigrants believe that they have cost billions
of taxpayers' money for medical bills and other expenses, and believe
that they are making a heavily negative effect on our economy. But
on the other hand, others believe that they contribute more than they
take away, saying that by them paying for living essentials and other
services, they can help lower the costs of these items which in turn
helps others that live in this country.
While many issues arise like
overcrowding, chances of human trafficking increasing, and possible
strains on the economy, there are also pros right along with these
cons. For example, lives of undocumented immigrants may improve, and
the economy may become balanced since lower wage jobs may become
filled. In class, we have also learned from the articles that we
have read that the issue of undocumented immigrants has existed for
hundreds of years, and that it has not just become a controversial
topic. With all of these pros and cons, it is up to you to decide
whether or not laws should be passed whether to allow undocumented
immigration, or to completely restrict it.
1"Demographics
of Immigrants in the United States Illegally - Illegal Immigration
Solutions - ProCon.org." ProConorg
Headlines.
N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2015.
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