Lorena Sanchez-Gallastegui
We live in a country that can be described as a melting pot of nationalities, cultures and motivations alike. We support one another, whether we know it or not. We the people are the ones who make the country, the county is not what makes us people. Thus the issue of immigration. There are immigrants in our country involved in the ‘we’ and many factors to consider despite the stereotypes against them.
In 2015 Donald Trump, referring to immigrants, voiced his belief that “They are taking our jobs. They are taking our manufacturing jobs. They are taking our money. They are killing us.” This belief was the flame to the policies he proposed in a campaign holding the promise to “Make America Great Again” such as improvement of border control with an increase in border patrol agents, the construction of a wall on the US-Mexico border and a call for stricter deportation policy. Immigrants have negative connotations of harming rather than helping whether it be the economy, the job market or American opportunity as a whole, many take a divisive stance on whether or not immigrants are ‘good’ or ‘bad’ when in reality is a much more complicated issue.
In the last few years, the country has seen and increase of power in U.S Immigrations and Customs Enforcement with raids and deportations being an almost daily occurrence. As ‘unlawful’ as a person’s presence may be, the abrupt removal of them is not the answer as it disrupts their place of work and effects profits. Postville, Iowa saw a raid in 2008 and resulted in the disappearance of a multinational economy that was in the process of emerging. The closing of one Agriprocessor plant cause major profit loss to Midwestern livestock supplies and shrank the city population to half its ‘pre-raid size’ which in turn forced many small town businesses to close their doors. It’s a chain reaction that could either be positive or negative. Not only are economies effected but a strain is places on home life.
A country that insists on instilling traditional values of family and a mother and father is the same country ripping families apart. Here is where there lie the secrets behind immigrant detention centers which are effectively prisons for those awaiting trial to avoid deportation in which the family unit is separated. There is no logical reasoning behind these places, only the justification that it is “more like a summer camp” and the promise by Trump and his administration that there is “24-7 access to food and water”, “basketball courts” and “exercise classes.” However, footage from within these facilities have shown people in fences that bare similarity to cages and of children sleeping on the floor on thin mats, with shock blankets or with nothing at all. Human beings are being subjected to extensive physical and emotional trauma and the country has gone silent, or are kept in the dark.
Is it really stealing jobs if no one is willing to do them? A large portion of undocumented immigrants in the United States are doing the ‘unpleasant, back breaking jobs that native born workers are not willing to do’ (brookings.edu). This compilation of unappealing jobs includes the thousands of agricultural jobs involving picking vegetation, day in and day out, sun rise to sun set, every day, simply to make ends meet. For 14 hours a day, 6 days a week you too can earn only $11 k a year with no benefits or overtime pay! In a country that is constantly pushing for more employee benefits, better worker conditions and significant increase of the minimum wage, hardly any native-born American would want these jobs. The general native-born work force feels less impact than the portion of the work force that is low skilled due to the increase in competition among new immigrants, prior immigrants and high school dropouts. Thus concluding that it is not stealing jobs but rather coming behind and picking up the low skill work many Americans are unwilling to do for the low pay.
According to a 2013 report by George Borjas, the United States had an influx of one million immigrants per year. Such numbers have increased annually to prove time and time again that the US is a hub for a ‘better future’ and the ‘American Dream’. It is because of this that a portion of our economy can always be contributed to the foreigners who come to work or start businesses. After all, one third of the entrepreneurs and investors in the United States are immigrants. The disappearance of such a large inflow of money and business would create a large gap in the economy that could not be easily fixed with solely American workers or new economic policy. Realistically, the demand of work can not be met as the native-born population continually decreases while the age of workers increases, a shortage of labor could be on the horizon without the help of immigrant workers.
There are not as many negative effects by immigrants as stereotypes deem them to be. They are not ‘stealing’ jobs but picking up slack. They are not ‘killing us’ as much as they are helping us build and further an economy. They are people too and we need to start treating them as our people.
Immigration and Economics 