Immigration Reform Essay, Research Paper

Immigration Reform

Immigration reform is a political idea construed to mislead our society into blaming innocent immigrant minorities for the current problems that plague our nation. It is well known that this country has prospered through centuries of economic and social misfortunes from the labor of immigrants who have made this country what it is today. Immigration reform seeks to blame the innocent based on skin tone, ethnic background, and nationality. Instead of focusing on the genuine agents of economic troubles, immigration reform is using nationality as a scapegoat for corporate layoffs, downsizing, welfare, and other unfortunate economic situations. Economic instability, rising unemployment rates, welfare, and overall deplorable social economic situations are placing the blame on the innocent migrant instead of focusing and dealing with the actual problem.

Many proponents of immigration reform argue that our economy continues to fluctuate causing a decrease in job opportunities for Americans. Proponents blame the loss of jobs on illegal immigration, more specifically on the Mexican who seeks only to better his lifestyle by doing the menial tedious jobs that most Americans would never even imagine doing. Picking grapes, pruning vines, gathering tomatoes, and picking peaches are just a few examples of the demanding physical jobs that immigrants perform. These jobs require very little knowledge of expertise, but rather a physical demand and will to sacrifice your body from sun up to sun down as a means of survival. If illegal immigrants are taking away our jobs, then why don t we step in and pick the fruits and vegetables we so much enjoy every dinner, which we praise the lord for? Farmers don t gather their harvest. They hire unskilled immigrant workers that pose no threat to American employment to harvest their crops. Large corporations are franchising, outsourcing, and implementing subdivisions in foreign countries in order to compete in a global market. These foreign countries can offer cheaper wages and other amenities that lead to an organization s overall goal; and that is to make a profit. We need to stop blaming the disadvantaged and concentrate more on political reform and anti-free trade agreements between large American corporations and organizations interested in fulfilling their own agendas.

Other proponents of immigration reform argue that immigration serves only one purpose; and that is to reap the benefits of welfare. If this is true, and immigrants are flooding our nation to live off of billions of American tax dollars, then why are the majority of our tax dollars used for military spending, government projects, and senseless ventures and not on welfare? We are unknowingly blaming government taxation on welfare and not on the government and the system itself. It seems plausible that welfare exists as a means of justifying taxation; and the limits to the amount of taxation are boundless. This certainly creates an innate disgust for welfare, which is highly evident. As we blame welfare for our tax woes, we tend to direct our anger at the recipients of welfare. Most of these people are Americans, but we prey on the weak and defenseless, thus drawing a direct correlation between immigrants and welfare. Furthermore, immigrants have no preconceived notion as to what welfare is. They don t say, Hey, there s a thing called welfare over in U.S., let s go reap it s benefits. Immigrants are here to meet demands of a workforce that is non-existent within our country. Unfortunately, they are endowed with minimal rights and it is easier and more feasible to point the finger of blame on them rather than blaming those that are actually at fault.

We live in a society which is made up of immigrants from different corners of the globe. It is obvious that as Americans we have forged an immense successful country that will continue to prosper at the hands of various ethnic groups. Immigration reform seeks to blame the innocent immigrant instead of accepting reality and dealing with the actual factors involved in our economic woes, unemployment rates, and wage fluctuations. The easiest manner in which to deal with our national problems is to blame the defenseless. It seems highly crude to think that we as Americans have not learned to stop blaming the immigrant for our own problems, since we are a nation of immigrants as well. Immigration reform is not a means of ending an economic problem here in the U.S., but rather an effective means of blame and a tool to supplement discrimination.

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