Immigration Essay, Research Paper

ImmigrationImmigration is positive for the United States and we benefit greatly from letting in the foreigners and letting them take this opportunity to build better lives for themselves and their families. This country represents freedom, hope, and liberty to all. Why should we shut our doors to such talented people yearning to be free from poverty, famine, and war? This country has benefited greatly from the immense amount of capital brought by the immigrants. Many arrive here with little store of wealth some where, but the wealth that is generated by immigrants is immense. It s not just money alone that adds to the wealth of this country. Every day productive labor is added to this accumulating capital. Every house built, every canal dug, every railroad graded, has immensely added so much to the actual wealth of the society. How would our great industrial growth have been carried out with out them? Immigrants do assimilate and become patriotic citizens. Language is the key issue for assimilating, and self interest impels most foreign-born to learn our language quickly. Although when immigrants come here hardly speaking any English, most recognize that learning English is the key to their economic success. A study of Southeastern Asian refuges in Houston, found that fluent speakers earned almost three time as much money as those who only spoke a few words. Culturally, immigrants believe in the melting pot and want to join the mainstream: 90 percent of Hispanics are “proud” or “very proud” of the United States, according to a recent Latino national political survey. It is a myth to say that immigrants do not adopt American cultural values. The education level of immigration has been increasing, not decreasing. About one-third of new immigrants in 1960 had less then eight years of schooling. In the past decade that number has dropped to one-quarter . The percentage of immigrants with a college education and with advanced degrees has been increasing too. There were about 11,000 foreign-born engineers and scientists here in the 1980s. By 1992 that number had doubled. “Without immigrants, we would have to send work overseas” notes Anant Afrawal: Indian-born Vice President of engineering at Sun Microsystems, Inc. a leading designer and manufacturer of work stations used for commercial and technical computing. “That certainly wouldn t help the American economy”.

Studies prove that illegal immigrants pay heavy taxes for which they receive no benefits. They also make little use of welfare and other social services. They also give more to the United States then they take. As social scientist Wayne Cornelius said: “It could be argued that Mexican migrants are a big help to the United States. They are young highly productive workers, whose health care, education, and other costs have been paid for by Mexico.” Theses Immigrants pay millions of dollars towards social security, that they will never collect. They also pay state income, sales, and even property taxes for which they receive few benefits. In the word of Douglas S. Massey of Princeton s office of population Research; “far from ripping off the system, illegal aliens are more likely to be paying for it.”"Many illegal immigrants have the determination to succeed” declares Patricia Charlton who arrived penniless form Jamaica in 1981 and started to work at McDonalds in Manhattan. She worked her way up, eventually being named a regional manager of the year. She s now married, owns a house and has a child in private school. When you look at the big picture, you will see that the United States can not live with out immigrants. We wouldn t be where we are today if not for them. They will work for low paying jobs, they try the best to assimilate with the American culture and language. Only some go on welfare because they need extra money to support their families. Many come here hoping for a better life and some get it. Many are highly skilled and intelligent and open up big companies. What would we do without them? There would be a very large drop in the U.S. economic world if we shut our doors to the immigrants. We should open our doors and welcome them.