History demonstrates that immigrants—whether they came to America in shackles, indentured, or free—built our country. So why is there so much angst around immigration?
By the volume and apparent popularity of hateful speech among presidential hopefuls like Donald Trump, one might think that a majority of Americans are ignorant, hateful, racist, and xenophobic. The House of Representatives—a body which ostensibly represents the opinion of our country’s citizens—is currently arguing over whether Paul Ryan is too far to the left on immigration reform; Ryan had the audacity to utter the words “earned legalization” during debates on a would-be reform bill in 2013.
This all seems to support that we as a nation are against immigration. But, is that really the case?
Nativism and racism fuel anti-immigration sentiment
Much anti-immigration sentiment simply derives from garden-variety nativism, which enjoys a strong presence in the Tea Party Caucus among House Republicans. A telling quote from Steve Eichler, executive director of the 1776 Tea Party and the Minuteman Project, an anti-immigration vigilante group, sums up the nativist viewpoint: “Everything is at stake. Illegals will bankrupt our social, economic, and financial systems. Terrorists will blow it all to pieces. They’ll all be in our backyards in a matter of weeks, even days, if we don’t step up and demand action.” He went on to suggest that if Republicans didn’t do something about it, the result would be “chaos.”
Racism also motivates anti-immigration activism. The Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights (IREHR) report (April 2015) revealed that “a popular Tea Party curriculum on the Making of America even refers to African-American children as ‘pickaninnies,’ claims that the treatment of slaves was ‘humane,’ and that ‘the economic system of slavery chained the slave owners almost as much as the slaves.” The report also cites the Tea Party’s characterization of unarmed black men shot by police as “uncivilized” and getting their “just desserts.”
Propaganda unveiled—the truth about immigrants
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report refutes much of the propaganda used by anti-immigration activists. The report shows that communities where immigrants go improve within a generation; within three generations, immigrants meet or exceed the native-born in educational attainment and job-creating activities.
Immigrants also pour $10 billion into the United States economy every year. A report by the Partnership for a New American Economy notes that immigrants (or their children) founded more than 40 percent of the 2010 Fortune 500 companies and that the revenue from such companies exceeds the GDP of every country in the world, except the United States, China, and Japan.
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office notes, “Over the past two decades, most efforts to estimate the fiscal impact of immigration in the United States have concluded that, in aggregate and over the long term, tax revenues of all types generated by immigrants—both legal and unauthorized—exceed the cost of the services they use.”
What Americans really think
Immigration, then, by those measures at least, is actually good for the United States in the long run. But what do Americans really think about it?
In a Pew Research Center and NBC/Wall Street Journal Poll, conducted in September 2015, in response to the recent announcement that the United States will accept more refugees, 53 percent of respondents affirmed that the federal government should grant citizenship at birth to children born in the United States. During the June–July 2015 Gallup polling period, 73 percent of adults across the nation agreed that “immigration is a good thing for this country today,” while another 65 percent agreed that illegal immigrants should be allowed to “remain in the United States and become US citizens, but only if they meet certain requirements over a period of time.”
Even conservatives (with the exception of the Tea Party) agree that immigration is part of America’s strength. The Brookings Institute notes that the Senate GOP supported comprehensive immigration reform, and did so on traditional conservative grounds such as fiscal responsibility and law and order.
Immigration is tougher on some communities
This is not to say that immigration is benign. The immigrants themselves often experience many hardships, including higher rates of crime and unemployment. Many immigrants are ill-prepared for the challenges of living and working in the United States. If illegal, they are also more vulnerable to mistreatment and criminal exploitation.
Unfortunately, border communities receive a disproportionate number of immigrants and experience a higher impact from their presence. As Asian Nation notes, the “benefits of immigration differed at local, state, and federal levels. As most of the taxes paid by immigrants are collected at the federal level, local and state levels reap less benefits from immigrants and can even experience negative fiscal impacts, especially since they are immediate points of providing most of the social and medical services to immigrants.”
It’s a fact that the United States will continue to accept immigrants fleeing from persecution, war, and economic hardship. To mitigate the impact that these immigrants bring to certain communities, however, it’s imperative that the federal government provide better support at the state and local level and continue to improve its management of immigration overall, especially in the areas of employment and citizenship.
Need more help? Find an immigration attorney in your area, or consult Avvo’s topic page on immigration to do your own research.
Related articles on NakedLaw:
9 comments
sherry
Coming from an obvious liberal slant to glean all good points of immigration as tho tea partyers & repub/conservative types raise vitriolic objections on that specific classification, they try to convince the public--voters--how uncaring and cruel minded they are against immigrants.
How absolutely cowardly NOT to say their main focus and cause for concern ARE THE ILLEGAL immigrants, not those here legally. Are liberals with an agenda least to be trusted bec they're most likely not forthcoming in revealing the whole truth or trying to create the opposition as a baddie who wants to eat you and your little dog, too?
So, fine, the stats on those legally here are worthy of acknowledgement, so now present the majority of mostly negative stats on illegals. But maybe you won't bec you can't bec it's a matter of truth telling that would make you sick to even attempt. You may despise the tea partyers & slant their outcry against immigration as mainly opposing their presence here, with a little nod in reference to the illegals, switching their main concerns from illegals to be all about the legals, typical tactic to get results regardless of the truth, bec it doesn't matter, as long as the goal to get whatever may be wanted meets with success.
By the way, I voted Democrat in past 3 elections, so please don't anyone accuse me of being a tea party loyalist. Fair is fair, truth is truth, and the author's version of tea party complaints allegedly conceptualized against supportive, permitted to enter legal immigrants/immigration is not at all what greatly concerns the republican/conservative/tea party worries and fears for the safety of the American public--it's mainly the illegals, especially the non vetted ones the (liberal?) govt lost track of recently.
Suzanne Wagner
Immigration. Hmm, lets see. Right from the start it has been a hot bed of emotions. With the exception of the Mayflower and how we were recieced by the Native Indians. But we screwed that up royally. In that instance we were a embarrassing group of ego inflated weenies. My take on this is nature. Human or animal it doesn't matter. We claim something as "ours" we take care of it. Nurture it and of course protect it. Territorial. It is born into us. What do you think will happen when what we hold dear becomes a Woodstock and a free for all? All cultures have their own precious beliefs and customs. The familiar. When you open the borders all around us, cultures flood in and it overwhelmes. What is the norm for them is not for us. Having 12 to 18 children, packing them in a house that is meant for maybe six, guess what? You can do your own calculations. Lastly is the cultures that ARE a threat to our U S of A. Does anyone up on that hill in Washington THINK we won't defend what we hold dear? If we do we're the ones hung out to dry. Something is VERY VERY wrong and I have my take on it which I will not say, but this I will, I am not alone, numbers are growing and with that a whole whopping dose of common sense.
Sharon
The best way to collapse any economy is to overload the welfare system, as proven with the Cloward-Pavin principal, that caused bankruptcy in NYC in 1975. Incite racism, encourage demonstrations about race issues encourages "entitlement propaganda".
Relying heavily on government, local or federal, for "rights", undermines the foundation of personal accountability. Governments routinely ruin entrepreneurship with tax and spend policies to benefit those that don't or won't work cause "free" is easier. Anyone who thinks for one second that Governments "care" about the welfare of it's citizens, needs to take a good look at the American Indian, if you can find one, and ask what the government did for them!
lady
Immigration is not the issue. There is a process to emigrate to the US and the nation accepts thousands of immigrants legally every year. No one has any problems with that process or the legal immigrants.
The problem is illegal immigration. Those who skirt the law to come here will likely skirt every other law they don’t like. Individuals who know they would not pass the vetting process to emigrate here are most likely to come in anyway, illegally.
Race is only a coincidence in the issue, not the issue. The government has a moral obligation to protect it’s people. The process of keeping violent criminal foreigners out is part of the process.
Terrorists operate from ideological motives apart from and without reference to American laws or values. Well known leaders of anti-American terror groups have made blatant threats against the US and its government. While our executive branch works hard to stay ahead of them and their international organizations, a flood of illegal immigration at our borders makes their job nearly impossible.
You can poo poo the reality all you like, but time will vindicate the truth.
P.S. I live in a border city.
Cited from: Is immigration actually bad for the United States? | The Avvo NakedLaw Blog http://nakedlaw.avvo.com/freedom/is-immigration-actually-bad-for-the-united-states.html#ixzz3vRZvtsKo
bazlur rashid
what is the requirment for E-2 visa
Matthew Cooke
Hi Bazlur, it sounds like you have several legal questions that would be best answered by a lawyer in our free Q&A forum. Lawyers do not provide advice through our blog, but they do in the forum -- usually within 12 hours. All questions are open to answers for seven days. You can post your questions here when you're ready: http://www.avvo.com/ask-a-lawyer. You can also browse previously asked questions and lawyer answers, or read legal guides that may answer your questions, here: http://www.avvo.com/free-legal-advice. I hope this is helpful! Kindly, Matthew
george t robinson
my niece is here visiting from Scotland, she came in with a visa, but has misplaced it. Does she need it to go back home? Thank you
Matthew Cooke
Hi George, it sounds like you have several legal questions that would be best answered by a lawyer in our free Q&A forum. Lawyers do not provide advice through our blog, but they do in the forum -- usually within 12 hours. All questions are open to answers for seven days. You can post your questions here when you're ready: http://www.avvo.com/ask-a-lawyer. You can also browse previously asked questions and lawyer answers, or read legal guides that may answer your questions, here: http://www.avvo.com/free-legal-advice. I hope this is helpful! Kindly, Matthew
Rick
Immigration is not the issue. There is a process to emigrate to the US and the nation accepts thousands of immigrants legally every year. No one has any problems with that process or the legal immigrants.
The problem is illegal immigration. Those who skirt the law to come here will likely skirt every other law they don't like. Individuals who know they would not pass the vetting process to emigrate here are most likely to come in anyway, illegally.
Race is only a coincidence in the issue, not the issue. The government has a moral obligation to protect it's people. The process of keeping violent criminal foreigners out is part of the process.
Terrorists operate from ideological motives apart from and without reference to American laws or values. Well known leaders of anti-American terror groups have made blatant threats against the US and its government. While our executive branch works hard to stay ahead of them and their international organizations, a flood of illegal immigration at our borders makes their job nearly impossible.
You can poo poo the reality all you like, but time will vindicate the truth.
P.S. I live in a border city.