Research Papers on Immigration and the Economy

With the current state of economy and many people out of work, it was inevitable that blame would start to fall on immigrants. In recent years, with the increase of immigration, we have seen a boost in anti-immigration movements and many anti-immigrant laws in some states. Since new immigrants rarely have a strong voice in the electoral process and many politicians need a scapegoat for the country’s economic woes, immigrants are easy targets in the blame game.

Estimates of the number of illegal immigrants in the United States range from twelve to twenty million people. Nearly half of those people here illegally came here legally with a visa and never left the country when that visa expired. Illegal immigrants also include children brought here at a young age raised as Americans. Illegal immigrant labor is an important part of the US economy and we simply could not do without it. As undocumented workers, illegal immigrants have no legal protection for workplace safety violations or wage protections.

Many solutions have been presented to deal with the problem but it is a difficult problem to deal with piecemeal.

• Some have proposed the DREAM act, with offers a path to citizenship for children brought to the country at a young age.
• Some wish to build a border fence with Mexico, yet have no idea how to deal with the issue of expired visas.
• Others want to implement the e-verify system in order to check the legal status of workers or provide a national work ID card.
• There are even hardliners who state they wish to deport all illegal immigrants.

It seems without a comprehensive solution, the individual reforms will fall short. It is simply not realistic to deport 20 million people possibly destroying families in the process. It seems any solution will need to include better enforcement among employers, further security for borders and visa holders and a path to citizenship for those already here illegally.