Immigration Reform

Immigration reform research papers look at the complicated issue of how to reform policies on immigration. Whether your paper needs to focus on another country's immigration reform policy or on the United States' complex stand on immigration, Paper Masters will have one of our political science writers assist you to compose an excellent investigation into your topic on immigration.

The United States was founded as a nation of immigrants, and throughout its history there have been attempts by those already here to keep out those who seek to come here. Due to the continuing perception of illegal immigration being a "problem" in the United States, various immigration reform efforts have been proposed. In the run-up to the 2016 American presidential election, immigration reform has been a controversial political subject.

The word reform implies an effort to improve the current conditions. In politics, immigration reform may include the following:

• Eliminating immigration altogether through reforms
• Expanding opportunities for immigrants

Often in the United States, immigration reform attempts to deal with the significant number of illegal immigrants already inside the United States. Offering such individuals paths to citizenship can be highly controversial, decried as amnesty, while simply promising to deport any and all illegal immigrants may prove popular in theory, but impossible in practice.

Immigration reform in the United States is an umbrella term to "fix" a "broken" system. Politicians on both sides of the spectrum have offered immigration reform efforts, to the point that offering to fix a broken system appears to be the norm. Many believe that immigration reform efforts should work to reduce the financial burden on providing services, including healthcare, education, and incarceration, to illegal immigrants.

The United States was built on the backs of immigrants from European countries. And, while the U.S. has traditionally had the most open immigration policy of any of the industrialized nations, for over a century there has been a process for becoming a U.S. citizen. But, many of the immigrants of today choose to bypass the legal means of becoming residents and citizens of the United States. Instead, they choose to sneak across the southern border of the U.S. on foot or by vehicle or come by boat to U.S. waters off southern states like Florida hoping to make it to the U.S. mainland.

Immigration into the U.S. has peaked at various times in U.S. history. The first wave of immigration occurred in the 1880s and led to the creation of the Immigration Service in 1891. Following World War I, there was another wave of immigration from European countries, which led to new legislation.

However, the quota system was replaced in 1965 by a "preference system designed to unite immigrant families and attract skilled immigrants to the United States". This system has a seven-category test designed to determine who would be admitted to the U.S. However, this system also increased the number of immigrants which did not include family members of U.S. citizen.

Since 1965, there have been numerous revisions to the U.S. immigration policy, including some designed specifically to identify and deport illegal immigrants. In addition, Congress and many U.S. states have passed acts that limit access to social services and education to those who are in the U.S. illegally.

But nothing brought immigration issues to the center of public attention like the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001. When it was revealed that the terrorists had been in the U.S. on student visas, some of those visas expired, enforcement became much more important than it had been in the past-became an issue of national security.

However, despite the attack and the focus on national security, many politicians still do not realize the impact of illegal immigrants on American society-particularly on the national economy. These politicians argue that American businesses need these illegal immigrants, that the illegals are not taking jobs away from Americans, but are instead doing jobs Americans do not want to do.

Also, many of the immigrants coming into the U.S. are not doing low-paying unskilled work, but are instead professional or technical workers who are being hired by software and other technology companies. These immigrants are being given preference over American citizens, despite a process that is supposed to assure that American workers are not displaced by these foreign workers. These workers enter the U.S. sponsored by various employers.