Illegal Immigration: A positive economic contribution to the United States.

                        Illegal Immigration: A positive economic contribution to the United States.

  

It is difficult to be an immigrant. Lately on the news there have many hard talks given by anti-immigrants lamenting their presence due to the high crime they’re responsible while living in the U.S. and for and for the economic burden it is thought they present to the economy. Kids of illegal immigrants experience discrimination and isolation because of the stereotype notion that assumes that they are responsible for the unstable economy America is facing.  Parents have been concerned about the risks they feel their kids are exposed, especially in junior and high school where hate crimes are becoming more frequent.  

Many anti-immigrants believe that illegal immigrants are an imposed economic burden and that the government should simply “throw them out of the Country and back into their home land”. While certainly the unpaid costs for the use of public services provided to millions of Illegal immigrants are elevated, the positive contribution they provide is believed to offset the cost of expenditures.

When examining the issue of illegal immigration in the U.S., many contemporary economic theorists have focused on the negative economic effect illegal immigration has on the labour market. These critics have argue that significant numbers of illegal immigrants harm the economy by displacing low-skilled natives, depressing wages and neutralizing market pressures that would otherwise result in a rising trend in wages.  On the other hand, scholars have argued that illegal immigrants perform jobs that no US worker will fill; as a result, these scholars hold that reducing the illegal immigrant population would be devastating to the US economy.  Undocumented immigrants do not compete for the jobs of native US workers and that a continued flow of undocumented immigrants would benefit the majority of persons residing in the US by complementing their labour market position instead of competing for it. Since native and illegal immigrants do not compete in the same sector for the same jobs, illegal immigration provides benefits not only to capital but also to all native workers. Also, illegal immigrants have positive effects on all participants in the US economy by decreasing consumer costs. As low-wage undocumented workers immigrate to the US and fill the secondary labor market, products and services become cheaper because illegal immigrants work for lower wages, thus providing a kind of subsidy to American consumers. For instance, a significant portion of US farm workers are illegal immigrants who generally work for lower wages. As a result, the Agriculture Departments Economic Research Branch has found that American consumers pay less for food than the citizens of any other industrialized country.

It is estimated that 90 per cent of the wages that the undocumented population earns are currently spent inside the US. As a result, the total consumptive capacity of illegal immigrants remaining in the US is around $450 billion.

It is also important to examine whether undocumented residents in the United States receive more in publicly provided social services than they pay for taxes.

Illegal immigrants impose costs on government that include enrollment in public schools, and the use of emergency health services.  Many illegal immigrants pay payroll taxes, such as Social Security that are automatically subtracted from their pay and excise taxes that are incorporated into the prices of goods such as fuel.

So do illegal immigrants’ tax contributions actually pay for the fiscal cost that they generate?  The Washington Post reports that, between 1990 and 1998 more than $20 billion was unaccounted for in the Social Security fund; that government believes that a significant portion of this payment came from illegal immigrants who gave their employers false Social Security numbers.

It is unfortunate that because of misconception and false information so much hatred and unjustice is brought upon the lives of many illegal immigrants. Not only their contributions to the economy of the United States offset their costs for the use of public and emergency health services, but it is proven that their presence is essential for the very economic stability of this Country.

Ramanujan, N. (2009, July, 6 ). Illegal Immigration: A positive economic contribution to

the United States. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. Retrieved on 11/4/2010 from

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