As you may have guessed, the subject of today's post will center around the large influx of immigrants to the United States in recent years. Immigrants are individuals who come to live permanently in another country. As a U.S. citizen I and many others have heard our fair share of "anti-immigrant talk" from the government and even citizens. Before I go any further I would like to confess that when I thought of the words "illegal immigrants," the first thing that popped into my mind were Hispanics. I and many others should realize that any person who comes to the United States without the proper paperwork can be considered an "Illegal Immigrant." Polish, Italians, South Africans, Australians, Chinese, Columbians, etc., can all be considered illegal immigrants if they do not have the proper paperwork. I think it is also important to note that the reason 'illegal immigrants' is thought to be synonymous with 'Hispanics' is because the border between the United States and Mexico is not as secure as it should be and many Hispanics may find it easier to sneak into the U.S. instead of doing it legally. I'm not sure the process of sneaking into the U.S. is as easy for say, a Haitian.
Although the idea of illegal immigrants in the U.S. is typically thought of in a negative light, there are many people who like to take advantage of these individuals. By this, I mean business owners take advantage of the circumstances that an illegal immigrant may be in and they may offer the person a job, but at a significantly lower rate of pay than they would pay a U.S. citizen. This is definitely a form of discrimination. Although most illegal immigrants are probably offered much less than the "documented workers," they remain some of the hardest working individuals. They pay taxes (or they should) and they help stimulate the economy by making purchases just like we do. On the other hand, illegal immigrants do not have access to public housing, social security, food stamps, welfare, prenatal care, etc. Yet they still pay into the pool of money used to fund the different governmental programs. Doesn't that seem a bit unfair? The point I want to make is that illegal immigrants are also getting the short end of the stick when it comes to obtaining financial assistance from the government. They get paid the lowest wages imaginable. They pay taxes. They pay the same prices for goods that we do. They go through the same health issues that we do, but yet they don't get any of the benefits that we do. That's sad.
There are the immigration laws and reform bills passed to strengthen our choke hold on immigration. There is talk that we should welcome immigrants with open arms. There is talk that we should do a massive raid and ship them all home. The point here is that although the United States government sees illegal immigration as a problem there is no definite plan about how to go about rectifying the issue.
I'm really unsure about what should be done about illegal immigration. I think it's hard to really address an issue if it hasn't directly affected you yet (I don't think it has?). Anyways, I tend to take a "Let's love and be nice to everybody," standpoint when it comes to situations regarding different groups of people (illegal vs. legal). I have a strong belief that people should be able to travel the world and live wherever they please, but I guess that could be easily done if the correct steps are followed to obtain documents. The illegal immigration topic is a hard one to tackle.
--It was nice working with you all this semester and thanks for all of the comments!!!
Its interesting that we discrminiate so much on the influx of Mexican immigrants, and we forget that most of our ancestors were immigrants at one point and time. I'm happy that we received accurate information regarding such a heated topic in this country today.
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