Immigrants Are Beneficial to American Society 

There has been an ongoing debate about America’s immigration system that the power to shake our whole country. There’s the side that treats everyone who comes into this country with a dream as an equal and will go to extreme lengths to fight for their equality, but there’s also a side that believes that letting immigrants into our country will be detrimental to the working class and also think that we need to tighten our border restrictions. People can argue that letting immigrants into America will cause unemployment, overpopulation, and a rise in crime rates. The reality is that immigrants actually help fuel our economy, create more jobs, create successful business startups, and deserve the right to start a life here if they want to. With the help of our government officials, we can fight for immigrants equality and improve the system. Our history of letting immigrants into America can trace back to hundreds of years ago.

The first colonies were made up of people from Great Britain, that means the first people to ever come here were immigrants too, yet we treat them as heroes. “ Mexican immigration is best characterized as the movement of unskilled workers toiling in agriculture, railroad construction, and mineral extraction” (Gutiérrez). Immigration has been seen throughout history for hundreds of years, but in the early 20th century, Mexicans suddenly marked themselves as skilled workers. finding information about some of America's first Mexican immigrants is difficult because you can't argue if their presence in the workforce was bad for other Americans because the border control was very loose back then. From another source, “Mexican American culture will likely continue to shape U. S. life in language, politics, food, and daily living and will help define the nation's identity for a new century. ” (Immigration). This is also a beneficial factor to why letting more Immigrants into the states can help diversify us. It’s good to know that we can possibly because a country that values diversity and change throughout the years if we can become more accepting of their traditional values. One of the main reasons American are scared of letting a surplus of immigrant into our country is because they fear that they’re taking jobs away from American citizens who don’t make a much and also only obtain a high school diploma. “Mexican immigrants are responsible for 18% of our gross domestic product in agriculture, forestry or fishing. ” (Noorani). Although immigrants are known for participating in jobs like housekeeping, lawn services, or construction, they boost production and most of the time end up with their own business. To be more exact, more than 40% of Fortune 500 companies are founded by immigrants.

Let's face it, immigrants who come into this country undocumented or documented are willing to put up with the hard work that doesn’t require a high school or college diploma. This alone impacts the working industry beneficial because they’ve added an estimated $2 trillion to the US GDP in 2016. “As Baby Boomers retire en masse over the next 20 years, immigrants will be crucial to filling these job openings and promoting the growth of the labor market. (Nicholson). Baby Boomers are coming toward their retirement age, which means the ones working in the labor force are either starting to quit or reporting disability like seeing, hearing, walking, or even thinking. This is good for immigrants because it provides more room in the labor force without them having to harm anyone who needs the job more than them. Americans suspect that if we allowed more immigrants into the States, crime rates will skyrocket. Turns out, that's actually not true at all. “In 2015, criminal conviction and arrest rates in Texas for undocumented immigrants were lower than those of native-born Americans for murder, sexual assault, and larceny. ” (Burnett). It’s been proven that native-born citizens of the united states are more likely to commit crimes like kidnapping, gambling, smuggling, or vagrancy. Undocumented immigrants are less likely to commit crime than native-born citizens, with immigrants living legally in the United States are even less likely. Supporting the facts that illegal or legal immigrants doesn’t mean higher crime rates. “Immigrant populations in the United States have been growing fast for decades now. Crime in the same period, however, has moved in the opposite direction, with the national rate of violent crime today well below what it was in 1980. ” (Flagg). Most Americans can argue that all immigrants cause crime, more studies can prove it wrong.

According to the provided data, the amount of immigration in certain places has become a larger population since 1980, but with that larger population brings less crime. This retaliates that either more immigration can lead to less crime, or the two aren’t even related at all. “President Donald Trump said it’s “not true” that immigrants in the U. S. illegally are “safer than the people that live in the country,” providing several crime statistics he claimed represented the “toll of illegal immigration. ” (Farley) A large percentage of Americans are trump fans, which means that they’re more likely to believe what he thinks. Trump obviously has his own opinions about immigration, and he could make them sound as bad as he wants, and people will believe him because he’s our president. According to the Kauffman Foundation, immigrants are well known for starting new businesses in America. “The Hamilton Project notes that U. S. immigrants are 30 percent more likely to start a new business and three times more likely to file patents than American-born citizens. ” (Kidder). America's new immigrant entrepreneurs have helped create some of the worlds biggest companies because they’re able to bring fresh ideas for business to the table. A good example I found about this would have to be Thomas Peterffy, who arrived in the states in 1965 without a single penny is now the CEO chairman of Interactive Brokers and has a net worth of around 18. 6 billion. “18% of America’s largest companies were started by immigrants. A further 22% were founded by children of immigrants. ” (Stadler).

These statistics are very shocking to most because most of the American society views immigrants (especially from Mexico) as people who couldn't obtain even a college degree. I personally find this astonishing because not a lot of people would even think that some of the biggest corporations were started by immigrants or their children. Even after years of letting people from other countries into the states, not a lot of people really take the time to see if the antagonizing statements are even true. “The people who support the deportation of undocumented immigrant parents with no criminal records still think we are all rapists or gang members. They don’t see the good. We work hard. ” (Pinos). There’s the common misconception that all immigrants are criminals who come here to steal jobs and commit crimes.

A vast majority travel and permanently reside in the states to lead a good life. People can have their own opinions, but at the end of the day, you couldn’t even imagine what it's like to come here and be hated because you're from another country. “Yet despite the clearly established principle that discrimination and abuse based on immigration status are violations of human rights, U. S. government policies continue to sanction human rights violations against migrants and im­migrants. ” (Human Rights and Immigration). It is a human right that discrimination among where your form is a violation of our human rights, yet immigrants are the ones “violating” them because they simply just had a whole new outlook on life and decided to start a new one in another country. I find this little fact disturbing because I believe that everyone who enters a country that is apart of the UDHR should be born with these rights.

Although there is the other realistic standpoint that immigration is bad for many reasons. Some like overpopulation, loss of jobs for citizens, and loss of tax revenue. “In light of the fact that illegal immigrants are usually ready to work on lowest pay, they take away jobs meant for locals. You should also be alive to the fact that all natives deserve the jobs before legal or undocumented immigrants. ” (What is Illegal Immigration). This article brings out a lot of real facts. Yes, immigrants (documented or undocumented), come into this country and go for the jobs that are lower salary and yes, in a way they do affect the lower class’ salary. Immigrants normally go for jobs like this because they only require a high school diploma, and there’s no language barrier. “Employing illegal immigrants means the employer gets away without paying requisite taxes. This leads to significant savings. And consumers could end up enjoying cheaper products and services, thanks to lowers costs of production. ” (What is Illegal Immigration). In other words, people can handle an illegal business where the workers are undocumented immigrants. This means that, while the immigrants aren’t paying taxes to avoid getting caught, the employers are receiving a large amount of money while not having to pay taxes.

Obviously, this can become a serious issue for government programs because a project that they’re currently working on can be stalled due to low amounts of tax revenue. Like I said before, not enough Americans look into the hard facts, they just choose to believe what other opinionated Americans have to say. “Between 2009-2012, the number of undocumented workers fell by 40%, which cause the GDP (gross domestic product) on average to drop by 2% every year. ” (Fiorentini). It’s pretty obvious that undocumented workers make up a large percent of the labor force, but take those workers away, then you’ll start to develop a problem. This has actually affected some employers who have lost legal employees because their undocumented family members get deported. Especially if they reside in a state with strict immigration laws because they’ll move to another place that may feel more tolerant towards immigrants. “The end result is that undocumented immigrants are paying billions of dollars each year in taxes. Moreover, as several studies have found, undocumented immigrants would earn much more, and therefore pay much more in taxes, if they had some sort of legal status, be it permanent or temporary. ” (Adding Up the Billions in Tax Dollars Paid by Undocumented Immigrants). It is highly impossible for someone to be able to own a home, and not pay a property tax. The same thing goes for buying groceries, you’ll need to pay a sales tax.

I feel like there’s no need to argue about it, immigrants pay taxes. To be more exact, $7 billion in sales, $1. 1 billion in income, and $3. 6 billion in the property. Helping people become more tolerant towards immigrants is a slow battle, but can hopefully become less of a prominent issue. “There is a great deal of misinformation about the impact of immigration. Policymakers and the public need to be educated about the facts. . ” (Immigration Myths and Facts). There is no way you can feed the information I’ve provided to you into everyone who currently resides in the United States, that’s unrealistic. But maybe slowly we can work on helping society learn about it. It’s just not realistic to see 300 billion Americans suddenly accept immigrants with open arms. There are people who live here that have negative viewpoints towards immigration and it’s gonna be tough to change their minds, but the worlds changing and we're all becoming more diverse, so it’s only a matter of time until they accept fate. Despite the president’s anti-immigration message, three in four Americans say immigration is generally good for the nation, according to Gallup, the polling organization. ” (Chokshi).

People are already starting movements towards making immigration more tolerant among the youth. It has been found in recent polls conducted in the summer of 2018 that more people have turned into pro-immigration ever since children were forcefully separated from their parents back in June. Living in a society full of hate towards dreamers and families that come over here risking everything they have is repulsing. In my eyes, immigrants are human and deserve to be treated like one. Although a portion of American citizens can still argue that immigrants are detrimental to our society, immigrants are highly beneficial for the working class and contribute a lot to our society. Immigrants help pay taxes, create a large GDP, and are some of the most creative when it comes to being an entrepreneur. Immigrants are willing to lay their life down and sacrifice their old life for a new one because of the hardships they’ve dealt with in their old countries. It’s important to remember that most people, including me, could never understand the day to day struggles that immigrants go through. They’re terrorized, overworked, scared that if they leave their house, someone will deport them, and just commonly misunderstood. This was hands down, one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to write because I was scared (and still am) that I’d get everything wrong, and would fail to justify hard-working immigrants that live in America. America is still looked upon as the land of opportunities, and that’s the main reason they want to permanently settle here. I just hope that the youth can learn to tolerate people from that come from other countries for the future because deep down we're all equal individuals who are no different no matter what nationality or race.