Does Immigration Contribute to a Better America free essay sample

He stressed the ramifications of the â€Å"demographic mutation† (pg 40) that America is undergoing and the fear that this country will become a â€Å"freak† (pg 40) among the world’s nations. The Immigration policy is an extremely relevant issue in today’s society. Although, the idea of immigration being a â€Å"crisis† allows for misinterpretation. Many Americans fail to take into consideration the positive effects that a highly diverse country brings to each individual person. Evidence of the social, cultural, national and economical effects indeed show that with the proper regulations and implementations, immigration contributes to a better America. In the words of Phillippe Legrain in The Case for Immigration: The Secret to Economic Vibrancy , the â€Å"potential gains from freer migration are huge† (pg 34). No matter which way the term is looked at, diversity cannot be seen as a bad thing. Having hundreds of thousands of millions of different kinds of people all living in the relatively same environment is a wonderful thing. Immigrants almost all the time take jobs that Americans don not want. Colonists immigrated to the United States voluntarily; they helped mold this country to be what it is today. Colonists put laws and rules into play to create the law and political system we have today. Slaves were brought to this country forcefully, but have had equally if not more of the same impacts as colonists have. Slaves economically molded this country. They did all of the work while their owners took the credit. Most states, especially southern states, have slave foundations, meaning slaves built that state. Slaves built the White House, where are president and his family resides. One of if not the most important building in our country was built by slaves. When slaves were brought to America it was not looked at as immigration, but an economic investment. That is extremely inhumane; but ,why was not it looked at as immigration. Americans are quick to say immigrants are bad for our country, but as soon as immigrants are looked at as beneficial, somehow all of those views are suddenly brushed under the rug or the furthest from our minds. Speaking about today or even tracing back to early immigration, immigrants have always been poor and want nothing but a better life for their family. In the book The Case for Immigration: The Secret to Economic Vibrancy, Phillippe Legrain says â€Å"Immigrants are not an invading army; they are mostly people seeking a better life And just as it is beneficial for people to move from Alabama to California in response to market signals,  so too from Mexico to the United States. † Immigrants come to places like the United States because they aren’t offered good or even mediocre jobs and school opportunities in their native country. Not a lot of countries are fortunate enough as the United States, but as Americans don’t we believe in equal opportunity. Not just equal opportunity for Americans, but equal opportunity for the human race. Why would we say someone couldn’t try to make his or her children have a better life than he or she had? Are we that territorial as Americans where we shut down hopes and dreams based on the marked lines  of latitude and longitude? Are we that shallow? Immigrants whether child or adult deserve a chance to present themselves with or earn a life worth living by their standards. Many Americans argue that their problem isn’t with immigrants but with illegal aliens. The only difference between an immigrant and an illegal alien is an immigrant has identification paper to be in this country and an illegal alien does not. The average cost of a permanent United States visa is up to or over two thousand dollars. The average waiting list for the United States visa can be up to or over ten years not to mention immigrants  have to pass a test proving that they know enough about the United States. Being that most immigrants are already poor they cannot afford to pay for a visa for themselves and especially not their whole family. If someone did come to America as an illegal alien they could never live as a regular citizen. They could never own a home, a car, and it would be extremely difficult to start school or put their children in school. They would constantly be on the run and fear being deported. Americans complain that immigrants are coming to this country and taking our  jobs, but the jobs they work Americans don’t care about or feel as if they are too good to work them. In the book The Case for Immigration: The Secret to Economic Vibrancy, Phillippe Legrain says â€Å"Many (immigrants) are drawn to rich countries such as the United States by the huge demand for workers to fill the low-end jobs that their increasingly well-educated and comfortable citizens do not want† Immigrants are rarely doctors, lawyers or entertainers; for they always do the jobs that Americans feels they are too good for. Immigrants are usually maids, taxi drivers, restaurant workers, construction workers or in the lawn care business. Americans have different perceptions of the American dream. Americans feel the American dream is social success and wealth. We as a country feel as though the American dream for them is to have a job worth bragging about and having money to buy anything they desire. Immigrants see the American dream as being happy and not being extremely poor. They more so see it as being able to give their children a fighting chance in this country with jobs and a chance to live a life they want, while their parents had to live a life forced upon them. Everyone in America has equal opportunity to live the life they want if they work hard enough, shouldn’t  everyone be allotted that oppritunity? In the novel Alien Nation: Common Sense About America’s Immigration Disaster Peter Brimelow states â€Å"Today, U. S. government policy is literally dissolving the people and electing a new one†¦the fact is undeniable†. The government cannot dissolve a people and elect a new one because we are all in fact one people. If different people are coming into political office it better represents our country. The country we live in is made up of many different cultures and races, therefore that should be represented in our government, because our government represents our country to other countries in the  world. The US needs immigrants because they are different, and that something extra they add to the mix enriches the economy, culture and society. For a start, they tend to be enterprising and hard-working, because it takes courage to uproot yourself in search of a better life and because those with the most grit have the most to gain from doing so. Immigrants broaden the range of cultural experiences available in the US, and this mingling of cultures leads to distinctive innovations. An example of an immigrant innovator is India native Shradha Agarwal , who earned a degree in journalism at  Northwestern University in Illinois. She then founded ContextMedia, a health care media company, and positioned it as a â€Å"for-benefit† venture, a profitable enterprise with clear social benefits. Another example is Ashifi Gogo of Ghana is the chief executive officer of Sproxil, a social enterprise that markets Mobile Product Authentication, a technology used to combat the multibillion-dollar fake drug market. Users can use the technology to verify the authenticity of their medication. Sproxil is used in many industries worldwide, including automotive goods. To conclude, immigrants very much so contribute to a better America. Those who come from countries that offer fewer opportunities to their citizens than America does are more willing to do the low-skilled jobs that Americas aging and increasingly wealthy society relies on, but which its increasingly well-educated and comfortable citizens are unwilling to take essential services, such as caring for the young and the old, and cleaning homes, offices and hospitals, that cannot readily be mechanized or imported. Others bring exceptional individual skills that American companies need if they are to compete in a global marketplace. And immigrants collective diversity and dynamism  helps spur innovation and economic growth, because if people who think differently bounce ideas off each other they can solve problems better and faster. Fears that immigrants threaten American workers are based on two fallacies: that there is a fixed number of jobs in the economy, and that foreign workers are direct substitutes for American ones. Just as women did not deprive men of jobs when they entered the labor force in large numbers, foreigners dont steal Americans jobs-they dont just take jobs; they create them too. Immigrants can be just as much Americans as we are. This country was built by immigration and that should be embraced.