A10marty

Immigration is defined as the act of moving permanently from one's own home country to a foreign country. When people migrate to a foreign country, although they may not know it, they impact both their country of origin and country of settlement in many ways. Although immigration to the United States is not as popular as immigration to other countries, immigration to the United States is stressed so much more. This would mainly be because of the fact that immigration affects the United States politically, socially, and economically.

Within politics, when it comes to elections, many politicians will advocate their policies depending on their targeted audience. In this case, politicians such as President Barack Obama, who ran for presidency against McCain last year, advocated immigration as crucial within the United States. He did this because he believes, as he stated in his book __Blueprints for Change__, that in order to “//Improve Our Immigration System//: We must fix the dysfunctional immigration bureaucracy and increase the number of legal immigrants to keep families together and meet the demand for jobs that employers cannot fill.” As well, he stated that we can “//Bring People Out of the Shadows//: Allow undocumented immigrants who are in good standing to pay a fine, learn English, and go to the back of the line for the opportunity to become citizens.” Because of the fact that immigration causes cultures to assimilate, socially, this causes the United States to become more diverse. This cultural diversity is beneficial for the United States because within many of these undocumented immigrants lies plenty of natural born talent which could empower the United States. By simply not giving these talented people a chance at achieving their dreams, the reasons why they came here to begin with, like Gordon Crovitz stated, "We turn away 60% of those receiving advanced engineering degrees from American institutions after graduation because they are from foreign lands. This penalizes our growth and employment creation at least as much as if we were to require American companies to make 60% of their capital investments in other countries."

One of the biggest reasons why immigration is stressed so much is because of the believed affect it may or may not have on the United States economically during a recession. Many anti-immigrants stand with the belief that, like Carmen Mercer, Vice President of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps., was quoted in an article in BBC news, “'Illegal immigrants pose a risk to our economy, health and education system,' Carmen Mercer says, arguing that illegal immigrants take away low-wage jobs from students and the unemployed, create extra costs for hospitals, and force schools to adopt Spanish into their curriculum.” This, in fact, is completely false. The only reason why immigrants truly come to the United States is because they want to live the “American Dream,” because immigrants are "drawn by jobs and respond to a sinking labor market by staying away." They want to live the dream that attracts them to the United States through the promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in exchange for their hard labor. All they need is that one job that will allow them to support themselves and their families. By documenting the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants that are already in the United States, and giving all immigrants the same opportunities natural born citizens have, the United States could benefit from the diversity and knowledge of the people. Gordon Crovitz solution to this is very simple in that he had stated that the United States should "stop exporting the greatest part of what is arguably our most precious resource." If the United States continues to deport the immigrants, not only is the nation’s economy missing out on the benefits these immigrants provide us with through their labor and the taxes they pay, but we are loosing a lot of diversity and what makes the United States what it is known to be, an “immigrant nation”.

Overall, from creating social diversity to improving the nation’s economy and rising it from the economic recession, a comprehensive immigration reform will benefit the United States as a whole. Immigration is the foundation of what makes up a country, and what causes a nation to change for the best.