Immigrating to the United States of America Pablo Oropin

BS Computer Engineering BS Computer Science Harding University poropin@harding.edu April 3rd 2007

The United States of America has become the country that accepts more immigrants than any other country in the world (Peng). Many factors such as personal freedom, financial prosperity, and political stabilization make the US an attraction for immigrants. As foreign population increases in the US due to immigration, the public has started to focus on legislation to regulate legal and illegal immigration, which makes it harder for foreigners to come to this country. Coming to the U.S. legally is a journey that requires patience, money, and perseverance; coming to U.S illegally, however, is a risky, difficult, and dangerous adventure that immigrants are encouraged to take in order to fulfill their dreams. All waves of immigration (English, German and Irish, Italian and Polish, and Hispanic people) that have come to the U.S both legally and illegally have in common the motivator that they look for a better life. Immigrating to the U.S.A., then, is a way of improving the status quo of immigrants who come to this country because it allows them to escape from their religious, political, and economic reality of their fatherland at the same time that it brings benefits for this country. Even though immigrants come to America to escape from religious or political persecution, at present, [their] motive [is] primarily economic (Jenks 10-11). According to Dr. Kevin Klein, the primary reason to immigrate to the U.S. is also the economic one integrated with beliefs and personal freedom to accomplish liberty in the abstract. In other words, what he meant was that this country offers the opportunity to increase financial prosperity for immigrants and, therefore, the chance to reach freedom of conscious: liberty in the abstract. For instance, thirty years ago this writers grandmother, Gloria Oliva, decided to immigrate to this country. Guatemala, where she is from, at that time was politically unstable, which caused many people from the public to be persecuted when they disagreed with government authorities. She wanted to escape from that political persecution by leaving Guatemala. Nevertheless, her main reason to leave Guatemala was the economic one. She wanted all her children to have an education, but she did not have the means to

accomplish this back in Guatemala. After coming to the United States and getting a job, she could afford to pay for her sons education and needs. By giving her sons what they needed, she got a relief in her life: freedom of conscious. This movement of non-residents, like Gloria Oliva, to the United States has caused problems regarding religion, race, ethnicity, economic benefits, levels of criminality, nationalities, and job opportunities for this country. As Dr. Jeremiah Jenks stated: Immigration of foreigners into the United States has been long recognized as one of our important social and political problems (2). Although immigration has caused problems socially and politically in the U.S., it has also caused positive effects because it has been a major source of growth and cultural enrichment for this country. Throughout history, immigration has brought a self-selecting group of individuals who are the most motivated and capable in their home countries [] and it is the host country of those individuals the one that benefits (Klein). Immigrants are usually the most energetic and capable persons in their countries of origin, and when they decide to come to the U.S. is because they have a positive view about it; thus, immigrants bring benefits for the U.S. Furthermore, this country has plenty of work that needs to be done. This labor is necessary and the foreigners do it uncomplainingly because they possess qualities which have them admirably suited for the coarse work America needs done (Roberts 350). Dr. Roberts points out that some of these qualities that immigrants have are common sense, meekness, patience, submission, docility, and gratitude (350). To this qualities immigrants have, add the positive view that they have about the U.S. plus the fact that they are usually the most capable in their countries of origin, then the result is cultural enrichment and a major source of economic growth for this country. In order to obtain the most out of immigration so that this country gets more cultural enrichment and economic growth, and for immigrants to fulfill all their dreams, Congress needs to discuss and do more legislation concerning this matter. Congress needs to be able to keep population

synchronized so that immigrants can assimilate American ideals and culture. From Dr. Kleins perspective, to synchronize population there should a ratio of 15% or less immigrants versus 85% or more Americans. This proportion is enough so that immigrants can absorb and assimilate American culture and the American political system would not be affected by them. Dr. Klein mentioned that in the 1840s the German and Irish waves of immigration reached almost 15% of the total population which was causing the American political system to be unstable. However, the level of German and Irish immigrants dropped below 15% due to the World War II. A similar situation happened in the 1920s: the immigration of southern and eastern Europeans reached about 15% of the total population in the US, which caused some problems in the American political system. The percentage of Europeans immigrants also dropped below 15% during the Great Depression of 1929. Currently, according to the 2004 Year Book of Immigration Statistics, 34,860,000 (approximately 11.68%) of the total US population, 298,444,215 (World Factbook 2007), are immigrants (156). Thus, Congress has to regulate immigration in such way that the percentage of immigrants does not reach more than 15% of the total population; this way, immigrants are benefited by being able to assimilate American culture and ideals at the same time that this country is benefited by keeping its strong political system. To regulate immigration in order to keep the US population synchronized, Congress needs to do some legislation on legal and illegal immigration so that living in the USA would be fair for both immigrants and Americans. In the one hand, illegal immigrants are those people who live in this country, but they do not possess any U.S. government issued documents that allow them to live here. They are vulnerable and generally victimized because they are not under the protection of the U.S. law. This type of immigrants can be abused in their work places and they usually do not go to the police because they are afraid to be deported. Thus, Congress has to invest in making the U.S. borders stronger to avoid illegal immigrants to come in and to extend the protection of law. By securing this countrys borders, the U.S. government will be more able to control the percentage of immigrants coming to this country as well as not letting potential illegal immigrants to be abused. However, for the illegal immigrants already living in this country, Congress does not have many options to regulate them. Even though they can voluntarily return to their home countries, most of them will not do this. Congress then, should spend more money to educate those immigrants in order to have more capable persons living in this country.

Congress can open centers [] where immigrants could be taught, [and this] would do more for illegal foreigners in one year, than ten years of legislative inhibition [] (Roberts 355). On the other hand, legal immigrants are those people who come to the US with government issued documents that allow them to live and work in this country. They are not considered US citizens because in order to become so they must be persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States (Konvitz 133). To regulate this type of immigrants, Congress should establish a specific amount of people that can come from each country in the world based upon the proportion of 15% or less immigrants out of the total U.S. population. Those regulations of immigration that Congress needs to discuss, makes it harder for immigrants to come to this country. However, it is important that both Americans and immigrants have fair chances to improve their quality of life. Immigrants when leaving their countries of origin, they also leave everything familiar such as their family, their culture, and their friends. When they arrive to the U.S.A, they will face many uncertainties about finding a job, a place to live, new laws, new ideals, and new language. The more immigrants arrive to this country, the more competence for job opportunities there will be for Americans. The role that Congress needs to play to maintain balanced the percentage of immigrants versus the total U.S. population is important because it will allows nonresidents to face all of their uncertainties and assimilate Americans beliefs and ideals easily so that they can improve their quality of life with less obstacles and faster. Furthermore, this synchronization of the U.S.A. population allows Americans to keep having good chances for job opportunities as immigrants while still come in. In the long run, immigrants decide to leave their fatherland and come to the U.S.A to escape from their religious, political, and economic reality of their countries of origin. The United States offers them the opportunity to improve their lives and help their families, like Gloria Oliva who could help their children to have an education at the same time that she improved her status quo. This movement of nonresidents to the U.S. does not bring benefits for them only; it also brings benefits for this country as long as the proportion of immigrants is 15% or less than the total population. Congress has to put more efforts to keep this ratio in the population by regulating legal and illegal immigrants. As the U.S. population is kept this way, immigration will continue to be a mean to improve immigrants lives and to benefit this country.

REFERENCES [1] Chertoff, Michael. 2004 Year Book of Immigration Statistics. January 2006. 22 March 2007 <http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/statistics/ yearbook/2004/Yearbook2004.pdf>. [2] Jenks, Jeremiah. The Immigration Problem: A Study of American Immigration Conditions and Needs. New York: Funk and Wagnall Company, 1992. [3] Klein, Kevin. Personal Interview. 23 March 2007. [4] Konvitz, Milton. Civil Rights in Immigration. New York: Cornel U.P., 1953. [5] Peng, Nie. U.S. Population Hits 300 Million. 12 February 2007 <http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/200610/17/content_5215770.htm >. [6] Roberts, Peter. The New Immigration. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1913. [7] World Factkbook 2007. 29 March 2007 <https://www.cia.gov/cia/ publications/factbook/print/us.html>.