Gautam 1

Bhupal Gautam

Brandon Alva

English 2010

1st May, 2018

Immigration: Boon or Curse

United States has been adopting different forms of immigration since its beginning.

Immigrants has played vital role in the US economy to maintain an integrated and dynamic

society which fulfills the demands of labor and promote economy. There is no doubt the United

States is formed by immigrants. In different periods of time, it shaped the vast landscape and has

been adopting dynamic culture and society. It is believed that immigrants and refugees are not

only consumers but they are entrepreneurs, job creators, and taxpayers. Many modern countries

are characterized by a wide variety of cultures and ethnicities that have derived from

immigration. A lot of evidence indicates that present patterns of immigration have balanced the

society by providing economic, cultural, and ethnical help to create prosperous, as well as

multidimensional society. Studies have shown that immigrants contribute trillions of dollars to

the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). “Immigrants earned $1.3 trillion and contributed

$105 billion in state and local taxes and nearly $224 billion in federal taxes in 2014” (Tan &

Marshall 2017). It proves that immigrants are most important part of the US economy which help

to run the economy smoothly.

In many aspects, we are relying on immigrants, such as providing steady cheap labor for

consumer products supply. Immigrants are cheap and dependable labor force at their work which
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helps to reduce the cost of production. “Studies have found that the labor-market effects of

unskilled immigrants are probably small but that they may be significant in particular industries

and areas, such as the agriculture, construction, garment or meatpacking industries. Agriculture

is probably the US industry most dependent on immigrant workers.” (Martin and Midgley 2003).

If someone comes into the United States, they are not a problem for the country, since

they help with economic growth, provide cultural diversity, and social integrity. Immigrants tend

to be a more reliable labor force because they have a better work ethic and stronger motivation to

work. Immigrants could be the valuable assets of this country if they are properly managed. Pro-

immigrants are convinced that legalization of undocumented immigrants has helped to boost the

overall national economy. “Nearly 55 percent immigrants have bought cars, some 12 percent

have bought homes, and 6 percent have launched businesses that create jobs for U.S. citizens.

They provide a direct economic benefit to our communities and the nation as a whole.”

(Napolitano 2017)

Santa Rai is a former Bhutanese Refugee, who lives in Salt Lake City. Along with his

family, he was forcefully banished from Bhutan in Early 1990s. He spent two miserable decades

in Bhutanese Refugee Camp in Nepal and was relocated in Salt Lake City in 2008. He did not

have any idea about anything at the beginning. Coincidently, he began working in an Indian

restaurant and learned some ideas about restaurant management. After six years of intensive

work in restaurant industry, he began his own restaurant. Now, he is making substantial amounts

of money running family-owned restaurant. Devi Timsina, suffered the same fate and was also

arrived in Salt Lake City where she successfully owns an eyebrow threading parlor. She has

three employees in her business and makes decent money. She paid above $8,000 when she filed

her last year taxes. Her family relocated in Salt Lake City from Nepal in 2010. Recently, she is
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planning to buy a house. Tashi is a Tibetan refugee, relocated in Salt Lake City in 2011, and has

been pursuing his nursing degree at the University of Utah. He is in the last semester. “I chose

nursing because it is easy to get a job and make decent money.” He said. John Phiri, a former

refugee from South Sudan has transportation related business. He drives taxi in Salt Lake City

International Airport and makes good money. He has two fellow drivers, who work for him, and

he is planning to buy another vehicle for his taxi business soon. He didn’t want to talk about his

past because he had endured insurgency and lost many family members back in South Sudan.

Santa, Devi, Tashi, and John are only representative characters of the whole refugee immigrant

community in the country. The reality is that the majority of immigrants have achieved

successful careers either in economic or educational sector. Pro-immigrants claim that it is due to

the hard-working nature and strong work ethics of immigrants.

Tara Acharya, an immigration officer in International Rescue Committee says that many

refugees endure a hard assimilation process at the beginning, but within expected period of time

(six months from resettlement) above eighty percent of resettled refugees are self-reliant. “We

regularly follow-up with them until they finally become self-dependent. We provide job training,

interpreter service, and encourage them to integrate into the society, our motto is to make them

independent.” He said. Karan Chettri, the general secretary of Bhutanese Community of Utah

(BCU) revealed the fact that there are 643 Bhutanese Refugee families live in Salt Lake City;

more than 40 percent of Bhutanese refugee own house, and most of the families have at least one

vehicle.

Most of the above mentioned facts about refugee indicates that majority of refugees have

succeeded in economic aspects. Many employers believe that it is due to the good work ethic,

hard-working nature, and shared lifestyle of refugee people. Iraj Niknam, General Manager of
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Motel 6, Central has twelve immigrant employees. He himself is a former refugee from Iran and

has very good experience regarding immigrants. He says- “Hospitality business provides flexible

work schedules in most cases, immigrants happily accept the flexible working schedules and are

flexible in work.”

Tim Henderson, in his article “In More States, Newest Immigrants Are Educated Asians”

reveals that Mexico was the most common country of newly arrived immigrants until a decade

ago, but now the numbers reflect a significant decline in Mexican immigration since 2005 and

dramatic shift toward Asia, especially China and India. Much of the shift can be attributed to

economic reasons. A booming job market for people with technical and scientific skills has

drawn increasing numbers of immigrants from India and China. Students from India and China

who comes to study in the US are likely to find jobs here after they graduate. Today's newest

immigrants are more likely to arrive legally and with college degrees than a decade ago. He

further writes- “New arrivals may be older businessmen, while younger arrivals tend to work in

engineering and science” (Henderson 2016). He believes that Asians are likely to keep coming as

long as the US economy continues to improve and jobs for college-educated immigrants are

created. They certainly help the nation making greater connections to a wider global economy

given the variety of countries they are coming from. Studied has proved that skilled immigrants

into the country is like getting something for nothing; they are heavily discounted one. They pay

more taxes than the get benefits and boost economy by running a lot of big enterprises. “More

than half of Silicon Valley’s current billion-dollar enterprises start-ups are founded by

immigrants. Two thirds to three quarters of CEOs in Silicon Valley enterprises are from Asia”

(Brien 2016). At the beginning, immigrants created America, and now they are making America

richer and stronger by creating jobs and running big companies. America is a place where you
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can conceive an idea and turn it into a reality no matter what language you speak or what religion

you follow.

Pro-immigrants think anti-immigration voice in United States is loud and clear in recent

days even from the administration but we don’t have to forget the most important reality that

immigrants have been contributing for the nation since the country was formed. Many politicians

including public still believe that increasing anti-immigration sentiment is against our ancestor’s

ideology that all men and women are created equal. They further say anti-immigrant sentiment is

a kind of bias which is Trump administration’s ideological flaw underestimating the contribution

of immigrants in this country. “If we take international context, more than twenty percent of

Canada’s population and nearly thirty percent of Australia’s population are not native born.”

(Hunt 2017) Therefore, immigration is not a problem to those countries but a boon. Is the Syrian

crisis an outcome of immigration? Is Afghanistan’s war an outcome of immigrants? Off course

not. Most important things regarding immigration is the management of population.

In “White House Pushes Link between Immigrants and Crime,” Beth Reinhard and

Vishwanatha Aruna reveals the fact that Trump administration has claimed that illegal

immigrants especially from central America have been promoting crime through a notorious

gang MS-13, which has flourished under the Obama administration. They further claim that

President Donald Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and secretory of Department of

Homeland Security John Kelly has claimed to control illegal activities and improve public safety.

Some of the law enforcement officers have agreed with the Trump administration’s claim that

crime rate has declined substantially despite increment in handful big cities. But many studies

have disclosed the fact that immigrants commit less crime than native-born Americans.
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The United States has played a prominent role in most of the international forums. Our

role to promote democratic values, human right, peace, and stability of the world sometimes

guide us to shelter some people from the outside world. We have been adopting some refugees

and accepting some political asylums to achieve our long-term goal. It eventually benefits our

nation to adopt integrity, cultural diversity, human right, and progressive democratic norms.

Nothing is flawless. It is also applied in the case of immigration. We have been facing

many socio-economic, demographic as well as cultural issues such as: rapid population growth,

unemployment, human trafficking, smuggling, illegal drug trade, etc. It is believed that

unregulated immigration has promoted these up to some extent. “The Facts on Immigration

Today: 2017 Edition” states that there are approximately 43.3 million foreign born people live in

United States where 11.1 million are unauthorized migrants. It is argued that unregulated

immigration has encouraged human trafficking, smuggling, drug trade, and promotion of illegal

and underworld enterprises. “With an estimated 60,000 Latino gang members in more than 450

gangs in Los Angeles County, authorities say, an agreement to work together for financial gain

would be the underworld's version of the ultimate free-trade accord.” (Lopez 1993). Many kids

and illegal immigrants are involved in gangs. If the population growth rate is not regulated, the

caring capacity of the country will be exceeded soon. Studies have revealed that there is direct

relation between immigration and crime. Therefore, we can argue that immigrants are

responsible for US population increase, human trafficking, smuggling, drug trade, promotion of

illegal, and underworld enterprises. At the same time if we study the economic growth trend,

population has increased in balance ratio with an increment in US economy.

It is said that illegal migration across the border, criminal activities associated with drugs

and human trafficking are challenging issues to be solved rather than existing undocumented
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immigrants. Voices are elevated in the United States that the US should legalize hard-hit families

from natural disaster who have been living and working in America. This merciful act helped

them to relieve the suffering from a natural disaster. In the context of El-Salvadorian immigrants,

current anti-immigration voice is wrong to break up so many families even though their children

are Americans. We have ten to fifteen million undocumented immigrants where Salvadorians,

which make up a tiny fraction of it. Immigrants have become a part of American life.

Immigration is natural phenomenon, and has been in existence since the evolution of

human beings. It is human nature that they want to migrate to the place where more pulling

factors exist. In the modern world, economic opportunities, safety, and freedom are major

pulling factors in the place of destination, and worse situations in the same aspects in the place of

origin are pushing factors. Since more pulling factors are available in United States, people

around the globe want to come here. US policies should manage immigrants in a proper way that

benefits the entire nation. My study has revealed the fact that in a short period of time

immigrants have achieved significant economic and educational success in the USA. It might

exemplify the fact human beings can be adopted into a new environment no matter of language,

religion, or ethnic background.

Hundreds of thousands of immigrant families have legally called America home for

decades and are not actual problem of United States. By welcoming and legalizing them, the

United States renews its democracy and its economy. It helps to preserve or restore stability in

unstable regions of the world, and builds respect. Amid the world's worst migrant crisis, the

Trump administration is cutting back on refugee resettlement. The Trump administration's cuts to

resettlement and closing the door on refugees is a significant strategic blunder. It endorses the

propaganda of the Islamic State and other extremist groups, which claims that the United States
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is hostile to Muslims. Refugees are victims of extremist groups and brutal governments. They

become patriotic and hard-working Americans. Various studies have revealed that refugees are a

net benefit to the American economy.

Immigration is a long and varied process and has resulted in the development of

multicultural and dynamic societies. Many modern countries are characterized by a wide variety

of cultures and ethnicities that have derived from immigration. United States is one of them

which advocates free trade, human rights, democracy, freedom and so on in international forum.

To implement those norms in the world, situations require to adopt many forms of immigration

in the country. If we believe America becomes stronger through families, we must provide

something meaningful for them, but anti-immigrant sentiment and using force against them is

never be a good idea. As global superpower, the US should not hesitate to adopt immigrants who

are in our favor, but it doesn’t mean “let’s open the borders.” My debate is to manage

immigrants by not banning them totally.

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Work Cited

Henderson, Tim. "In More States, Newest Immigrants are Educated Asians." stateline.org, 14
Mar, 2016, SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks-sirs-com.libprox1.slcc.edu.
Hunt, Elle. “Barely Half of Population Born in Australia to Australian-Born Parents.” The

Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 26 June 2017, www.theguardian.com/australia-

news/2017/jun/27/australia-reaches-tipping-point-with-quarter-of-population-born-overseas.

Kasich, John, and Bush Jeb Jr. "Trump's Bad Idea on Immigration." New York Times, 12 Jan,
2018, pp. A. 23., SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks-sirs-com.libprox1.slcc.edu.
Lopez, Robert J., and Jesse Katz. "Mexican Mafia Tells Gangs to Halt Drive-Bys." Los Angeles

Times (Los Angeles, CA), 26 Sep, 1993, pp. A1+, SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks-sirs-

com.libprox1.slcc.edu.

Martin, Philip, and Elizabeth Midgley. "Immigration: Shaping and Reshaping

America." Population Bulletin, Jun, 2003, pp. 3. SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks-sirs-

com.libprox1.slcc.edu.

Napolitano, Janet. "We all Benefit if we Protect the 'Dreamers'." Washington Post, 13 Aug,

2017, pp. A.21, SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks.sirs.com.

O'Brien, Matt. "Who's Afraid of Highly Skilled Immigrants?" Washington Post, 18 Nov, 2016,

pp. A.20, SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks-sirs-com.libprox1.slcc.edu.

Reinhard, Beth, and Aruna Viswanatha. "White House Pushes Link between Immigrants and

Crime." Wall Street Journal Online, 18 Apr, 2017, SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks-sirs-

com.libprox1.slcc.edu

Tan, Avianne, and Serena Marshall. “Without Immigrants, the US Economy Would Be a
'Disaster,' Experts Say.” ABC News, ABC News Network, 16 Feb. 2017,
abcnews.go.com/US/immigrants-us-economy-disaster-experts/story?id=45533028.