Table of Contents
As we speak today, the US in the main home to the largest population of immigrants. Immigration policy has particularly become an extremely argumentative issue in America. Despite the fact that much of the debate centers on cultural issues, the economic impacts of immigration are clear enough. Jobs to the Americans has ultimately reduced due to the reductions of foreign labor inflows. The bulk of academic research and the economic theory predictions of the US confirmed that wages are unaffected by the immigration over the long-term and so they outlined that the economic impacts of immigration are positive for the citizens and the inclusive economy (Penn Wharton Budget model, 2016). Additionally, research shows that immigrants are at the front position of creativity and innovation in the US, accounting for the disproportionately high share of science and technology graduates, high-ranking positions at top ventures capital-funded businesses and patent filings. Furthermore, immigrants create chances for less-skilled citizen workers to become more and more specialized in their work and thus increasing their productivity (Ruhs & Silva, 2017). They usually advance the government’s financial situation as thousands of these immigrants pay more taxes for the period they stay in the US than they consume in the government services (Penn Wharton Budget model, 2016). They bring more good than harm in the US and so it is advisable that the US government takes care of the like any other citizen. This paper will particularly focus on the social, economic and labor markets impacts of immigrants in the United States.
Social impact of immigration to the United States
Even as America celebrates their heritage as a nation of immigrants, there is deep uncertainty about future immigration. In a population of about 60 million people, more than one- fifth of the population are immigrants and their children. The first and main impact of immigration is demographic. The over 70 million immigrants who have landed in America ever since the founding of the republic are accountable for the majority of the current American population. The population of America has rapidly gone high due to the presence of these immigrants (Institute for Human Sciences, 2016). Most of the Americans have developed a sense of historical connection from the American’s founding, but this is primarily the results of education and socialism, not descent. The one section of the American people with the extensive record of the historical settlement is the African Americans. Additionally, each new movement of immigration to the US has met some degree of popular fear and unfriendliness that the immigrants will not conform to the prevailing American way of life or harm American society (Ruhs & Silva, 2017). The immigrants are viewed as inimical and vicious people, but in the real sense, this is just a propaganda.
Immigrants have also played a significant role together with their children in modern American politics. One of the best examples that can well indicate this is the forming the Roosevelt coalition in the 1930s and once again in the election of John Kennedy (Ruhs & Silva, 2017). The beginnings of the Roosevelt coalition were established in 1928 when AL Smith who was an Irish American on his mother’s side from New York involved the immigrant urban vote to the Democratic Party.
Immigrants were also important in the US in the development of popular American culture, and they also helped to create a new image of immigration in the American mind. Immigrants and their descendants have played a significant part in the American creative arts, including acting in Americans films and plays for most of the first half of the twentieth century, writing, producing and directing. For example, the Hollywood film directors were either the immigrants or their children. Although first and second generation artists immigrants have been nervous to be assimilated into the American society, they have also widened American culture to make it more open and receptive to outsiders (Institute for Human Sciences, 2016).
The United States has at once encountered a shortage of scientific and engineering workers, more so in the high-tech sector. After allowing many endowed foreign students in the American universities to convert their visas to immigrant status, the demand for professional workers was the fulfilled. This was the other social impact of immigration. This rather made the US legalize immigration in spite of political pressures. They knew that many of the immigrants were skilled and so it would a benefit for the country as most of them will help develop the country as workers. American society with all of its failings may offer a model of how immigrants and their siblings have thrived and contributed to the society positively.
The economic impacts of immigration
Immigration makes the US larger in many ways. First, we will see the fiscal impact. Immigrants have a significant impact on the US economy in that they pay a lot of taxes. The taxes paid by immigrants create the government in that it benefits more from the immigrants than how the immigrants consume from the government services as posited by Camarota (2013). The fiscal impact of immigration depends comprehensively on the level of education of the immigrant (Ruhs & Silva, 2017). There is a general agreement that more educated higher-income immigrants are a net fiscal benefit, while the less- educated lower-income immigrants are a net fiscal drain because they are more entitled to many programs. This increases costs for the government in the long run (Camarota, 2013).
Another significant impact of immigrants is that they increase the productivity of the nation, more so the skilled immigrants. Most of these immigrants bring a wave of talents and innovation to the US regarding work. According to Camarota (2013), in many of the companies in the US, they have at least one immigrant founder as top managers and others as workers. In 2009, foreign students earned 27 % of science and engineering master’s degree according to the 2012 National Science Board report. The students studying in the US universities has grown rapidly in the recent years as most of them are advancing the degrees. Certainly, immigrants yield patents double the rate as citizens, and so their presence in the US is significant as they generate positive spillovers on patenting by natives (Ruhs & Silva, 2017). The have contributed to the economic growth of America as explained by improvements in research-driven innovations and education. However, nations with a high concentration of immigrants who are workers experience faster productivity growth (Camarota, 2013).
The labor market impact
One of the popular views of this issue is that immigrants take jobs from the American natives. Nevertheless, even though immigrants upsurge the supply of labor in America, they also spend their wages in the same country on homes, TVs, food, education and other essential goods and services and thus they expand domestic economic demand. This will in return create more jobs to the people to build those homes, make and sell food to more immigrants and those who transport the TVs and other goods to these immigrant’s places (Ruhs & Silva, 2017). This is one of the impacts that these people bring to the US as they not only improve the economy but also create job opportunities.
According to the Penn Wharton Budget model (2016), standard economic theory suggests that while advanced labor supply from immigration may originally depress wages, over time businesses upsurge investment to give back the amount of capital per worker, which then gives back wages. Regardless of these increases in labor supply, immigrants seem to complement American-born workers other than replacing them (Camarota, 2013). This happens in that some of the immigrants are less educated and so they tend to take jobs in manual, labor-intensive occupations that are meant for Americans. Highly skilled citizens of US in media, management do not face stiff competition from high-skilled immigrants due to their high language skills. Immigrants can increase the demand for labor. Immigrants move to the US with expectations that they get jobs but not all because most of them go there for studies (Ruhs & Silva, 2017). This is one of the negative impacts of the immigrants in the US in that they misplace the American native in job opportunities. If the children of the immigrants are just similar to the children of the US citizens, then it is like moving back in that we are just scaling up the population of the country and economy with no impacts on per capita incomes (National Academy of Sciences, 2017).
In conclusion, immigration has impacted the US economy and society positively. The economy of America has grown higher due to the immigrants. Education levels of the immigrants are the key aspect in understanding the fiscal impact (Camarota, 2013). The truths of the modern American economy combined with the modern American administration state create a large fiscal costs an inevitable problem of large scale. Less educated-immigration. All the available evidence indicates that skilled immigration should be an important fiscal benefit. Certainly, the knowledge of the last few years advocates that immigration may, in fact, have important long-term benefits for the citizen, driving them into higher-paying jobs and raising the general pace of productivity growth and innovation (National Academy of Sciences, 2017). As baby boomers have started moving into retirement in progressive economies all over the world, immigration is assisting in keeping America relatively young and decreasing the burden of financing retirement benefits in the world.
- Camarota, S. (2013). The Fiscal and Economic Impact of Immigration on the United States | Center for Immigration Studies. Retrieved from http://cis.org/node/4573
- Institute for Human Sciences. (2016). The Impact of Immigration on American Society: Looking Backward to the Future | IWM. Retrieved from http://www.iwm.at/transit/transit-online/the-impact-of-immigration-on-american-society/
- National Academy of Sciences. (2017). 4 Immigration’s Effects on Jobs and Wages: First Principles | The New Americans: Economic, Demographic, and Fiscal Effects of Immigration | The National Academies Press. Retrieved from https://www.nap.edu/read/5779/chapter/6#172
- The Penn Wharton Budget Model. (2016). The Effects of Immigration on the United States’ Economy — Penn Wharton Budget Model. Retrieved from http://www.budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu/issues/2016/1/27/the-effects-of-immigration-on-the-united-states-economy
- Ruhs, M. & Silva, C. (2017). The Labour Market Effects of Immigration – Migration Observatory – The Migration Observatory. Retrieved from http://www.migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/the-labour-market-effects-of-immigration/