According to the Department of Labor’s National Agricultural Workers Survey 40 percent of crop workers are migrants, meaning they travel at least 75 miles in the previous year to get a farm job. (John 2) Many Americans argue that illegal immigrants are taking jobs from American workers. (David 1)
Yes, undocumented worker are technically working illegally which is considered a crime but let’s face it the problem is one of supply and demand. Demand for workers is higher than it supply. How many picky, superior white boys are willing to swing a hammer for 10 hours in the hot sun for $10/hour (if getting paid good) or prissy white girls to stand up behind a McDonald’s counter all day for $8/hour? These jobs exist and must be filled. (John 1)
U.S economy is basically reliant upon illegal American immigrants. It would be a great set back for the U.S economy if illegal American immigrants left the country. Companies are taking lot of benefits from them. For example in most cases, illegal immigrants come in and take some kind of job, which pay them almost nothing that means that companies are spending less budget for the labor. If that labor is cheaper, that means that the company can have enough money to hire some more skilled American workers. It will decrease the production cost and at the same time it will boost up the production capacity of the company.
Illegal immigrants do often take some of the country’s least attractive jobs, such as in meatpacking and agriculture. If there were no undocumented workers available for those jobs, employers would likely invest in new technology, replacing workers with automation. Agriculture or Farm jobs are typically difficult to do. Very few people wish for them because of hard outdoor working conditions, low pay and long hours. It makes most of the American citizen showing unwillingness for farm jobs. There is not impact on the economy whether the illegal U.S immigrants work at top or bottom levels as it is a rule that every body who works earns the money and then spends it on its living which makes the economy to run. Illegal U.S.
Illegal immigrants provide huge sources of cheap labor to the U.S.A. They are willing to work for lower wages, helping to keep down prices. According to Wall Street analysts, 8 percent of the U.S. workforce 10 to 12 million jobs are undocumented which is about 10 to 12 million jobs (Melissa 1).
Their willingness to work cheap means lower prices on everything from produce to plumbing. Some working in skilled jobs such as stone masonry would be difficult to replace. Due to illegal immigrant we have wages control and encourages the legal citizen to work and get higher skill to meet the need of competitive society and live American dream. (John 2)
Second Paragraph: One of the best examples, which show the importance of the Illegal immigrants, is the shortage of workers in 2004 in west (John 2). Due to which a lot of lettuce was left un-harvested and the cost of the industries was about 1 billion dollars. If the industries were to get legal immigrants to do the harvesting the wages would be way more than what they were giving and it would not be worth harvesting. In California farmers have been losing their pickers every year due to immigration policy. Each year they get shortages of workers. Farmers are willing to hire American workers to do this job with the minimum but the problem is most Americans are not willing to do this job unless they get higher paid. (David 1)
Undocumented workers donate to Social Security through pay-roll taxes – as much as $7 billion per annum – but they are limited from accessing those very benefits they sponsor. So it’s not false to say that illegal immigrants are net contributors to a system that all Americans rely on. Here are some appealing figures in which California is mentioned: Tax contributions. (Jones 1) Immigrants in California give an estimated $4.5 billion in state taxes and an additional $30 billion in federal taxes. Immigrant households in the Washington, DC metropolitan region paid an estimated $9.8 billion in taxes in 1999-2000. This amounts to 19% of the taxes paid from the entire region. (Smith 2)
In order to reduce the health sector deficits various states like Midwest states have gone to a system. This system is introduced to deal with illegal U.S residents where patient applicants have to prove their citizenship before receiving assistance. After doing so, those states have seen a 5 percent reduction in Medicaid expenditures. Michigan is implementing a similar program and expecting to achieve similar results. Up till now we could see a drastic decrease in Medicaid spending totaling roughly $125 million
It’s a great illusion that illegal U.S residents are burden on the economy. Deal with the facts. According to Michigan survey report Illegal U.S immigrants hardly enjoy the health care and other taxpayer benefits as most of the time they have to keep their residence state hidden. The have to send money to their countries and often spend a portion of year in their native countries. On the other hand, they are affective participating in federal. They pay sales tax over what they consume.
Conclusion
Illegal U.S resident are no more burden on U.S economy but infect they are quiet contributors to U.S economy. In the job sector, illegal immigrants do the jobs, which are considered difficult like working in farms. They are beneficial to companies because they often work at very low salaries. It makes the company to hire more workers, which results in decrease in production cost and boost in over all production. Illegal residents do pay taxes but hardly take taxpayer benefits. From the above facts it is concluded that Illegal U.S residents are no more burden on the U.S economy.
Work cited
- Ralston, Tom and Royal Canadian Legion. “U.S Economy”, 2000. 25 May 2002. < http://www.nmvoices.org/attachments/immi >
- Augustine, Saint, Bishop U.S immigrants 2002.
10 Oct. 2005 < http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2005-11/2005-11-10-voa80.cfm> - RAMeSize. Vers. 1.04. 15K. 24 Sept. 2000. Michigan Job Reality. 12 Oct. 2004 <http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_download.asp?fid=7605>.
