“It is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope” (Henry 228). Due to the high taxes, many Puerto Ricans moved to the United States looking for hope of a better and a more stable place to live. According to a census in 2012, “the departures of island-born Puerto Ricans have contributed to an uptick in the number of island-born Puerto Ricans living stateside, to 1.4 million in 2012”(Cohn, Patten, and Hugo). This emigration is due to various reasons like: job- related, family matter, other, etc. The primarily reason is the job-related because with all the unemployment and high taxes, people moved to look for a better job under stable circumstances.
Does Illegal Immigration Hurt the U.S. Economy? Throughout the history of the United States, immigrants have reach its shores looking for a new start, a new dream, the “American Dream”. A dream where economic stability and opportunity are at their fingertips. But for the past decades more so, numbers of illegal immigrants have abundantly increase and the question lingers; “Do illegal immigrants present a positive or negative impact on U.S. economy?” As a young boy, I was part of those numbers. Having migrated with my family illegally from Ecuador looking for the same dream and opportunity, I fell under the statistic of taking jobs where no one else wanted and paying taxes without profit.
Taking that into consideration, if the United States deported all illegal immigrants, the unemployment rate would rise from 8% to about 13%. Imagine America with a 13% unemployment rate. The highest recorded unemployment rate in American history was 10.8% in November of 1982. People would lose hope in the economy (Unemployment Rates). Most people who are against illegal immigration in the United States begin the base of their argument that they do not pay taxes.
They also come in pursue of giving a better educational opportunities to their young children. Also immigrants are more likely to create jobs and pay taxes when they live in the United States which helps the economy grow stronger. Although there are many negative conceptions about immigrants these individuals should have the opportunity to migrate to the United States for a better life. Many of the immigrants that migrate were left with no other option but to enter illegally through the border because in there countries they suffered from poverty, crime, the lack of education and opportunities. In the article “Rethinking El Salvador’s transnational families” by Leisy J. Abrego writes about a young boy named Daniel and his struggles living in El Salvador while his father is in the United States looking for work.
Research shows that between 40 and 50 percent of wage loss among low skilled Americans is due to the immigration of low skilled workers. Some native workers lose not just wages but their jobs through immigrant competition. An estimated 1,880,000 American workers are displaced from their jobs every year by immigration. (Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform) 71% of respondents in a 2006 Quinnipiac University Poll believed that enforcement of immigration laws would require additional measures beyond a border fence, with 65% of
In Germany America’s economic failure contributed to the rise of Adolf Hiltler, so the Stock Market Crash had a domino effect on our country and others. In America there were 16 million unemployed, which was about one third of the available labor force (Livingston1). There was some companies that faired well through-out this gloom; Camel Cigarettes was the top selling tobacco product. The reasoning for that is people were stressed out and felt that cigarettes relived
Immigration: Costs and Benefits Every year, hundreds of thousands of immigrants, legal and illegal, from around the world, come to the United States. People choose to immigrate to America because there are a vast number of opportunities and they are in search of a better quality of life. Supporting them self, as well as, family in their country of origin; legal and illegal Immigrants are looked down upon by society and are thought to be the cause of some of the burdens that our nation suffers from. Taxpayers are forced to pay for the welfare and schooling for many of these immigrants, some who are illegal aliens. Other citizens believe that immigration contributes to crime, poverty, and overcrowding.
This topic is of importance to the people of the United States because there are around 12 million illegal immigrants living and working in this nation. Though these people should not have come illegally into this country, nevertheless now that they are here our economy is more bountiful because of it. More than a third of all non-legal immigrants are working in just three cities; Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago. This alone takes out a lot of the argument from people who think that illegal immigrants are stealing their jobs. Furthermore these immigrants are taking whatever jobs they can find, and because of this they are doing some of the most undesired jobs in the nation.
Most people immigrants who are undocumented don’t pay taxes because they are paid under the table. Edward P. Lazear, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, stated, “Immigrants not only help fuel the Nation’s economic growth, but also have an overall positive effect on the income of native-born workers”. Immigrants are a critical part of the workforce (1 in 7 workers) and contribute to productivity growth and technological advancement. Without the immigrants, we would have a decline in labor force of 3 to 4 percent, we could not have grown nearly as much as we did in the ‘90s and in the last few years our growth would have been slower. Edward Lazear also says that immigrants are more likely to be entrepreneurs than native-born U.S. citizens.
Immigration, damaging or helpful? Immigration has been a problem in the United States since before the country was established. Many citizens and politicians claim that illegal immigration is a hindrance to the country’s economy because immigrants take American jobs and that they don’t pay taxes. They also agree that our government spends too much money in keeping them out. People on the other side of this argument claim that immigrants help by taking unwanted jobs with very little pay, and in doing that they are helping keep the prices of domestic goods down across the country.