Illegal Immigration: Causes and Consequences

Table of Contents

Introduction
The possible causes of Immigration
Pros and Cons of illegal immigrants
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

The issue of immigrants has been of global concern in the recent past. This is because of the increasing number of immigrants in most of the developed nations. Immigrants entail people who decide to leave their country of origin to other nations where they settle (Williams, p. 83). The immigrants are broadly grouped into two depending on whether they get permission to be in the other region or not. Thus, there are the legal immigrants who before settling in the other country, seek authority from the immigration department of the government. In this case, they are given legal documents such as passports to indicate that they are from other regions but have permission to be in the country (Williams, p. 83). On the other hand, there are the illegal immigrants who choose not to seek permission but instead sneak through the borders to get into the country. As such, the illegal immigrants cause more problems to the country they settle in because they are not identified. This has led to protests by the citizens invaded by the illegal immigrants. The United States of America is one of the countries that have been immensely invaded by illegal immigrants. This paper will therefore, explore the issue of illegal Immigrants to look at the possible causes of their immigration and the pros and cons of the illegal immigrants.

The Possible Causes of Immigration

The reasons as to why immigration takes place are many and diversified, differing from one region to the other. However, the common ones include the following.

One of the main reasons people flee away from their own regions is because of wars that are politically influenced. This is because of the fact that all countries are managed by governments which come about because of political elections (Swanson, p. 1). These elections are however, affected by instances of political unrests, which in turn lead to wars in the nation. In the end, there is no peace in the country and people are forced to run away to other nations in search of peaceful areas where they can settle.

Climatic changes that are unfavorable for human settlement also cause people to immigrate. Instances of floods or droughts are natural disasters that render a place suitable for human settlement, and when they occur in a region people tend to flee to other areas thus immigration.

Other common reasons that led to immigration include; the need to travel to other regions of the world, business reasons, poverty and the search for freedom and their rights just to mention a few (Swanson, p. 1).

Pros and Cons of Illegal Immigrants

The influx of illegal immigrants has led to both negative and positive impacts on the various aspects of the economy, social aspect, and labor market of the nation they settle in. For one, the presence of illegal immigrants is no good news to the citizens of the country they settle in. The citizens of the habiting nation complain that the illegal immigrants have led to the overburdening of their public goods and services. For instance, the schools have been overcrowded by the children of illegal immigrant parents. Social amenities have also been overburdened, hence making the quality of services offered to decrease. Depending on the sector, in question, illegal immigrants have had varying impact on the economy. For instance, if one owns a farm, a landscaping company, a garment factory, or even a restaurant, the presence of illegal immigrants is good news since they provide cheap labor in these sectors, and thus lead to buzzing business and escalated profits (Legrain). However, for an American-born high-school dropout illegal immigrants are bad news since they provide labor at very low wages that the natives are not willing to take up. Impact on other sectors like taxpayers and consumers is subject to interpretation as will be discussed in this section.

Illegal immigrants have been said to drain government finances since the federal courts have ruled on a decision that the state and local governments have an obligation to offer services similar to those available to legal residents. Immigrants exploit poverty-oriented projects in greatly advanced scope than the legal residents do, since in most cases, the immigrants are considerably less educated and hence poorer especially the illegal immigrants. By distinction, illegal immigrants remit proportionately less taxes, since a majority of either federal or state governments operate under a progressive tax system (that is, as the income of the payer increases the rate of taxes also increases). Consequently, illegal immigrants turn resources aside from desirable programs for legal residents, and restrain economic expansion following increased tax rates to cater for their obligated needs. According to NRC, illegal immigrants have less income than the legal residents do, and hence they are more involved in consumption of government programs meant for the low-income earners.

Approximately, 25.2 percent of immigrant families consume funded school lunch programs compared to 5.6 percent of native families. Illegal immigrants are said to cost both the state and the federal government in terms of healthcare as well as criminal justice and courts and litigation means. Illegal immigrants are hence alleged to obtain between 1.6 and 3.3 times the standard for the entire residents, whether legal or illegal. Due to various factors, legal immigrants pay lower rates of taxes: first, due to the nature of the income tax structure, which is progressive favoring the low-income earners. Second, a lot of illegal workers and employers avoid in any case some taxes and thirdly, various income and sales tax immunities proffer the maximum tax respite to low- income families. Ultimately, the typical illegal immigrant guzzles much more taxes than he remits in thousands of dollars. The ratio between outlay and benefits is large and can be estimated as ranging from 8.6 to 11.9 (that is, they get $8.60 to $11.90 in government spending per dollar than they pay) (Theresa).

On the other hand, illegal immigrants have brought the economic benefit of lowering the prices of consumers. According to NPR, when the earnings of the low-skilled staff depress, the entire America gains by buying some products like meals in restaurants, building and farm products at lower prices (Theresa). The economic effect of illegal immigration is minimal compared to other movements in the market, for example the rising use of computerization in manufacturing or the expansion in international trade. Those two aspects have a lot larger effect on salary, prices and the wellbeing of the nation. Nevertheless, economists in general trust that on the average the impact is a minute net positive on the whole economy. Some economists like Harvards George Borjas argued that the standard Americans capital is augmented by not more than 1 percent following illegal immigration (Borjas, 1667).

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it is arguable that despite the fact that illegal immigrants have negative impacts on the nation they settle in, the positive impacts should also be considered. As such, they should not be despised because most of them do not wish to be immigrants, but are only forced by circumstances listed above.