Immigrants Roadblock to the American Dream

Immigrants Roadblock to the American Dream

Mostly everyone in the United States are technically immigrants because the only people who originated from America were technically the Native Americans, as far as we know. I for one know that my parents are immigrants from Vietnam and came to America in 1982. Ever since they came here they created a successful small business and created many jobs for people, including myself. Immigrants are very misunderstood by people and do not realize what they do for the United States. Immigrants are not destroying the United States economy or being a burden at all. For example, studies show that undocumented immigrants contribute more to the economy than they take because they are not eligible for most public services like food stamps, Medicare, and Medicaid. In this paper I will be discussing the misconceptions that native-born Americans have toward immigrants and prove that immigrants are not a burden to society or destroying the United States economy. This paper will discuss the impact immigrants have on United States economy, and society as a whole to prove that immigrants are not destroying the United States economy or the society.

While on the topic of the economy, immigrants do take jobs from native born Americans but they also create new jobs. It does sound contradicting but immigrants create jobs by creating small businesses, buying homes, buying goods and services with the income they make, paying taxes, and raising the productivity of United States businesses (They Take Our Jobs). What this means is that the immigrants who came to the United States help flourish other companies by spending and buying their product or homes. With that being said immigrants creates a higher demand in local consumer goods like food, drinks, movies, sports goods, and many more. With a higher demand companies need to hire more workers to account for the new demand of goods. According to Jason Furman, the Chairman of the Council of Economics, the purchasing power of Latinos and Asians alone will reach $1.5 trillion and $775 billion respectively in 2015 (Furman). This just shows how much immigrants contribute to the economy and how important they are.

On the topic of creating jobs, just exactly how much jobs do immigrants employ every year? According to the Immigration Policy Center, businesses owned by Latino or Asians employ 4.7 million workers a year (Waldron). That is practically the whole population of South Carolina ,and that is only the businesses owned by Latinos and Asians. Think of how many jobs immigrants have created for the United States. Not only do immigrants create jobs, but immigrants are also more self-employed than the native born. According to the United States Department of Labor, 7.5 percent of the foreign born are self-employed compared to 6.6 percent among the native-born (Furman). Let us put all the information we gathered so far. Not only do immigrants create jobs for Americans they also are self-employed, and create a higher demand for consumer goods.

A surprising thing people do not know about immigration is that it boost earnings for American workers with more than a high school degree. According to University of California at Davis, it is expected to increase about 2 percent over the long term (Furman). Let us use an example to put this perspective; a person who makes about $35,000 a year would now earn $700 more a year. It may not be a lot for some people in America but $700 could mean rent for a month, that new X-Box One or PS4 you always wanted, a new flat screen T.V, and many more luxury items. Immigrants are practically giving people with more than a high school degree a bonus for free and who does not like free money. It is a win-win situation for both sides. One side is the immigrants are allowed to work to support their families and put food on the table, and it allows the American workers to earn a lot of extra cash. People just do not know that this happens because it is pretty much unnoticeable unless you compare data.

One misconception people make is that immigrants do not pay taxes, which is entirely wrong. Undocumented immigrants contribute more taxes than they consume in public benefits, and is estimated to have contributed about $50 billion in federal taxes between 1996 and 2003. Undocumented Immigrants even contribute more than $7 billion in Social Security funds annually that they will never claim (They Take Our Jobs). Not only are the immigrants paying for taxes but they are not even getting a single benefit from doing so. Immigrants are practically giving the United States extra money for the Social Security program. According to the Congressional Budget Office, if the 2007 immigration reform passed it is estimated it would have generated $48 billion in new federal revenue between 2008 and 2017 (They Take Our Jobs). What that means is if we legalize undocumented immigrants it would increase social security and federal tax revenue.

Another misconception people make are that they are scared that all of these immigrants will degrade our society. People think immigrants are all uneducated, low skilled, criminals, and will not learn English or become Americans. First of all, immigrants have the lowest crime rate of any other demographic group in the United States, and crime rates are lowest in states with the highest immigration growth rate (They Take Our Jobs). Immigrants do not come to America to just mess everything