Immigration and Social Welfare Policy

Abstract

In this study we try to explore the concept of “Immigration” in a holistic context. The main focus of the research is on “social welfare policy” and its relation with “Immigration”. The research also analyzes many aspects of “existing policies of immigration” and tries to gauge its effect on “society”. Finally the research describes various factors which are responsible for “theories and concepts of immigration” and tries to describe the overall effect of “immigration” on “social welfare policy of a country”.

Table of Content

Abstractii

Introduction1

Theoretical Framework of the Policy and Policymaking2

A National Consensus3

Rise of Anti-Immigrant Feelings4

Immigration Act of 19655

Element Of Social Welfare Policy7

Migration and Socioeconomic Development8

Impact on Receiving Societies9

Formulation Of A New Policy Acknowledges With The Strengths And Weaknesses Of The Past10

Migration and Human Rights10

Immigration in the Past10

Immigration Today11

Coherent Description And Analysis Of Theories13

Curbs on Legal Immigrants Favored13

Statistics14

What Reformers Want15

Immigrants: Key to Revitalizing America17

Knowledge In A Manner To Solve Applied Problem18

Restriction Plans Proliferate20

Conclusion23

References26

Introduction

The legislation makes not carrying immigration documents a crime, gives Arizona law enforcement broad powers to detain anyone they suspect is illegally in the U.S. and allows lawsuits against local governments and agencies by individuals who believe federal or state immigration laws aren't being enforced (Claiborne 2005). The controversial law passed in Arizona gives state and local police the right to arrest anyone reasonably suspected of being an illegal immigrant. Debate on the law is catching on nationwide, with lawmakers and others in several states considering similar legislation. A census data indicates Texas' illegal immigrant population is costing the state's taxpayers more than 4.7 billion per year for education, medical care and incarceration.

Theoretical Framework of the Policy and Policymaking

Statements like the above two are now being heard more often in newspapers, radio talk shows and state and national legislatures. Public opinion polls indicate that a strong and consistent majority of Americans feel the nation's immigration policy is too liberal and needs to be changed. Politicians from both major parties are developing and presenting proposals to increase security at the country's borders, streamline the cumbersome and often ineffective procedures for deporting illegal immigrants, and reduce the number of legal immigrants allowed to enter the country (Firestone 2005). In immigrant-flooded California, voters in 1994 overwhelmingly approved Proposition 187, a ballot measure calling for the elimination of state welfare, education and nonemergency health benefits to the state's estimated 1.5 million illegal immigrants.

While the quotations that begin this article seem to reflect the anti-immigration feelings of Americans in the 1990s, they are not, in fact, from contemporary sources. The New York Times editorial was published in 1880. The second statement is from the platform of the Native American Party, an anti-immigrant group that held its first national convention in 1845. Arguments over immigration and its effect on American society are not new. They have been going on almost as long as this country, founded by immigrants in the early 1600s, has existed.

The U.S. is still a magnet, pulling the ambitious and the hopeful from every corner of the ...