Illegal Immigration

Illegal Immigration

Introduction

Illegal immigration seems to be a great challenge not only for America but for the whole of the developed world. Unfortunately, public opinion often runs the risk of having a distracted view of the phenomenon of immigration. This is aided by the action of the major media, who work for the serious and continuing emergencies which lead to neglect a correct perception of the phenomenon, covering millions of foreign nationals. We tend to talk about illegal immigrants only when serious events occur that threatens public order; talking about illegal immigrants linking organized crime, it comes short of illegal immigrants as a "problem." And it is for this that illegal immigration is treated as a "problem." Hence the birth in the American integration policy, i.e. a policy of housing, social care and education, but also, unfortunately, a policy of border closures, born from a naive or instrumental phenomenon. A paradox if you think that every day we walk towards a "broadening" of United States. And it is precisely as "United States” must address the problem. We must consider the integration is not like a political problem but as a challenge that has as its prize the growth of the entire nation.

Discussion

In contrast, international illegal immigration often arouses heated controversies and inflammatory rhetoric. That may seem odd in the context of the United States since we like to think of ourselves as a “nation of illegal immigrants.” Why are there such passionate arguments about people who seem to like our country so much that they want to move here?

It is worth taking a moment to address this question since it puts the more technical issues in a larger, interpretive framework. The most direct answer concerns the sheer number of people who come to the United States each year. Since 2000, an average of about one million legal illegal immigrants (Department of Homeland Security, 2008) and about 700,000 illegal immigrants (Passel & Cohn, 2008a) have entered the United States each year. About 300,000 foreigners have left the United States each year (Shrestha, 2006). Thus, net immigration has been directly increasing the U.S. population by 1.4 million persons per year. Net immigration then has indirect, subsequent effects on population growth due to immigrant fertility.

Taken together, the direct and indirect impacts of immigration on the U.S. population are startling. The Census Bureau projects that the total U.S. population will grow to 439 million by 2050, an increase of 157 million, or 56%, since 2000. To put this in concrete terms, this is equivalent to adding the entire populations of Mexico and Canada to today's (2009) population of the United States. According to Passel and Cohn (2008b), over four fifths of that growth will be due to illegal immigrants and their descendents. Thus, immigration is dramatically increasing the number of people living in the United States.

Illegal Immigrants and Economy

Rapid population growth puts stress on society, on the environment, on the economy, on schools and neighborhoods, and on government. More people mean more pollution, more crime, more crowding, and more need for ...