Research Paper
Topic: Immigrants in the USA
1.1 . Introduction
1.1.1 Flow of immigants to the USA- smell of big money
1.1.2 Increasing number of legal and illegal immigrants
1.2 . Problem statement
1.2.1 Social issues- adaptation to the culture, language
1.2.2 Security issues due to illegal immigrants
1.2.3 Family, children problems
1.3 Main part
1.3.1 Black jobs-common jobs
1.3.2 Benefits of immigrants to the US economy
1.3.3 Family issues
1.3.4 Real life examples from illegal and legal immigrants lives
1.4 Conclusion
a) Finding alternatives to overcome and prevent the issue
1.1 Introduction
America- when I hear this word the whole world and huge amount of money comes to my mind.Since long times it has been saying that America is a magic country. How magic it could be. Always in the media it is described as a country which is equalised with paradise. Earning a great deal of money, luxury house, cars, girls, life, entartainment and many other things are concerned with America in minds of a considerable number of people. They dream to go to the USA in order to live happily in a comfort with all the necessities. And by following their dreams people are coming to the USA from many parts of the world and becoming immigrants. Number of illegal immigrants in the USA in the 2011 only was around 11.5 million according to Pew Hispanic Center. The illegal immigration population increased by 27% between 2000-2009 according to Department of Homeland security. The same source indicates that number of people who got legal permanent residency was more than 1 million only in 2008. Copmared with the illegal immigrants, sum of illegal immigrants are ten times as much as legal immigrants. We can see from the illustration that around 12-13 million immigrants are not small in numbers. In turn, we will analyse how they are living and what kind of obstacles are they encountering, or are they living in happy life?In the conclusion the recommendations and the possible alternatives will be given to prevent the issues they are encountering.
1.2 Problem statement
As it has been stated above there are around 13 million immigrnats in the USA and each year number of them is increasing by 700.000. So, do the immigrants living happily there with they families or alone? Is America really magic, wonderful counry for them? Actually it is not. Immigrants there are encountering a great deal of problems in their lives. First of all, their major problem is cultural obstacles. It is difficult to understand and adopt to one`s culture on condition that it is different from theirs. As we know that majority immigrants are from Asian countries, China, Phillipine, Arabian countries, Pakistan, India and etc. And they cannot adopt to the American culture where there is a violence, drug addiction, alcohol consumption, less parental control, entartainment, and etc. Moreover, they are having problems with language. Many of them go to the USA without knowing english properly. As a result they will have a big problem with locals in a way of understanding each other. The worst side is that they have lack of english language skills and it will be an obstacle for them to find a job where the first language is english. Subsequently they will be working in low positions, mainly doing black jobs.
Apart from this, security problems arise as number of undocumented refugees, workers. Over the past four years, immigration officials have largely without notice freed more than 8,500 detainees convicted of murder, rape, and other crimes committed by illegal immigrants, according to ICE’s(Immigration and Customs Enforcement) own statistics. Actually, it is difficult to identify murders or person who committed crime because of not being documented.
Next, immigrants in the USA are having big issue, family and children. Their children are growing up in an American lifestyle by forgetting their own culture and traditions. Family is far from the relatives and they are also turning to a simple American family. Concentration here mainly goes to children and their upbringing.
1.3 Main Point
Throughout the centuries, the USA is experiencing the flow of the immigrants from other countries.It is fact that there are more than ten million undocumented refugees, immigrants who are currently working and residing in the USA and that population is growing by 700,000 per year. To identify the problem and do a deep analysis I read articles which are concerned about the Immigrants in the USA. In the article, “The Real Problem with Immigration…and the Real Solution” which is written by Tim Kane, Ph.D., and Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D., it has been clearly described how and in what ways the immigrants are coming up difficulties in their daily lives. The article looks at the economic terms and mostly analyses the immigrants` benefits to the society and the jobs those they are doing. Majority are busy on the low-income sectors, which offer “black jobs”. Cooking, waiter or waitress, cleaning, car mechanics, delivery services are included in the list of black jobs.
The article states that although the immigrants are undocumented and without any visas, they are bringing enormous benefits to the US economy. Most immigrant families have a positive net fiscal
impact on the U.S., adding $88,000 more in tax revenues than they consume in services; and Social Security payroll taxes paid by improperly identified (undocumented) workers have led to a $463 billion funding surplus. It is not small in numbers. Also the flow of the immigration decreased the rate of unemployment by 2 % within two decades.
Nine out of ten immigrants do not regret to choose the USA to work and live, but one cannot survive and go back his country. But the real problem is that they have lack of income, it means they can hardly provide their families with all the necessities.
The second article “Living In America: Challenges Facing New Immigrants and Refugees” written by Lake Snell, analyses the situation in a social side. It says that the immigrants may live happily, they may have a great deal of money, but the real problem goes to their family. It was stated that the problem is arising especially at the schools. Importantly, the children of immigrants do not have adequate English language skills and it will be hard to adapt and socialize among other pupils. Consequently, we can see different changes in children`s behavior and characters. It might be negative in most cases. Lack of English skills does not occur in children only, but in old people also:
“Just because I don’t know English, I can’t handle even the simplest errands.”
Chinese Immigrant, Orange County, California.
Somali and Arab immigrants worry about schools “Americanizing” their children. Apart from this, most immigrants families claim that their children are facing racism at schools.
In general, there are barriers to drive legally,there are many barriers to obtaining health services. Most immigrants and refugees are lack health insurance and are not getting preventive care.
“When the immigrantscome into this countrykids are more adaptiveto a new life thanthe elderly people.Eventually the parents and kids become far apart. Every time the parent tries to say something they say, ‘Oh mom and dad you don’tknow anything, so stuff it’. They feel isolated,they feel useless. The family relationship becomes cracked rightin the middle.”
Connector, OrangeCounty, California.
Except that the immigrants have difficulties to use social services as they don`t have citizenship and undocumented.
The third article gives the illustration with charts and tables regarding the immigrants in the USA
Table 3. Central American Immigrant Population by State, 2000 to 2009
20002009Percent change 2000-2009Wyoming161785387.6%Indiana6,34217,491175.8%Idaho1,2213,349174.3%Tennessee8,89822,564153.6%Kentucky3,5208,801150.0%Missouri5,11511,883132.3%Alabama5,47512,324125.1%Georgia38,37184,555120.4%North Carolina36,67080,731120.2%New Mexico2,8416,195118.1%Minnesota6,85114,884117.3%Pennsylvania10,28222,006114.0%Iowa4,6489,879112.5%South Carolina6,93214,682111.8%Mississippi1,9704,104108.3%Oklahoma4,92110,149106.2%West Virginia301602100.0%Maryland66,167132,04699.6%
Source: 2009 American Community Survey.
The graph below illustrates that in a recent decade Asians are more tend to immigrate to the USA rather than immigrants from South America.
Apart from the articles and charts, we did a personal conversation with some of people migrated to the US. One of them is JasurBotirov who are currently working and studying in the US, the citizen of the Republic of Uzbekistan
He immigrated to the USA in the beginning of this year in February and since that time he is the illegal immigrant there. I chatted through Facebook in order to know the current situation and the problems he has been facing through that time. He said that it is becoming difficult to enter the University and he has several problems regarding the adapting the US culture. He says: it is rare to witness kindness in people, they do not care how are you, whether you are well or not. He admitted that he did not celebrate any traditional holidays, which are celebrated usually among Uzbek Culture.
Another chatting took place together with Elyor Eshimov. He went to the USA last year in September, 2011. He is also from Uzbekistan, pursued Master of Banking Finance in Tashkent Institute of Finance. Currently he is working in the USA. He also states that the American culture is totally different than ours. Now he is coming up against problems after he married an American girl. He says sometimes we do not understand each other as we are from different cultures.
1.4 Conclusion
– Conclusions drawn from the analysis:
It can be concluded that although living standards are high in the USA, immigration is causing several problems for immigrants and for the security system of the USA as well. Cultural and language barriers, socialising, children upbringing, health issues, security issues, lower paid black jobs, adoption, and other issues are main problems which immigrants are coming up against. Now we can say that America is not a dream and magic country as we have thought. In turn, I would like to give recommendations and alternatives to overcome the issues above.
– Suggested course of actions
It is a high risk that the children are losing their culture and forgetting the traditions. The immigrants do not feel the freedom. Therefore the certain precautions should be done.
Provide More Information about Legal Rights
Offer Citizenship Instruction and Guidance on Immigration Problems
Create More Supports for Immigrants and Refugees in Schools
Offer More Affordable and Culturally Sensitive Health Care Options
Use “Cultural Bridges” to Break Down Stigma Surrounding Mental Health
Integrate Services to Make them Easier for Immigrants and Refugees to Find and Use
Training their English language through ESL programs
Providing more classes like intercultural communication in US school curriculum
Having cultural centers for cultures which are spread more in the USA
According to my friend`s suggestion, the Universities should accept the illegal immigrants as well in the same way they are getting international and local students. In addition, he said the US should implement new rules, which protect the rights of immigrants as the US is profiting from immigrants.
References
America’s New Tiger Immigrants, WALTER RUSSELL MEAD, Associated Press
2. T.Kane, Ph.D& Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D. The Real Problem with Immigration…and the Real Solution. The Heritage Foundation, No 1913, March 01,2006
M. Sacchetti, Nation, The Boston Globe. December 09, 2012
Batalova J, Legal Immigration to the United States, Migration information source, June 2009.
Department of Homeland Security, retrieved from http://www.dhs.gov/yearbook-immigration-statistics