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Dariel Delos Reyes

Term Paper: Immigration Policies and reform


There are many immigrants within the borders of the United States. Immigrants living in
America come from many different countries: China, Africa, Italy, Mexico, Canada, etc. There
are issues regarding the management of immigration within the United States. Because of the
issues regarding immigration within the borders of the United States, they may need to create
new laws for immigration. Some of the new laws may limit immigration while other laws may
help immigrantsregardless to say, the creation of these new laws will have an effect on the
macroeconomics of the United States. The new laws will also affect the immigrants as
individuals and as a community.
There are many things that effects the macroeconomics of a country; one of these effects
is immigration. Individual immigrants are affected by the concept of macroeconomics in many
wayseven if they do not know it. The immigrants even effect the macroeconomics of the
United States. The immigrants of the United States come in all shapes and sizessome are
smarter and more skilled than others. Among less-skilled occupations, foreign-born workers
made up 40 percent of the labor force in farming, fishing, and forestry, 37 percent in building and
grounds cleaning and maintenance, and 28 percent in construction (Giving the Facts a Fighting
Chance: Addressing Common Questions on Immigration). Immigrants are able to help the
economy because they do not compete with native-born workers, they complement them
whether they are less-skilled or highly-skilled (Giving the Facts a Fighting Chance: Addressing
Common Questions on Immigration). This being said, they are able to help each other become
better workers and stimulate the economy as a whole. As the native and non-native workers
collaborate together in work-settings, they will be able to inherently help the economy function

at a better rate because of their different abilities and capabilities. Labor economists routinely
find that immigrants have done little or nothing to push down wages or force native workers out
of jobs (Blame Mexico!). There are firms that cut costs by hiring cheap immigrant labor, but it
frees up money to expand production and hire more workers, usually Americans, to perform
complementary, communication-intensive jobs requiring English (Blame Mexico!). Overall,
immigrants are not affecting job placements for native-born workers.
If someone of the immigrants are not hired, some would even create their own business.
In 2013, 18 percent of business owners in the United States were foreign-born and 28 percent of
Main Street business ownersthose who bring businesses like grocery stores, restaurants, and
clothing stores to neighborhoodswere foreign-born (Giving the Facts a Fighting Chance:
Addressing Common Questions on Immigration). There are some jobs that immigrants are more
likely to get hired for because of the type of skills they possess. They are able to specialize in
different tasks much better than some of the native-born workers; therefore, business owners
would be more likely to pick immigrant workers if they are looking for certain types of skills.
However, if immigrants and native-born workers worked in the same business, native-born
workers usually take the higher paying jobs that require better English-language skills that many
immigrant workers do no possess (Giving the Facts a Fighting Chance: Addressing Common
Questions on Immigration). This being said, the immigrants and the native-born workers are not
taking each others jobs. Both are taking jobs that require different level of skills; this helps a
business achieve full employment within their company in order to meet their quotas.
Macroeconomics also plays a role within the community of immigration. There are some
people the media exploit that may give immigrants a dark demeanor. United States citizens,
because of the media, may see some immigrants as murderers. In one case, there was a Mexican

with numerous drug convictions and five deportations on his record that, seemingly at random,
shot a 32-year-old Californian as she strolled on a pier in San Francisco (A Delicate Balance).
This can portray immigrants, especially Mexican immigrants, as people who cannot be trusted in
the United States. There was also fear that if officers alert immigration agents when
undocumented migrants are booked into their cells, then frightened immigrant communities will
stop reporting crimes (A Delicate Balance). This case could lead to immigrants leaving the
country, which, looking at a simple supply and demand model, could decrease the supply of
labor, and increase the wages of workers, with everything else being equal.
Whether the immigrants come from China, Mexico, or even from the Philippines, their
migration to the United States will have an impact on the nation they left. One reason immigrants
come to the United States is because they believe that they will get better salary because the
money conversion will be in their favor. For one USD, a person will be able to get 6.67 Chinese
yen, 18.79 Mexican pesos, or 47.19 Philippine pesos (Currency Conversion and Latest Exchange
Rates for 90 World Currencies). In 3rd world countries, they may not receive enough money in
order to meet their needs; therefore, some people go abroad to different countries (in the case, the
United States) in order to get more money for the time they work. Then they will send some of
the money back to their families. In a way, this will benefit the economy of the nation these
people left. If they are send money back to their own countries, then that would increase the
money supply within the economy. If this happens, then the interest rates of the economy would
decrease and people would be able to invest more because of the low interest rates. Others may
emigrate because of conflict or to escape persecution and prejudices (Shah, Anup). Some of these
people that emigrate because of these reasons may be skilled and intelligent people. In a way, a
brain drain occurs where they learn many things in their own country and go abroad because

there are better opportunities to earn money given the knowledge they possess (Shah, Anup). In
developing countries, education can be a scarce resource (Shah, Anup). If a brain drain occurs,
this will decrease the human capital in the developing country. This will cause a hindrance in
developing the country into a 1st world country; therefore, the country that the intelligent and
talented people went to will develop even more while the developing country will suffer.
From the articles read and examined and from the research done online, immigration does
not directly affect the world community. Immigration mainly affects the recipient country and the
original country when looking on the economic side of things. There are certain benefits and
costs on the recipient and on the original country when examining immigration. It seems like a
simple supply and demand model when looking at immigration. At first glance, we may believe
that there will be lower wages for workers in the recipient countries if immigrants were to work
there; however, it is more complicated than thatthere is not a correlation with immigration and
unemployment (Giving the Facts a Fighting Chance: Addressing Common Questions on
Immigration). We would also see an increase in the unemployment rate for the native-born
workers in the recipient country if there are immigrants because immigrants are sometimes
selected over native-born workers because of their cheap labor; however, this is not that case
immigrants usually take jobs that native-born workers cannot or will not do (Giving the Facts a
Fighting Chance: Addressing Common Questions on Immigration).
Consequently, there are many consequences regarding immigration. Some of these
consequences are beneficial towards the recipient and original country while other consequences
are costly. It is seen that immigration is not the sole problem of unemployment within the
recipient country: there are other factors involved. There seems to be more beneficial
consequences regarding the economy of the United States when immigrants are allowed within

the borders. Immigrant would readily take jobs that native-born workers cannot or would not do.
This is beyond the simple model of supply and demand: if we see an increase in supply (in this
case, workers), we would see a decrease in their salaries; however, this is not the case: there is
more than meets the eye.

Works Cited

"A Delicate Balance." The Economist. N.p., 11 July 2015. Web. 19 July 2016.
"Blame Mexico!" The Economist. N.p., 18 Aug. 2015. Web. 19 July 2016.
"Currency Conversion and Latest Exchange Rates for 90 World Currencies." N.p., n.d. Web. 26
July 2016.
"Giving the Facts a Fighting Chance: Addressing Common Questions on Immigration."
American Immigration Council. N.p., 14 Dec. 2015. Web. 19 July 2016.
Shah, Anup. "Immigration." Global Issues. N.p., 26 May 2008. Web. 26 July 2016.

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