Relationship between illegal immigration and U.S economics.?

Question

Relationship between illegal immigration and U.S economics.
I have to wrote a research paper for this topic.
I need at least 3 points.

-Increase rate of Unemployed American
Between 40 and 50 percent of wage-loss among low-skilled Americans is due to the in-migration of low-skilled workers. Many American workers lose their jobs through unfair competition.
- Health care
more than half of immigration into the United States is illegal, thus more than half of the impact of immigration on our health care system is due to illegal immigration.


If you have some better Ideas please let me know!

Thanks!!

Answer 1

Interesting and complex topic. You should have no trouble finding resources.



I'll suggest an alternative, that of school and municipal services funding relative to the resource burden. School districts are not allowed to turn away any child presented to them, particularly special ed districts. This is regardless of whether the child actually lives in district or there are funds for the child's education. What is exasperating to many already underfunded special school districts is when a child from a family of undocumented workers is presented, and that child has severe disabilities. These disabilities require the attention of specialists, which are costly, and may require the school to hire an interpreter to facilitate communication with the parents, which is also costly. Moreover, where illegal immigrants are forbidden from owning land, they rent and therefore contribute nothing to property taxes, which are often the major source of funds for the special school district (note that an apartment owner pays property taxes regardless of whether an apartment is vacant or occupied). Moreover, where state income taxes fund education, an undocumented worker cannot pay income taxes (it is impossible without some form of identification). This indicates a use of services without payment for them.



A second thought may be that of identity theft. In order to work legally, one must have either a SSN or an alien identification number in order to file the appropriate tax papers (W-2, etc) and have wage taxes withheld. In order to obtain legal jobs (ie, not cash under the table) many have resorted to stealing identity numbers from residents and citizens and using them for work purposes. This distorts and may tarnish a citizen's work record and damage their credit rating. There is anecdotal evidence of persons being denied jobs with a company because records indicate that they had previously been fired from another branch of the same company in another state, where that previous firing was of an illegal immigrant posing as the applicant.



I do need to point out a few things:

* There is a difference between unemployment and loss of wages. Unemployment means that the American lost or was unable to find employment, while loss of wages means that wages are lower than they otherwise would be in the absence of downward wage pressure from illegal immigration. The 40% to 50% statistic seems much higher than studies I read, so I question it. While the presence of illegal immigration is often cited as a factor in wage depression, it is an increasing reliance upon information technology that is cited for an elimination of many types of low-wage positions as well as factory positions. You'll have an easier time proving the point of wage depression than unemployment, and you'd do well to look at wages in cities of similar size with disparate estimated levels of illegal immigration; ie, if wages in Sacramento zip codes with high estimated levels of undocumented persons are 30% than wages for the same jobs in Seattle zip codes then that suggests a discrepancy may be due to illegal immigration.



*Your point on health care is a non-sequitur (does not follow logically). While it is true that more than half the immigration is illegal (estimated, anyway, since there is no way to track for sure), illegal immigrants are not thought to utilized more health care than citizens as a group. For one, they risk exposure and capture. For another, studies have tracked a much larger impact on health care costs being due to longer life expectancies and the ability to treat (at a much higher cost) far more serious illnesses and injuries. To draw a parrallel, much of the cost of treating Iraq and Afghanistan vets stems from medicine being able to save the lives of many whose injuries would have been fatal 10 years ago. You'd have a very difficult time trying to prove rising health care costs are due to illegal immigration.

Answer 2

You are focusing entirely on the negative aspects of illegal immigration. While you may believe that it has more negative implications for the US economy than positive one, I would encourage you to at least mention the postive aspects.



For example, there is very little evidence that the unemployment rate has risen because of illegal immigration. This is likely for two reasons. First, immigrants consume food, shelter, clothing, cars, etc. So, their presence actually increases the demand for goods, which is supplied by native and immigrant workers. That is, the immigrants create new jobs, even as they take up jobs that natives once had.



Second, natives are increasing their educational levels every year. This means that the average native worker moves up the economic ladder, leaving open room for low-skilled jobs. These jobs are taken up by immigrants. So, not all jobs are captured by lower-paid immigrant workers. In fact, many of those jobs would have disappeared if the migrants had not come to the US.



Hope this makes sense.

Answer 3

A part of the reason for the attention that illegal immigration has been given is because legal workers have lost their jobs and jobs that may be available to them have been taken by illegal workers. So anger builds from frustration that some one who has no legal right to be in the country is working while someone who has a legal right to be here cannot work. Another reason has to do with the fact Americans pride ourselves about being a country founded on laws and equality. Illegal immigrants act contrary to that ideal and during tough economic times imagery about being patriotic and neighbors helping each other through tough times becomes more prevalent during tough economic times. Focusing on illegal immigration in the media highlights the contrast between patriotism and those who break our laws. With that said I believe people lash out against Mexicans is because very few Mexicans are publicly notable. Most of the time when you see Mexicans on television it is when they are being rounded up as a part of a raid on business that hired illegal workers. The image that most Americans have of Mexicans are low paid workers who typically enter America illegally for work. My feeling is illegal immigrant issue is prevalent during this economic tough time for two reasons. First is the fact legal workers have been denied to some extent the right to work because of illegal immigrants who are in their job. Second reason is the Bush administration ignored the immigration problem. Granted they proposed an amnesty program but the resistance to it is rooted in 1987 when Reagan gave amnesty to illegal immigrants. The amnesty some will argue did not help and made America's immigration problem even worse. Now, Obama is trying to address the issue and will face fierce opposition for any program that appears to be a prima facia amnesty legislation. My feeling is the solution is tighter legislation and removal of the anchor baby legislation will solve a large percentage of the immigration issue. So the focus on illegal immigration is driven in part by the economic down-turn and the debate that is occurring on what to do on illegal immigration in this country.

Answer 4

It costs the American taxpayer a minimum of $135 billion to have illegal immigrants in this country. Some studies estimate over $400 billion. This includes over $30 billion to educate their children - 90% who will drop out by the 10th grade learning little therefore netting little ROI. Now add payouts for uninsured motorists (nearly all of them), Medicaid for emergency room visits and anchor baby births, WIC, ADC, increased DHS expense (over $20 billion), etc. etc.



Most of the unquantifiable but nevertheless huge expense is crime committed by illegal immigrants and their anchor babies over and above their $12 billion state/federal incarceration costs. Since very few government agencies, local through federal, report illegal immigrant crime costs, we can only estimate. We do know however that over half the local law enforcement expense in a large percentage of border state jurisdictions is due to illegal immigration.



Business saves a maximum of $100 billion using 7 million illegal immigrants vs. citizens and permanent residents who do not have networks (dioceses, etc.) and therefore aren’t aware of many of these opportunities.



Why isn't every taxpayer up in arms that business is subsidized in this fashion? Well ---- The business of America is business.

Answer 5

A good analogy would be the relationship between a tapeworm and one's lower intestine.