Reference no: EM131857824

Should U.S. Immigration be limited?

The increase in population caused by immigration is also causing both good and bad problems in the United States, causing some people to feel threatened, while others feel a sense of togetherness. The effects that immigration has on the United States are limitless. There have been endless debates over these effects since as early as the colonial times. The economic, fiscal and demographic effects are three major topics that tend to rule these debates. The effect of immigration on the economy is a major topic discussed among much of the nation. It is said to have both positive and negative effects that cancel each other out. Many agree that immigration brings a gain to the economy, yet still may have negative effects for some people:

At the most basic level, immigrants increase the supply of labor and help produce new goods and services. But since they are paid less than the total value of these new goods and services, domestic workers as a group must gain. On the production side, immigration allows domestic workers to be used more productively, specializing in producing goods at which they are relatively more efficient. A recent study says immigrants contribute as much as $10 billion in economic growth each year, largely because they help keep prices lower. But the effect is small on a United States economy that produces nearly $8 trillion. It has also been argued that the poverty rate of the United States has been negatively affected by immigration. Because many immigrants are relatively unskilled, their poverty rate is significantly higher at 18 percent, compared to the 12.1 percent poverty rate for the native-born.

There has been a debate within the last few years involving the computer industry and immigrants. Many companies feel that there are not enough skilled people in the United States to fill the demand for computer programmers. They also argue that these companies do not give Americans the chance to work in these positions, and are unwilling to retrain older programmers. They want only people trained with the latest computer skills, and look to foreigners to fill these demands.