Immigration Misconceptions in the United States

Migration is synonymous with human movement from one place to another in search for better living conditions.

Immigration into the United States is not a new concept as the country owes its historical origin to individuals migrating to America from other parts of the world driven by various reasons. Some came searching for land to be used in agricultural production, others came in search for education and employment opportunities, others come in search for freedom, whereas others come running away from adversaries within their countries of origin.These are just but a few of the reasons leading to high rates of immigration to the United States. Being a historical concept, immigration issues have remained part of the unique forces that continue to shape the United States and this trend is far from over.

However, there are various misconceptions that have been advanced in regard to the impacts that the immigrants have on the American society. This paper will focus on the misconceptions that have been developed regarding immigration which affect the economy of the United States. The Economy and Migration:Though migration has been associated with the economic process, this has been generally misconceived by the general public. The misconception is stemmed from the fact that there are differences in wages between the countries of origin and the country of destination of the immigrants.

It is also believed that countries of origin lack economic development thus prompting the movement of people from these countries. According to the macro-economics theories, the wage is determined through balancing of the labor force supply and demand in the local markets.This theory contemplates that lack of equilibrium between two regions in terms of workers will lead to differences in wages such that the region with scarce workers shall have higher wages compared to the other region with high labor force. Migration will therefore form some sort of equilibrium in such economies with individuals moving to high wage areas and eventually bringing down the wages in these areas whereas exit of workers from low wage areas would prompt an upward pressure to the wages in these areas. This is meant to continue until equilibrium is reached between the two areas (Massey, p 64).Although it is true that the differences in wages can influence the migration of individuals from one region to another, it is not entirely the reason as to why people migrate to developed countries including the United States.

After extensive studies, Oded Stark and his accomplices established that the decision to migrate from the developing nations is usually influenced by families as opposed to individuals. They found that families from these countries engage in migration not just for the associated economic benefits, but also in an effort to reduce the risks which include natural calamities, political instabilities and economic woes.The fundamental principle of this strategy is to be found in the sense that the wages between the two areas have to either be uncorrelated or inversely correlated so that the family may not be harmed by economic upheavals at home since one of their members shall be overseas and on a reliable wage. The higher the wage the better but this should not mean that higher wages is the primary incentive for migration (Massey, p 65). Another survey by Greenwood showed that in the U. S.

demand for workforce is the main attraction to immigrants than the supposed higher wages.Other researches have continuously dismissed the association of high wages to trends in international migration as being overstated (Massey, p 65). On the issue of lack of development in some areas as prompting international migration, there is a misconception that promotion of development in the least developed economies will curb the migration trend. This perspective is in contravention to the process of development as it destroys and destabilizes the whole developmental procedure in that it promotes the emigration process other than reducing it.It should be noted that the developed societies depend much on the peasant economies in various ways.

The peasant economies are characterized by emphasis on sustainability coupled by full employment as opposed to maximizing output and profits. The output in these economies is usually determined by the composition and size of the families and not by the market forces. The economic and social relationships are predicted depending on stability and continuity. Economic development in the peasant economies would thus destroy the pre-existing stability in the social and economic aspects of such societies.This is usually done through various processes that include “the substitution of capital for labor, the privatization and consolidation of landholding, and the creation of market” (Massey, p 66). This destruction leads to displacement of individuals in economical, social and cultural terms who in turn become local and international migrants.

The resultant processes of capitalization, enclosure and market alienates the people from the conventional way of life and thus providing a source from which migrants are drawn.With the emerging towns and cities lacking the capacity to absorb all the displaced individuals, some of the displaced opt to migrate abroad to look for new prospects (Massey, p 67). Immigration Misconceptions on the Economy in the U. S. : There is a general belief in the United States that resurgence in the number of immigrants has had an adverse impact on the United States economy and that it has added pressure to the job opportunities available to the locals. The immigration to the U.

S. as tremendously increased in the period after the Second World War and the population of the foreigners living in the United States has reached a record high since the 1930s.Immigrants have been accused of accepting substandard wages thereby negatively affecting the wages of the native workers. With immigrants opting to work for little pay, the natives are pushed out of the employment equation as the immigrants are preferred for their cheap labor. The natives are left with no choice but to accept the low wages so as to have a chance of being recruited for the unskilled jobs available (Hall, para 4).In general, there are three main economic misconceptions about the immigrants in the United States.

These includes immigrants being perceived as economically burdensome to the United States; the immigrants are also viewed as bringing competition to the few job opportunities that are available to the Americans especially at this time when the economy has not yet fully recovered from the recession; and finally, there is a misconception that immigrants sends most of what they earn to their countries of origin as opposed to spending the same within the American boundaries (The Equal Rights Center, para 5).A booming economy is seen as attracting immigration in the United States. There are demographic indicators that showing that there was a sharp reduction in the number of immigrants coming to the United States in 2007 has led many to think that the economy is the major incentive to the immigrants. Some editorials commented that “We’ve discovered something more effective than a wall and workplace raids at discouraging illegal immigrants from trying to enter the United States and encouraging those already here to leave--a bad economy” (Crawford, para 2).

Even some officials at one of the most respected financial institutions-Forbes-are of the view that economic factors are crucial in attracting the migrants. Edward Alden from Forbes observed that a weaker economy would not attract most of the PhD students in the United States to stay as most of them are foreigners (Crawford, para 3). Despite all the negatives associated with the immigration in the United States, Zavodny from Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta dismisses the misconceptions and claims that the impact of the immigrants is not bad to the economy as many individuals tend to believe.According to Zavodny, most of the immigrants arriving in the U.

S. before they get to 25 years of age become taxpayers at one point during their stay. These sentiments were backed by research findings by the National Research Council. The study also contravened the notion that immigration was draining the economy; instead, it indicated that immigration provided a net fiscal benefit to the U.

S. economy by well over $10 billion on yearly basis (Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, para 3).A study done by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas indicated that immigrants’ contribution to the economic growth can not be overlooked. The bank observed that the immigrant population has been beneficial to the United States economy in several ways: “by representing an increasing share of the work force, by taking jobs in regions with limited labor, and by taking jobs that native-born workers do not want” (Hall, para 3). It is worthy noting that unskilled labor is equally important to the economy.

Immigrants in some areas in Northeast have been credited for having revived economies that had been destroyed many years ago after the industrial jobs moved out. In Connecticut, business leaders are concerned that without immigrants the states’ economy will be hurt (Crawford, para 4). The impact of the immigrants on the wage rates has been exaggerated as depicted by George Borjas who observes that the impact is at most modest as the wage of the unskilled natives lowers by between 3% and 8% due to the competition (The Equal Rights Center, para 12).Some immigrants are entrepreneurs and positively contribute to the economy through job creation while others take opportunities in labor scarce regions, taking jobs that are more often avoided by the natives. On the issue of sending their earnings back to their countries of origin, immigrants everywhere do send part of their earnings back to their countries of origin. It should however be pointed out that studies shows that most of the earnings are spend here in the United States as opposed to the general belief (The Equal Rights Center, para 15).

Conclusion: Immigration into the United States has remained relatively higher over the years and that misconceptions especially in regard to the economic impacts have been lope sided as only the negatives has been emphasized. Any policy framework that limits immigration into the United States is bound to be economically counterproductive as the contribution of the immigrants shall be missed dearly. Despite the steady increase of the immigrant population, there have been no serious economic upheavals on the economy as earlier predicted.