The Impact of Illegal Immigration in the U.s

28.4 million immigrants now live in the United States, according to the Center for Immigration Studies (www.cis.org). That means that more than one in ten US residence are immigrants. Further, more than 1.2 million immigrants, both legal and illegal, are now settling in the US each year.

It’s easy to jump in with an opinion on a subject like this, which for many of us it is a hot button issue. The economic and social aspects of immigration have raised concerns regarding economic stability, job competition, the drain on pubic education and other social services, crime levels, national security, and other issues. However, it’s never wise to make judgments and create influence without taking a moment to review the full situation, from all perspectives. After all the title of this article is about “the impact of immigration” not how it’s good or how it’s bad, but understanding the impact.

I am going to focus my exploration on the United States; however the principles certainly apply to other countries. And in particular I’d like to focus on illegal immigration, as after all, America is a country built on principles of legal immigration. Certainly legal immigration has an impact also, but we must assume its effect falls within reasonably governmentally controllable boundaries. It is the growing problem of illegal immigration which has our current attention.

So, how big of an issue is illegal immigration in the U.S? Did you know nearly eleven million illegal immigrants reside in America today? And the number is steadily increasing by around seven hundred thousand persons yearly, according to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).

What are the socio-economic impacts of this problem? And what do the statistics say about the validity of common American concerns? The hypersensitive stereotype would have you believe that illegal immigrants are 1. stealing our jobs, 2. not paying taxes, 3. increasing crime rates, and 4. some are terrorists. Although there is some validity to the concerns behind these accusations, the accusation themselves are flawed.

On the subject of job competition, there is not enough empirical evidence to show firmly one way or another that there is a significant influence on the American job market. The obvious counter-argument would be that due to educational, lingual, and legal constraints the large majority of American jobs are just not reasonably attainable for an illegal alien. The only employment area which may be noticeably affected is that which requires no formal education and provides low pay. Statistics do show a current surplus in these types of jobs which American workers are less eager to fill in an upturned economy, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But this will not stop American concerns if and when the economy experiences a period of decline.