The focal point of the paper is to present a critical evaluation of Gregory Rodrigez’s article Illegal Immigrants: They’re Money. This article was published in the book Good Reasons with Contemporary Arguments. The main article was published in the Los Angeles Times in 2007. The author is an Irvine fellow of the New American Foundation. He is known for his numerous articles on racism, immigration, politics, and social causes. This article deals with the aspects of illegal immigration and the double standard of the US authorities. The author mentions the banking system is cashing on the needs of the illegal immigrants by issuing them credit cards and on the other hand, they are denied access into the country. The author mentions the Mexican border in the denials for migrants that are entering this country from all over the world as the numbers increase exponentially. The US has gone so far as to create the Homeland Security office to ensure that human trafficking is policed, and has created new laws to create fencing between the US and Mexican border to prevent more immigrants from entering the country illegally. An attempt at appeasement for Mexico concerning what was known as the bill to create a guest-worker program failed in gaining the necessary acceptance. The author places these arguments in a logical and systematic manner and it is obvious to mention that he is extremely successful as a persuasive writer.
The writer presents his persuasive essay in an effective manner as his appeal is based on clear logic and data. He makes us understand the truth that migration or immigration is a subject that is studied on all levels when dealing with humanity and its idiosyncrasies. In order to understand migration, we must understand the various components involved in migration, including internal migration, external migration, immigration, and both refugees and Internally Displaced Persons. The author attempts to understand the reasons to migrate and how laws affect the various forms of migration and if there would be solutions to this practice of migration. The objective is to study the problems, the solutions, and the reasoning behind migration as a whole.
In order to understand the reasons behind the migration of people, we must first define the various components of migration. Migration refers to the movement of an individual from his or her home country, also known as the source country to another country as his or her destination. The two main movements are involved include immigration and emigration. Immigration would be the movement of individuals into a country. Emigration is the movement of individuals from their home country. The balance between emigration and immigration would be known as net migration and this can be either positive or negative. Positive would be when immigration exceeds emigration and negative would be the reverse of that process.
There are many different influences and consequences relative to migration for anyone that moves from where they originated. Factors that would have to do with migration include the economic growth and development of the country that people are leaving, specifically GDP, the level of domestic development, and finally income and quality of life within the countries. Another two factors include the context urbanized area would be and variations in that consideration along with levels of education that would, in fact, be available for children across the country of origin in place of isolated areas. Occasionally, the amount of US influence on a country can either adversely or conversely affect the amount of migration. We see this today as we build walls along the US and Mexican border. The author is perfectly spot on to indicate the manner that the US allowed foreigners to enter the country in accordance with the economic need of the country.
In general, it can be stated that there was only one weak point about the article. It is a lack of any emotion. The entire approach of the article was pain narration without any emotion that could be identified as the weakest part. The strongest point of the essay is not one but an amalgamation of three vital reasons. The major reason behind the success of the article is the direct analytical nature of the author with logical reasoning backed by an essential amount of relevant information. Another important factor that was instrumental in the whole approach was the narrative that provided a constant flow of information that was used with the perfect terminology and word usage. Thirdly, the position of the author in social and administrative levels made him extremely credible and trustworthy. This, backed by thorough knowledge of the issue made the entire article extremely persuasive. These elements put together made it possible to convince the viewpoint of the author.
Works Cited
Rodrigez, Gregory; Illegal Immigrants – They’re Money; Good Reasons with Contemporary Arguments; Fourth Edition; Los Angeles Times; 2007; pp: 202-204.