The success of the United States in multiple spheres of life largely comes from a well-known and longstanding tradition to encourage people to leave their countries for a better life in America. At the same time, similar to any other phenomenon, immigration has advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, legal migration plays a highly essential role in the country’s growth and development. New arrivals help fill workforce needs, fuel innovation, drive business creation, and strengthen the United States’ middle class. In addition, family-based immigration has a highly positive impact on integration, social wellbeing, intergenerational mobility, family unity, and other fundamental American values (Gubernskaya & Dreby, 2018). On the other hand, immigration may reduce the supply of skilled labor and increase poverty. This paper aims to examine both positive and negative impacts of lea immigration to make a conclusion concerning its expediency.
First of all, the positive influence of legal immigration is determined by the fact that immigrants are considerably entrepreneurial. They launch new companies “at twice the rate of native-born Americans” creating new working places (“Immigration facts: The positive economic impact of Immigration,” 2020, p. 1). As previously mentioned, it strengthens the country’s middle class, boosts wages, and increases employment opportunities for all, including native-born workers. In addition, immigrants fill essential labor needs, increase productivity, pay taxes, and purchase goods contributing to the economy of the United States. In addition, immigrants help to stabilize a challenging situation in the labor market connected with the population’s aging.
As innovators, consumers, and job creators, immigrants substantially contribute to the economy from a financial perspective. In 20 16, they added $2 trillion to the United States GDP, and in 2018, their contribution was almost $460 billion to state, local, and federal taxes (“Immigration facts: The positive economic impact of Immigration,” 2020). As a result, any limitation of legal immigration will have a devastating effect on the country’s economic situation shrinking growth by almost 13%, decreasing America’s GDP by 2% over twenty years, and cutting more than 4.6 million jobs (“Immigration facts: The positive economic impact of Immigration,” 2020). Moreover, immigration contributes to Social Security, and the funding of hospitals, schools, highways, and emergency response centers.
At the same time, immigration frequently has an impact on the wages of native-born workers. In particular, the influence of migrants on labor market outcomes is determined by their skill composition (Edo, 2018). Thus, an inflow of immigrants inevitably reduces the wages of competing native workers “with skills similar to those of the migrants” (Edo, 2018, p. 922). At the same time, when immigrants do not have experience, competency, or appropriate education level, the supply of skilled labor is reduced. Therefore, immigration may cause poverty by creating severe labor market competition and decreasing wages for native-born people.
Taking into consideration all advantages and disadvantages of legal immigration on the economy of the United States, it is possible to conclude that its positive impact is more significant. In general, immigrants complement American workers instead of competing with them as in the majority of cases, they have different educational backgrounds and skillsets. In addition, the American economy may be regarded as not zero-sum and dynamic – in other words, it does not mean that when an individual gets a job, another one loses it. At the same time, when a worker is well-experienced and educated, he or she will get a job with an appropriate payment despite the competition in the labor market.
References
Gubernskaya, Z., & Dreby, J. (2018). US immigration policy and the case for family unity. Journal on Migration and Human Security, 5(2), 417-430.
Edo, A. (2018). The impact of immigration on the labor market. Journal of Economic Surveys, 33(3), 922-948.
Immigration facts: The positive economic impact of Immigration. (2020).