The Impact Of Illegal Immigration On Cities In The United States

As stated by Lisa Christensen Gee, JD the Senior Policy Analyst for immigration policies in the United States 'Undocumented immigrants contribute significantly to state and local taxes, collectively paying an estimated $11.64 billion a year.”. Illegal immigration affect cities and their cultural traditions in a positive way by providing diversity, taking on the more unfavorable jobs citizens prefer not to do as well as introducing new ideals.

According to Adam Davidson who works as an International Business and Economics Correspondent at National Public Radio Logically, if immigrants were 'stealing' jobs, so would every young person leaving school and entering the job market; countries should become poorer as they get larger. In reality, of course, the opposite happens.' This can be argued from multiple angles but when it all comes down to it immigration can provide many positives to the economy regardless of if it has a few negative aspects. Through religious influence it is well known that those who are christian tend to integrate into their surroundings easier because that was the faith that the United States was built upon. This means that foreigners who arrive speaking a different language and practicing a different form of religion tend to receive the greatest opposition, Raymond Taras wrote a scholarly article that explains parts of the ethic and religious aspect of illegal immigration.

That is, there is no single answer as to whether religions of different kinds help their faithful integrate into certain Western societies and not others. Many immigrants arrive poor, trying to seek refuge in the United States. Here they wish to start over and make a better, safer life for themselves and their families. This means they are willing to take on jobs that the average citizens would not. Regardless what it is many immigrants are willing to be paid less than the minimum wage and work tirelessly to acquire enough money to send back to family in need. Yes this is a negative effect of illegal immigration but those who reside here illegally pay for everyday necessities with the money they earn which in turn boosts our economy. The journal for Religion and Migration shows “Smartphones in hands, the friends discuss their travels...in perfect bilingual fluency, effortlessly switching between languages and subway trains. These two scenes neatly capture the ever-more globalized and interconnected world…” Fen Montaigne the author who put a voice behind the endless sea of faces represented in photographs of gang members and impoverished children. 'No matter how many gang members you deport, things are not going to change as long as society is not addressing the needs of youth,'.

Many of the more conservative Americans tend to see immigrants as the ones who bring drugs and violence to their “peaceful” streets in the United States. While this may be true they are not the sole cause of it. If America were to spend more time focused on rehabilitating impoverished neighborhoods where children of immigrants reside the problem could be more accurately solved. Many people who attend youth groups and have a guiding figure to help them make decisions with safe judgement end up succeeding in life. Deporting illegal immigrants is not always the answer when helping them and providing them with certain services would benefit the countries economy greatly in the future.

Many of the youths who are deported back to their “homelands” as stated by many western residents, do not know what it is like to live in these ethnically similar countries. Just because a resident of the United States has lineage that can be traced back to a foreign country does not mean that when they commit a crime we send them back to the home of their great grandparents. Montaigne displays a valuable piece of information to her audience “Since 1992, the INS has rounded up and deported thousands of criminal immigrants--legal and illegal alike--many to homelands they barely know.” This was also popular back in the days of slavery in the United States. When the constitutional amendment freed slaves rich white men came up with a way to deport slaves back to Africa that way there would be less racial diversity amongst the states. Africans who had be born in the United States knew nothing about living in Africa and they had no desire to move to a continent across the ocean where they knew no one and had nothing but ethnicity to relate to.

Religion is one key way in which illegal and legal immigrants affect cultural traditions within the United States, for instance “...religious participation was a critical step in the process of becoming American, with churches providing the social structure to support and sustain ethnic communities while facilitating intermarriage within major religious groups…” (Massey, D. S., & Higgins, M. E.). This quote proves that religion can help immigrants to find their place in a new form of society as well as join forces with others who are native to the country. Religion can bind groups together and completely alienate others who have smaller voices and lack in population. Cities can provide shelter for common groups of people to migrate towards.

For instance in New York there are sections of the city devoted to groups of similar people who have all settled in one are in order to protect their traditions and culture. This does change the culture of the country the are presiding in but it also influences their own regardless of how hard they try to keep it the same. This leads to an immediate uprising in anger towards these people but in reality they are now what is most well known about the city of New York. Places like Chinatown, Little Italy, areas where only Poles live and their German neighbors, there are neighborhoods where only Dutch live. Although these traditions have faded slightly in some of these groups the initial culture remained the same with new hints of American culture intertwined within. It is highly likely that many immigrants change their beliefs in order to assimilate smoothly into the legal population of natives. Some prefer to assume the pre existing views of a place instead of challenging them with new ideals. “Among immigrants, religious participation is also likely to be affected by conditions at the place of destination, including the share of co-religionists, the proportion foreign born, and the diversity of local religious beliefs…”. Sometimes these new ideals are what create the diversity a country desperately needs.

According to Karen Jensenius is a demographer at the Center for Immigration Studies, “Of the 465 civilian occupations, only four are majority immigrant. These four occupations account for less than 1 percent of the total U.S. workforce. Moreover, native-born Americans comprise 47 percent of workers in these occupations.” This quote displays how many Americans are using preconceived notions and assumptions to build up their arguments. Less than one percent of the total workforce in the United States is comprised of Illegal and legal immigrants. This one percent is what everyone is so upset about, which goes to show how extremely misinformed the American people really are. If educational facilities would take the time to touch on subjects like this many people would not focus on the dramatic, catchy headlines about drug lords from foreign countries screwing up our youth and immigrant families tanking our economy and stealing jobs from Americans who legally reside here. In conclusion immigration is something that positively influences our cities in the United States. Without is Americans would not possess the diversity they are so well known for. It is with this that we hold leverage over countries who refuse to allow certain races and ethnicities to influence their own traditions. The melting pot has many more benefits than a closed off society.