Weighing the Costs and Benefits of Mexican Immigration

2010-07-22 Literary Collections

Author : Elena Polyanichko
Release : 2010-07-22
Genre : Literary Collections
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Download or read book Weighing the Costs and Benefits of Mexican Immigration written by Elena Polyanichko. This book was released on 2010-07-22. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2010 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 2,3, University of Kassel, language: English, abstract: The topic of immigration is a thorny issue in the American society. Specifically, the issue of illegal immigration is a burning issue. A record 12.7 million immigrants lived in the United States in 2008, a 17-fold increase since 1970. Mexicans now account for about one third of all immigrants living in the United States, and more than half of them are unauthorized1. Looking at these statistics it is agreeable that Mexicans are representing the most noticeable immigration group in the U.S. and compared to other minority groups are of most greatness to American society. By thinking of Mexican Americans today the most discussed question arises. Are they burden for the country or simply a source of cheap labor? In 2002 the book with intriguing name “The Death of the West” was published and immediately caused contradictory responses and recognition at the same time, connected to the burning issues published in this book. The book is written by the well known American politician Patrick J. Buchanan, the former main adviser of U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan and devoted to the analysis of hazards representing deadly threats to the existence of the western civilization. The mass immigration, caused by requirement of labor in the developed countries, is one of those hazards. According to the author the fact that an overwhelming part of the immigrants, coming to these countries, are representatives of other races, religions and cultures can change not only ethnic structure of the population, but also the historically developed shape of the West as a whole, its character and foundations. Mexicans, coming to the U.S., in many cases illegally, represent that mass immigration and because of their high number, raise some doubts in American society, whether they are useful or rather harmful. In this paper I will compare two controversial issues regarding Mexican immigration group. On the one side I will consider Mexicans as a threat to the United States, on the other side I will count them as an important source of labor, and therefore try to understand their role and current social status in American society today. I will also take a closer look at the historical backgrounds and general facts forcing them to leave their homeland. [...] 1 Pew Hispanic Center „ Mexican Immigrants in the United States, 2008“, p. 1 http://pewhispanic.org/files/factsheets/47.pdf,

Weighing the Costs and Benefits of Mexican Immigration

2007

Author : Tomás Roberto Jiménez
Release : 2007
Genre :
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Download or read book Weighing the Costs and Benefits of Mexican Immigration written by Tomás Roberto Jiménez. This book was released on 2007. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Beyond Smoke and Mirrors

2002-03-14 Social Science

Author : Douglas S. Massey
Release : 2002-03-14
Genre : Social Science
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Book Rating : 829/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Beyond Smoke and Mirrors by : Douglas S. Massey

Download or read book Beyond Smoke and Mirrors written by Douglas S. Massey. This book was released on 2002-03-14. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Migration between Mexico and the United States is part of a historical process of increasing North American integration. This process acquired new momentum with the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994, which lowered barriers to the movement of goods, capital, services, and information. But rather than include labor in this new regime, the United States continues to resist the integration of the labor markets of the two countries. Instead of easing restrictions on Mexican labor, the United States has militarized its border and adopted restrictive new policies of immigrant disenfranchisement. Beyond Smoke and Mirrors examines the devastating impact of these immigration policies on the social and economic fabric of the Mexico and the United States, and calls for a sweeping reform of the current system. Beyond Smoke and Mirrors shows how U.S. immigration policies enacted between 1986–1996—largely for symbolic domestic political purposes—harm the interests of Mexico, the United States, and the people who migrate between them. The costs have been high. The book documents how the massive expansion of border enforcement has wasted billions of dollars and hundreds of lives, yet has not deterred increasing numbers of undocumented immigrants from heading north. The authors also show how the new policies unleashed a host of unintended consequences: a shift away from seasonal, circular migration toward permanent settlement; the creation of a black market for Mexican labor; the transformation of Mexican immigration from a regional phenomenon into a broad social movement touching every region of the country; and even the lowering of wages for legal U.S. residents. What had been a relatively open and benign labor process before 1986 was transformed into an exploitative underground system of labor coercion, one that lowered wages and working conditions of undocumented migrants, legal immigrants, and American citizens alike. Beyond Smoke and Mirrors offers specific proposals for repairing the damage. Rather than denying the reality of labor migration, the authors recommend regularizing it and working to manage it so as to promote economic development in Mexico, minimize costs and disruptions for the United States, and maximize benefits for all concerned. This book provides an essential "user's manual" for readers seeking a historical, theoretical, and substantive understanding of how U.S. policy on Mexican immigration evolved to its current dysfunctional state, as well as how it might be fixed.

The Economic and Fiscal Consequences of Immigration

2017-07-13 Social Science

Author : National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Release : 2017-07-13
Genre : Social Science
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Book Rating : 454/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis The Economic and Fiscal Consequences of Immigration by : National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Download or read book The Economic and Fiscal Consequences of Immigration written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. This book was released on 2017-07-13. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Economic and Fiscal Consequences of Immigration finds that the long-term impact of immigration on the wages and employment of native-born workers overall is very small, and that any negative impacts are most likely to be found for prior immigrants or native-born high school dropouts. First-generation immigrants are more costly to governments than are the native-born, but the second generation are among the strongest fiscal and economic contributors in the U.S. This report concludes that immigration has an overall positive impact on long-run economic growth in the U.S. More than 40 million people living in the United States were born in other countries, and almost an equal number have at least one foreign-born parent. Together, the first generation (foreign-born) and second generation (children of the foreign-born) comprise almost one in four Americans. It comes as little surprise, then, that many U.S. residents view immigration as a major policy issue facing the nation. Not only does immigration affect the environment in which everyone lives, learns, and works, but it also interacts with nearly every policy area of concern, from jobs and the economy, education, and health care, to federal, state, and local government budgets. The changing patterns of immigration and the evolving consequences for American society, institutions, and the economy continue to fuel public policy debate that plays out at the national, state, and local levels. The Economic and Fiscal Consequences of Immigration assesses the impact of dynamic immigration processes on economic and fiscal outcomes for the United States, a major destination of world population movements. This report will be a fundamental resource for policy makers and law makers at the federal, state, and local levels but extends to the general public, nongovernmental organizations, the business community, educational institutions, and the research community.

States of Belonging

2021-11-15 Social Science

Author : Tomas R. Jimenez
Release : 2021-11-15
Genre : Social Science
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Book Rating : 814/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis States of Belonging by : Tomas R. Jimenez

Download or read book States of Belonging written by Tomas R. Jimenez. This book was released on 2021-11-15. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Political turmoil surrounding immigration at the federal level and the inability of Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform have provided an opening for state and local governments to become more active in setting their own immigration-related policies. States largely dictate the resources, institutions, and opportunities immigrants can access: who can get a driver’s license or attend a state university, what languages are spoken in schools and public offices, how law enforcement interacts with the public, and even what schools teach students about history. In States of Belonging, an interdisciplinary team of immigration experts – Tomás R. Jiménez, Deborah J. Schildkraut, Yuen J. Huo, and John F. Dovidio – explore the interconnections among immigration policies, attitudes about immigrants and immigration, and sense of belonging in two neighboring states – Arizona and New Mexico – with divergent approaches to welcoming newcomers. Arizona and New Mexico are historically and demographically similar, but they differ in their immigration policies. Arizona has enacted unwelcoming policies towards immigrants, restricting the access of immigrants to state resources, social services, and public institutions. New Mexico is more welcoming, actively seeking to protect the rights of immigrants and extending access to state resources and institutions. The authors draw on an original survey and in-depth interviews of a cross-section of each state’s population to illustrate how these differing approaches affect the sense of belonging not only among immigrants, but among the U.S.-born as well. Respondents in Arizona, regardless of whether they were foreign- or native-born or their ethno-racial background, agreed that the state is unwelcoming to immigrants, and they pointed to Arizona’s restrictive policies as the primary factor. The sense of rejection perceived by Latinos in Arizona, including the foreign-born and the U.S.-born, was profound. They felt the effects of administrative and symbolic exclusions of the state’s unwelcoming policies as they went about their daily lives. New Mexico’s more welcoming approach had positive effects on the Latino immigrant population, and these policies contributed to an increased sense of belonging among U.S.-born Latinos and U.S.-born whites as well. The authors show that exposure to information about welcoming policies is associated with an improved sense of belonging across most population groups. They also find that the primary dividing line when it came to reactions to welcoming policies was political, not ethno-racial. Only self-identified Republicans, Latino as well as white, showed reduced feelings of belonging. States of Belonging demonstrates that welcoming policies cultivate a greater sense of belonging for immigrants and other state citizens, suggesting that policies aimed at helping immigrants gain a social, economic, and political foothold in this country can pay a broad societal dividend.

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