Immigration International Studies
Since I was a little girl, I have been interested in international studies. I dreamt of studying abroad and now I am studying here to improve my abilities and gain knowledge. I am planning to choose ‘global studies' as my major. The reason that I've chosen this for my major is because I really would like to know about globalization and racial unity. In a multiracial country such as the United States, globalization is becoming more common. Especially, immigration is one of the most important factors in the United States. Many immigrants have succeeded in America for a long time. Still, in these days too many people have come to the United States to make the ‘American Dream' come true. However, a lot of people have not only failed to make it but also some of them are on the verge of bankruptcy. People who failed to make the ‘American dream' are frequently found destitute in the streets. These people are suffering from many kinds of problems and they also raise problems too. I am an international student who came from South Korea to the United States to learn more. However, I disagree with moving permanently to the United States and also I think it is not good for foreigners.
I certainly know that many great immigrants led America into success. According to World and I magazine, author Peter Duignan said that “Whereas Europe and Japan have aging populations and face shortages of tax money to care for their elderly, the United States, thanks to immigration, has a growing population and workers to do the jobs Americans do not want to do at low wages. Immigrants labor therefore keeps prices, supplies and services available and cheap.” (Duignan, P. 2004) Also these immigrants pay a lot of taxes to the U.S. In my case, I pay much more tuition fees than American students pay. We may know so far that immigrants have benefited America's economy. However, there have been many bad effects caused by some immigrants.
First of all, immigrants increase the crime rates. Many aliens cannot adjust in a new place so they chose a bad way of life. Some have committed several crimes such as murder, burglary, and rape. Also, some have chosen to be narcotic traffickers. Especially, illegal entrants violate the nation's rules and commit many kinds of crime. A new report from the Center for Immigration Studies said that the illegal aliens played a big role in Virginia gangs. 25-50% of all gangsters arrested in northern and western Virginia are estimated to be deportable aliens. Gang investigators estimate that 90% of the members of MS-13, the most notorious immigrant gang, are illegal aliens. Gangsters tend to work by day in construction, landscaping, farming, and day labor, and at night are involved in organized crime including drug dealing, prostitution rings, theft, and extortion (The pew research center, 2006). As we can see from this, serious crime problems are partly influenced by people from other countries. Also, these kinds of cases are taking place in not only Virginia but also whole areas of the United States.
Secondly, overpopulation arises with foreigners. Immigration is the lawful entry of a person of a certain nationality to another nation. The US government only admits legal immigrants to live in their society. However, the people who do not have enough money choose to immigrate to the US by illegal ways. Because of these immigrants, we do not know how many immigrants are living in this society. The INS estimated that there were 7 million illegal aliens residing in the United States in January 2000. Statistics are not exact numbers, it is just guesswork. I strongly believe that there could be many more people than the statistics report. Human overpopulation has been credited to diverse factors: increased life-span, absence of natural enemies, improvement in the quality of life, and accessibility to get better goods. These main problems are happened because of some immigrants. We cannot say that all of the immigrants caused these serious problems.
However, there is no doubt that some immigrants badly affect on society.
These immigrants not only cause problems. They are suffering from their own problems too.
First of all, immigrant children have been greatly affected by cultural misunderstanding, language barriers, and feelings of isolation within the school atmosphere. For example, Seung-hui cho who was a student at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University committed a mass murder in his school. He arrived in the US at a young age with his family. However, he experienced a racial discrimination during his teenage. When he was alive, he said that he hates white people who make fun of Asians. Then, he was diagnosed with a severe form of an anxiety disorder, as well as depression. After graduating high school, he went to university. He still had some hardships during this time and led him to kill 32 people in his school. This massacre is an extreme case but we might know from here that immigrant students are having many big problems. The most common problem is learning a new language. Children might confuse between their own language and the second language. Accordingly, immigrant students face a lot of special challenges. Also, experiencing a difficulty is not the only children's problem. Adults are used to their native language so they may feel more difficult to learn a new language than children do.
Secondly, it is very hard for foreigners to get a job. They do not have enough opportunities to get jobs. The natives have the first chance to get jobs. It is unfair but it is very understandable for the country. For this reason, many immigrants do the jobs which natives evade. For example, works that requires a low-skill but high danger are the jobs which natives won't want to do. Therefore, these jobs are plentiful and many immigrants chose to work in these areas to make a living. Businesses in these groups have a lot of interest in illegal immigration. They provide cheaper labor which cuts costs and causes better competition. Because of this reason, many immigrants, especially illegal immigrants, have jobs in these kinds of fields. If they were staying in their own country, they would get nice jobs which are safe and stable. They do not have to suffer from the hardships in a new atmosphere with a poor work circumstance.
Lastly will be the most general problem that immigrants can experience. It is a ‘culture shock'. According to the Wikipedia webpage, it says that culture shock is a term used to describe the anxiety and feelings felt when people have to operate within an entirely different cultural or social environment, such as a foreign country. This is often combined with strong disgust about certain aspects of a new or different culture. Immigrants would experience this feeling when they come to a new area. One example can be eating habits. Spending hours on eating a meal might be unusual in America where the fast foods are very common. However, in France, they regard eating meals as a very important part in their lives. Therefore, French who moved to America might have some problems to adjust to a new eating habit. Also, his or her pattern of living would be changed too. In my case, I had some problems with paying ‘tips'. This can be very usual when one was born in America or a country where a tip culture is exists. However, paying a tip was very unfamiliar to me. This new culture affected to me very much because it was not available in the society where I have lived. When I first came to America, no one told me about a tip culture. I just went out some restaurants or shops without paying tips. People who gave me a service would regard me as a very strange person or they would get mad on me. However, I did not know about paying tips at all. Few months later, my father told me about paying tips. He said that I have to pay extra money when I get some services. Since that time, I have started to pay some tips in restaurants and hotels after I got a service. However, paying tips is very awkward to me and still I am not used to this new culture. People from the other countries might experience hundreds and thousands of these differences when they go to a new country. There can be a big confusion between your country's own culture and a new culture. This big confusion is very difficult to get over.
Some people insist that immigrants have enriched the US and they will continue to do so. Others argue that immigrants have badly affected to the US society. It would depend on a person but it is very clear that immigration can be bad for not only the society but also to immigrants themselves. Of course, immigrates gave a lot of help to the U.S history. However, the bad points are weighing more than the good points. It means that an indiscreet immigration could be very harmful to the society. I know that blocking up all of the people from the other countries is impossible. The reason is because we are living in a global world. Instead of obstructing the immigrants, there should be some strict rules to incomers. If there are more rigid rules to the incomers, we could decrease some problems than now. One of the possible solutions can be to prohibit illegal immigrants' incoming. There should be many strict rules to the illegal immigrants. Also, the US government should take care of immigrants to adjust well in America's society. In addition, immigrants themselves have to try to find solutions to problems. If these plans are come into action, a great numbers of problems will be decreased.
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