When I first walk into class on day 1 of sociology, I did not know what to expect. I did not know much about immigrants however, I knew that I was a child of an immigrants. I though immigration was just a typical way of emphasizing the difference between a foreign and citizen. I know immigrants get an alien card for a minimum of five years before able to apply for citizenship, but only if you come legally. For those who come illegally, I did not know anything about them. I did not even know that they are able to attend to school.
I used to think of immigrants as people of color such as Black Africans, Asians, and Latinos because the media always shows the minority immigrants such as when talking about immigration. The media also never shows a white immigrants from Europe or even blaming on them as the job takers unlike the minorities. Therefore, I though the best to describe immigrants is by race which is pretty racism but, I did not know at all because I never hear or see anyone call the Irish immigrant.
People who share the same demographic characteristics such as social class, race, gender, and age, are most likely going to view this issue through a similar lens. First, when it comes to social class, the wealthier gets the power and respect because they use cheap pool of labor for employers and the unintended consequence would be that undocumented immigrants keep consumer costs down because of the cheap labor they provide. This result capitalism because when a cheap labor occurs, the Bourgeoisie will gain more profit, which will transfer to power to maintain their success to last forever (class notes).
This is the reason why we still have an inequality because immigrants are generally nonwhite therefore, the policies does not give them equal opportunities such as high paying jobs. Secondly, people of color were highly discrimaned because the immigration policies only focus on the Mexico border. The southern border was still heavily patrolled and the act of deporting illegal Hispanic immigrants remained a common practice (Hing, 2004).
Even as the federal laws regarding immigration began to abandon their outright prejudiced and racist tendencies, American society was still concerned about maintaining its European identity, viewing the Hispanics as a threat. This shows how demographic characteristic such as race has cause the Latinos to be less desirable in American society. What I would like in practice is to reform the immigration policies and creates ones that will benefit everyone equally. New and better policies will result into a better economy. Instead of just spending more money or boarder control, we should create more jobs and fight against poverty.
The World Bank believes that if wealthy countries allowed their workforce to swell by a mere 3% by letting in an extra 14 million workers from developing countries between 2001 and 2025, the world would be $356 billion year better off, and those figures grossly underestimate the likely economic gains from adding diversity and dynamism that immigrants bring (Ledrian, 2006). So not only does new and better immigration policies will prevent inequality between races but also will boost the economy. Furthermore, immigration policies are completely unfair.
It seems like the policies are not doing any goods to immigrants themselves but, to use them as an excuse and a way of avoiding expansive labor. The media portrays immigrants unjustly stating that immigrants are here to take our jobs which, is wrong. According to David Masci, the writer of Debate on Immigration, “Immigrants are often forced to develop entrepreneurial skills necessitating from a lack of social and economic status, and are thus more likely to take bigger risks in terms of starting their own businesses, as they often have less to lose than established citizens” (2000).
This quote illustrates a clear picture that immigrants are needed in order to develop socially and economically. They are bringing new skills and culture into a new society to make it more diversity and create more jobs. So not only does immigration makes safety nets stronger but, also are also increasing our education system. Moreover, I still believe the policies of immigration needs to be change, in order to develop as a society. If we look at the pathway to citizenship, there is not exact solution of getting into the line on becoming a citizen.
We need a solution now because some of these immigrants do not have home. For example; if you look at Tam’ case, she does not have home because not only does our country deny her but, her native country also deny her just because she was a child of immigrants. Seeing her getting deny of a citizenship make me believe that nothing has changed. I believe we should create a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants. We need an immigration system that recognize the hardship that cause people to risk their lives to get here.
In doing so, it will do more good to our nation than expansive and useless approaches like deporting millions of people back or spending billions on boarder control that would not stop people from attempting to cross. I honestly do not think the small changes have done much so far. What need to be done is to get rid of the current policies and built new ones that will prevent capitalism from occurring. I believe if we revolt against capitalism, immigrants are going to be more successful because it will prevent the wealthiest to create rule to harm others and most importantly the media will not be able to stereotype immigrants.
When it comes to Theory, we are talking about the idea of the inevitable aspect of social life, the struggle for scarce resources, and the fact that there are always winners and losers in every aspect of life. So who benefits from the current social arrangements and whose expense is it at? (Class lecture notes). The winning game creates capitalism because of the competition that comes along with. The bourgeoisie uses their power to control proletariat with weapons for revolt and control the media’s narrative (single story of undocumented immigrants).
This type of alienation will cause capitalism to gain more power and continues to control the government and create policies. Politicians always talk about the negative aspect of society and cause more harm for immigrants more specifically, illegal immigrants. I believe the policies needs to reform to give immigrants more opportunities in order to treat everyone equally. I honestly feel like immigration policies stay the same, but strengthened. Terrorism attacks bring fear and cause policies to change and affect all immigrants.
This result to more money being spend in securing the border as a safety measure. It also cause more death because people are not going to stop attempting to cross the border to come here and start a new and better life. One the reason why I think the immigration policies has stayed the same, but strengthened is there is no line for a green for undocumented immigrants. It just provide them work authorization which will allow them to work and pay taxes.
This is problematic because if we are allowing undocumented immigrants to attend to school and live most of their times of their lives in our nation then we should consider them as Americans. After reading the Irish immigrants and Tam Tran’s story, I was able to see that racism play a major role when it comes to pathway of citizenship. I was also able to see the unfairness of immigration policies because the Irish were more likely to live in America and not have to face deportation than the Latinos.
They are able to assimilate well with American society because their just because they are Irish. From a sociological concepts, the United States is a nation of immigrants and refugees however, we do not welcome all immigrants equally. This result to some group such as the Mexicans decide to leave America because they are unable to culturally assimilate well the Americans. Throughout this semester, I learn that immigration was continually been a common problem. Due to terrorism attack, recession, and more people trying to become citizens, Americans fear that of losing jobs and freedom.
This result the government to create numerous laws to regulate immigrants. However, the policies cause more segregation because it shapes and molds society and greatly affected by the belief that American identity is white. Instead of creating policies that realize America is a nation that is free and open to all who seek opportunity for everyone, the immigration policies fear that diverse ethnic groups will change American society. Fear of changes makes immigration polices remains unjust for decades. In order to solve this broken system, a revolution has to be done.
