The Immigration and Nationality Act, also known as the Hart-Cellar Act, was passed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965 and is one of the more controversial acts. It was made to abolish the National Origins Quota and make immigration become international. Immigration to the United States has always been an uncertainty. It leads to a greater population, and immigrants may lack needed skills affecting the economy of the country since they wouldn’t know how to perform a specific task. They can have a favorable influence on the economy increasing the incomes, produce a more educated labor force, leading to more productivity, and better innovations. Even though they raise the population tremendously, immigrants can have a much more positive impact rather than a negative one.
Immigrants can raise incomes for Americans. The average income of a country is one of the best factors to look at when wanting to know a country’s standard of living (Isbister, The Immigration Debate). It’s one of the best since it lets people know how much a person is getting paid and if the country is efficient in its labor. Immigrants are paid less than natives even though they have similar skill sets since they do not have the power to bargain much with firms. Firms are earning profits since they “pay immigrants less than their marginal productivity” (Peri, Immigration, Labor Markets, Productivity). Marginal productivity is the change in output after adding a new unit of labor and since the immigrants are the “new unit of labor,” they change the output by getting more done; thus, the firms profiting. Many people think that immigrants would take the jobs of natives and increase the rate of unemployment but this is not the case at all. Their jobs complement the jobs of natives. Immigrants are given more productive tasks than natives yet are paid less and their jobs are not easily comparable to those of natives so the lower incomes cannot be categorized as discrimination (Peri, Immigration, Labor Markets, Productivity). Immigrants perform jobs that require manual labor rather than communication and language skills, natives perform better in those which are completely different (Penn Wharton, The Effects of Immigration). In this understanding, the incomes are raised since there is more productivity and less competition. People can argue that since immigration would increase the population, it would decrease the output per person. There is a possibility that the increase in population won’t be proportional to the increase in output and this can cause harm to American residents (Isbister, The Immigration Debate). Immigrants might not work as much and lack the needed skills reducing the index. But this is more than likely not the case, immigrants come to America looking for jobs, so they will willingly work, “immigration increases the demand for labor” (Isbister, The Immigration Debate).
Immigrants can lead to more productivity in the economy. They can bring a great amount of talent and dedication with them which is great for the economy as they will probably be creating better innovations. For example, a firm can produce a product with no problems at all, but if they welcome immigrants, they can produce more than double the initial amount. Immigrants would increase the size of the population, leading to an increase of the economy generating “economic growth to such an extent that [if] certain minerals and fuels became scarcer, the United States could trade with other countries for those resources” (Isbister, The Immigration Debate). An influx of immigrants can possibly lead to scarcer natural resources, but this won’t really be a problem for the United States since it can trade with other countries to replace the ones it lacks. Liberal opponents argue that the quality of the labor force is slowly deteriorating because more and more unskilled and uneducated immigrants are coming to the United States. This is not true at all. Supporters of immigration would argue that immigrants actually have very important skills and can provide a considerable amount to the productivity and growth of the economy (Isbister, The Immigration Debate). According to The Effects of Immigration published by Penn Wharton, a significant number of degrees in science and engineering are rewarded to foreign-born students that possess a temporary visa. This proves that not all immigrants are uneducated and unskilled. Even though there are the exceptions to the educated and skilled immigrants, they still have their incentive to be successful, they came to this country more than likely to get a better job, a better life, and provide better for their families.
Immigrants would improve the demographics of the country. The ethnic makeup of the country would be diverse, enhancing the country. In 1775, Benjamin Franklin disliked the idea of having other races immigrate to America, other races with the exception of whites. He referred to immigrants as “aliens” and mentioned they could never fit into the country or adopt the “language or customs, any more than they can acquire [their] complexion” (Isbister, The Immigration Debate). President Franklin expresses that immigrants are foreigners and have different skin tones, they could never adapt to the “American life.” But his opinion did not stop the “aliens” from arriving into the country. The number of immigrants rose in the nineteenth century reaching a peak at the beginning of the twentieth century. But then in the 1930s, the immigration fell, however the numbers began to rise again at the beginning of the end of WW2. In “southern and eastern Europe… economic development and industrial capitalism grew…” (Isbister, The Immigration Debate). Also, according to America’s Demographic Future written by Joel Kotkin and Erika Ozuna, the global population growth has slowed down and this pattern is probably going to continue “declining to less than 0.8 percent by 2025… due to an unanticipated drop in birth rates in developing countries…” Despite that, immigrants’ children make up the difference for sustaining the population. A counterargument could be said about environmental damage because of the population growth. Since the economy will be larger, there will be more resources needed to cleaning up the increased pollution and slowly the number of resources will decrease. So “if the environmental damage is more than proportional to the growth in population and output, either environmental quality will deteriorate or the country will have to devote a higher proportion of its income to environmental preservation just to stay even, or both” (Isbister, The Immigration Debate). But as stated previously, the United States can just trade with other countries for insufficient resources.
The rise of immigrants throughout the United States has improved the economy and demographics of American society in a significant way rather than diminishing it. Immigration raises the incomes for Americans and benefits firms, they lead to more productivity in the economy since there is a greater number of them, they get more done, and lastly, they improve the demographics of the country. The country becomes more diverse and more innovations. While population growth, scarce resources, and environmental damages can be raising concerns because of immigration, they do fuel our economy and shape the world views of the United States.