While the question of immigration appears to be a prominent wedge issue in the western countries only, the reality is that the issue of immigration is a global problem which is affecting almost every country in the world. Different countries have different ways of dealing with the problem of immigration. There are countries which have more than 80% foreign-born population but still, there is no pathway of granting permanent citizenship to these people. Other countries deal with immigration by putting huge barriers to citizenship with an exception of people whose parents were born in that particular country.
The Senate in the U.S. has tried to pass the immigration reform bill without any success. The Senate both Democrats and Republicans shut down the federal government over what they termed as inhumane treatment accorded to the children also known as dreamers by the U.S. government. President Trump has repeatedly termed the U.S. immigration policy as a broken system with one party scowled and the other part clapped ( Elmer, 2017). The polarized reaction depicts a big divide amongst voters over the immigration dilemma.
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The question of immigration is not monolithic and raises many fundamental issues. First, there is the question of how best the host countries should deal with illegal immigrants particularly those in the most needs of protection such as children. Secondly, there is the question of whether or not the overall levels of immigration should be reduced or left as it is. Third, there is the question of how the host countries should prioritize the various groups such as the economic immigrants, the family members, or skilled workers ( Elmer, 2017). It is possible that most citizens do not bother to analyze all the questions touching on immigration. If anything, the issue of immigration does not rank high in the western countries policy priorities. The immigration dilemma is mostly tied with lobby groups which make reactions to align with a political position, polling language, and political debates.
In the United States, the question of immigration has created a split in the Republican Party. From one angle, there are hardliners who have zero tolerance for illegal immigration. This group propagates for a wall built around the U.S. borders, increased arrests over illegal immigrants, deportation for undocumented immigrants in the country, as well as cut in the immigrant population that can gain access to the United States especially from Latino or the African continent ( Elmer, 2017). Trump ardent supporters together with his fellow hard-line restrictionists cling to their native narratives. Most members of this group push President Trump to build a protective wall across the U.S. borders to deal with the issue of porous borders. This move is, however, opposed by the majority of the American citizens who do not believe in building walls, citing the fact that walls don't bring peace, people do.
There is another group in the Republican Party characterized by pro-immigration agenda. Several Republican and famous conservatives have released reports indicating that the United States has greatly benefitted from immigrants who complement the U.S. labor force and create new job opportunities. The conservatives have loudly decried the immigration plans of President Trump ( Elmer, 2017). This opposite wing of the party propagates for comprehensive immigration reforms instead of the zero tolerance propagated by the hardliners. In the 2016 elections, Republican presidential candidates with most donor support were Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush both of whom have come out to publicly support high immigration levels with amnesty system for the undocumented immigrants ( Saunders, Lim & Prosnitz, 2014).
Compared with the recent history, the Democratic Party has lately embraced immigrants because the larger population of Democratic Party is composed of members with Hispanic origin. With the increase in Hispanic population, the labor unions which initially had problems with cheap labor realized that neutralization of undocumented workers was a significant step towards strengthening the labor relations ( Elmer, 2017). At the same time, the Hispanic population grew faster and dominated the party and as a result, the Hispanic leaders propagated for pro-immigrant laws ( Elmer, 2017). Also, the tech leaders have also championed for expansion of the H 1B visas for more highly skilled immigrants to get into the country ( Rothenberg, 2016). The Democratic unity on the question of immigration presents a strong opposition to Trump hard-line restrictions on immigration. The case of levels of immigration, however, remains strong and calls for reasoning across the political divide.
The major arguments against immigration especially the low skilled labor force are two-fold. There is a major concern that the low skilled immigrants would pull down the wages for the Native Americans in the low-income bracket as they would be competing in the same bracket. The second concern is that illegal immigrants would drain the federal resources. It is a fact that the low skilled immigrants would be receiving income support, health care, and retirement benefits more than they pay for taxes ( Coffey, 2001). Often lost in the debate of illegal immigration, budget and wage impact is the concern of the moral obligation of the rich countries to provide support to the poor families especially those who leave their countries because of political distress ( Rothenberg, 2016). Even with the many controversies surrounding immigration, one clear fact is that immigration improves the living standards of poor immigrant laborers.
The first step towards dealing with the problem of immigration is securing the borders. Whereas the progress is made, the U.S. border with Mexico used by the illegal immigrants to enter the United States still has security challenges. There is need for more funding and commitment towards this course so that there is no porous way through which the illegal immigrants get into the country. Secondly, there should be a friendly and effective guest worker program ( Rothenberg, 2015). This would enable people who need jobs to come and do the jobs not taken by the American people. With an effective and friendly program dealing with the guest workers, the government should increase surveillance and prosecution of companies and businesses which continue to give jobs to illegal immigrants. There should be significant fine to pay for employers who employ illegal immigrants and encourage people to continue entering the country illegally ( Kulin, Eger & Hjerm, 2016). There should be a way of dealing with the illegal immigrants who are already in millions in a humane and reasonable manner. If they act inappropriately, then they should be taken back to their native countries.
The solution to the current immigration dilemma in my view should probably fall on the international models. For instance, in countries such as Australia and Canada, there is a shift away from the merit-based system to systems which consider whether or not someone has a job offer ( Sciarini, Lanz & Nai, 2015). For the purposes of Immigration, the United States can narrow down the definition of family to exclude adult married children and siblings. While the existing American laws dealing with family-based immigration appear to be most lenient globally, the outcome is different because the U.S. government applies restriction for every category that receives visa.
The western countries can focus on a merit-based structure which considers the elements of the current systems. It is important to focus on every category and to adjust depending on social and economic outcomes ( Saunders, Lim & Prosnitz, 2014). Whereas negotiations can be frustrating for most people, especially for those within the system, scholars agree that the decisions regarding immigration should not be rushed and negotiations should be encouraged. In Australia and Canada, the immigrants are admitted on the basis of employability most of whom are allowed to permanently stay in the countries. Both countries use merit-based systems to identify immigrants who are qualified and assigning those points to criteria such as language skills, education, and the history of employment. The merit-based system does not result necessarily in economic payoff since skills do not always get people jobs. For instance, Canada has experienced struggles in keeping its merit-based workers that were offered employment opportunities when the policy was first put in place in 1967 ( Sciarini, Lanz & Nai, 2015). This is because some of the credentials or skills that the immigrants used to gain access to the country were unrecognized so most of them ended up unemployed.
There are also stringent measures that are taken by some countries like South Korea and Japan. Such countries are inspired by their desire of preserving their cultures. This goal is also reiterated by some U.S. conservatives. The Japanese government, for example, gave a lot of money to illegal immigrants as a way of luring them to leave the country. In South Korea, people gain citizenship only with family descents and this requires an individual to stay there for long period, language proficiency, embrace of customs, culture, and history. The Japan government grants citizenship on the basis of one having Japanese parents instead of where the babies are born.
In conclusion, the immigration dilemma requires sobriety and global conversations which can yield a solution. Taking hard-line positions not only leads to gross human rights violations but does not also provide a formidable solution. There should be conversations on how to deal with the political distress and poverty levels in the developing countries so that their citizens can have an environment where they can work and build their economy instead of looking for the same in other countries. The political class should stop using the immigration issue to gain political milestone and start to look for rational action. It is time that the country looks at how it can use immigration to make it more competitive, add to the economic strength, cultural diversity and providing with unique strength hailing from a nation founded on the character of the hardworking and law-abiding immigrants.
References
Coffey, K. (2001). The due process right to seek asylum in the United States: The immigration dilemma and constitutional controversy. Immigr. & Nat'lity L. Rev. , 22 , 255.
Elmer, L. M. (2017). The Undocumented Dilemma: Labor Protections for Undocumented Workers in the Face of Immigration Reform.
Kulin, J., Eger, M. A., & Hjerm, M. (2016). Immigration or welfare? The progressive’s dilemma revisited. Socius , 2 , 2378023116632223.
Rothenberg, P.S. (2016). Race, class, and gender in the United States: An integrated study, 10th Edition. Worth Publishers. ISBN-13: 978-1464178665
Rothenberg, Paula (2015). White Privilege: Essential Readings on the Other Side of Racism. 5th Edition New York, NY: Worth Publishers. ISBN-13: 978-1429242202 ISBN-10: 1429242205
Saunders, J., Lim, N., & Prosnitz, D. (2014). Enforcing Immigration Law at the State and Local Levels: A Public Policy Dilemma (Vol. 273). Rand Corporation.
Sciarini, P., Lanz, S., & Nai, A. (2015). Till immigration do us part? Public opinion and the dilemma between immigration control and bilateral agreements. Swiss Political Science Review , 21 (2), 271-286.
