United States Immigration Policy Analysis

Today the United States is the home to the largest immigrant population in the world. Even though immigrants assimilate faster in the United States compared to other developed nations, immigration policy has become a highly controversial issue. The steady increase in the immigrant population in America enrages the citizens who think the immigrants take away jobs opportunities, benefit from government benefits unfairly, increase crime and terrorism in the country, and do not integrate into mainstream social and political life which threatens to erase this country’s culture and distinctive character. However, economic theory predicts and academic research confirms immigration has a net positive effect on the natives and the overall economy.
Today immigration should not only be looked at it in terms of taxes and jobs but more so the culture that each diverse group brings once they come to the United States. Gianmarco Ottaviano, an expert in this field of research stated that a more cultural diverse environment makes Americans work harder (West, 2011). In larger environments, such as San Francisco and New York City immigration is a large part in their multiculturalism since they have different sections of the cities that bring different economic values. Some research has been done where experts believe that areas with well cultured environments have a greater positive impact on society and local economy (West, 2011). In 2007 there was a poll test called the Gallup Poll where random citizens were asked whether they thought that immigration was effective or not, forty percent of which stated that immigration has made things better, nine percent stated that immigration has made things worse, forty-six percent stated that immigration has made no effect, and the last five percent was miscellaneous (West, 2011). Within the last couple decades there have been many different entertainers, politicians, athletes, and public figures from various
Within the last four decades there has been an increase of immigration of Latin Americans and Asians in which fifty one percent are Latin American born and twenty five percent are Asian born (Ha, 2010). These percent are mainly towards the west coast since Asian countries and Latin America are closer to that region of the United States. Within most metropolitan areas there has been an increase in segregation between Hispanics and Latin Americans (Ha, 2010). There has been research done where racial tension goes down neighborhoods that are mixed racially and ethnically because of interaction and cooperation between each other (Ha, 2010). Scholars have noticed that when there is a sizeable population of the minorities there is a greater opportunity for contact between minority and majority groups (Ha, 2010). Racial tensions are different in multiples levels of geographic, for example in counties and metropolitan areas there is more of a push for jobs, resources, and local politics (Ha, 2010). Racial tension between different races from immigration might not be too bad since it creates competition for power (Ha,