Since before the cusp of the United States originating into the massive power house it has become today, our nation and state have been drastically impacted from one major occurrence. This occurrence I’m referencing is immigration; it started with the pilgrims that set sail across the vast Atlantic Ocean to set up a new colony and begin a new life better than the one they left in their prior home. Today similar parallels can be contrasted, many across our globe migrate to places which hold better prospects and opportunities so that they themselves can have better lives; not only this but so their offspring will be in a better position to have possibilities beyond the dreams of their parents or limitations of the nation they previously resided in.
While immigration in its various forms both legal and illegal is a complex issue the politicians have been seeking resolve for without much success over several decades. At this point it is reaching a head, there have been several high-profile figures coming out to denounce migration into our country. Scare tactics have been utilized to drum up opposition, be it things like criminal terms, they’re coming to take jobs from citizens and to fund a better life on our expense. Deception and paranoia aside, it’s time to focus and realize that we are in desperately need of hard-working individuals that are yearning to come here to contribute into our labor market and help fill a population that isn’t replenishing fast enough to maintain sufficient levels and finally having laws that don’t exclude individuals into shadows out of in fearing banishment.
Just like the complex immigration problem we face, there is also another dynamic that must be addressed as well. The job market is evolving, in part to more people staying committed to finishing their education of at least a high school graduation equivalency. This transcends into the labor market because if workers in the prospective job markets have skills that can entitle them to better jobs that are less intensive and yield a higher income they will undoubtedly do so. While many feels there are “native” jobs on the line this is a minuscule figure that doesn’t translate into substantial figures. Immigrants have a higher chance of having a lower educational level when compared to native born individuals. Of the migrants that come here illegally it is estimated somewhere around 34% of the individuals did not complete the 9th grade equivalency of school, in terms of the people that come here legally about 12% did not reach this threshold in education; when the natives are considered that figure drops to a staggering 2%. (Hanson, 2001)
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Even with the small number of native workers providing competition in the secondary market there shouldn’t be fears of people being displaced due to the fact most hold an education level beyond this field causing a shortage in the secondary labor market. Among the research gathered an interesting reference towards educational conditions states “According to Daniel Griswold, the native high-school dropout rate has fallen to 10 per cent, an all-time low, and is continuing to fall. This means fewer natives are drawn to unskilled secondary-sector jobs”. (Nadadur, 2009) With pupils increasingly committed to earning at minimum a high school education this will cause a wide shortage of workforce for the secondary jobs market.
Youthful population is a main ingredient to keeping a country thriving, without the new net adds a problem arises that there is a lack of revitalization. (Hanson, 2001) One of our G20 counter parts is currently facing this emergency; Japan is simply not producing enough offspring to keep the country solvent in various ways. The first is they do not have enough workers to replace the ageing as they retire, second, they like us have a social entitlement program and they are running into issues of not having enough to contribute financially to fund this massive demand.
While automation is being employed by loads of companies, there are some jobs you cannot short cut or automate. With this problem in mind, we should be aware of other realities and see the parallels that aren’t so different from ours. Our nation is still from facing the same alarming issues of Japan, however on a national standpoint the births are down significantly. While Texas is one of the highest for child births in the nation, we are also decreasing as well amongst the different population groups.
According to the data from March of Dimes, in the 2005-2007 window of data the average amongst the various ethnic groups was 78.8 births per thousand. (National Center for Health Statistics, 2018) Merely 6 years later for the most recent data the average rate had decreased a staggering 8.5 births to a new rate of only 70.3 births per thousand. (Chappell, 2018) Also, as the CDC would explain it with their most recent report that came out in May of this year; There were 3,853,472 births in the U.S. in 2017 — ‘down 2 percent from 2016 and the lowest number in 30 years”. (Chappell, 2018) Without immigration or some other intervention, we could face the same grim fate that Japan is currently grappled with.
While there are some that find the origin of someone to be representative of whom they may be as an individual that doesn’t necessarily hold to be entirely true let alone remotely accurate. Which many countries in Central and South America have their issues with things like crime and violence, it would be completely ignorant let alone not being objective towards the people as an individual with their own morals and demeanor. Though we have people resorting to fear tactics to jolt natives into an opinion based off hysteria with horrendously faulted logic, it is important to note that violent individuals that commit gruesome crimes are not something our neighbors to the south have a monopoly on.
We ourselves have many individuals locked away for committing crimes that are being used as motives to change the public tide against welcoming determined newcomers. However, policy makers in Texas have taken to using our government resources to crack down in individuals that do not hold residency. This is a problem, instead of forging change to better our state we are digging into a gridlock and not evolving for a better tomorrow. The bill passed and signed into effect known as the “Senate Bill 4” has significant impacts, the most notable is that it makes an emphasis for police officers to ask an individual to “show their papers” if they’re suspected of being a nonresident of the state.
This ranges across the board from something as simple as a traffic stop or witnessing an event. (Kelly, 2017) With this type of looming fear in these new comers’ eyes it prevents them from experiencing an inclusive environment which they can become part of the fabric, but also in the case of a crime being committed they’re most likely not going to report any valuable evidence to the police to either help expedite their case or have an accurate narrative of the event. It is referenced that in Los Angeles after a similar bill took affect that there was a decrease in the Latino communities’ willingness to report crimes or provide valuable evidence to the police with the presence, they would most likely be asked to provide their residency status. (Weber, 2018)
While we are a nation founded upon the concept of having a better life, there are powers that are trying to diminish this for people with similar ambitions as our founders. As time goes on hopefully a realization for the necessity of outside sources become apparent. Since more native inhabitants continue to gain at the least a high school education there are increasing shortages becoming visible in our secondary labor market. Not only this but also our very future is in a doubt as we face issues of insufficient birth rate to keep up with the replacing of individuals as the ageing workforce goes to not only retire but put a tax on our entitlement system. And lastly our legislation needs to be drafted with some gratitude as we have people eager to join us and help contribute to building a better nation. With laws that place doubt and fear into the minds, it will prevent our state from reaching its true potential.
Works Cited
- Alvarez, P. (2017, June 6). Will Texas’s Crackdown on Sanctuary Cities Hurt Law Enforcement. Retrieved from The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/06/texas-sb4-immigration-enforcement/529194/
- Chappell, B. (2018, May 17). U.S. Births Dip To 30-Year Low; Fertility Rate Sinks Further Below Replacement Level. Retrieved from National Public Radio: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/17/611898421/u-s-births-falls-to-30-year-low-sending-fertility-rate-to-a-record-low
- Hamilton, B. E. (2018, May). National Vital Statistics System. Retrieved from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsrr/report004.pdf
- Hanson, H. G. (2001). Labor-Market Impacts, Illegal Entry, and Policy Choices. Retrieved from CiteSeerX: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.621.3835
- Kelly, B. (2017). Sanctuary Cities. Retrieved from City of Houston: http://www.houstontx.gov/txlege/sb-4-sanctuary-cities
- Nadadur, R. (2009, July). Illegal Immigration: A Positive Economic Contribution to the United States. Journal of Ethnic & Migration Studies 35, no. 6, 1037-1052. doi:10.1080/13691830902957775
- National Center for Health Statistics. (2018, November 26). Texas and New York Birth Rates by Race/Ethnicity Comparison. Retrieved from March of Dimes Peristats: https://www.marchofdimes.org/Peristats/ViewSubtopic.aspx?reg=48&top=2&stop=4&lev=1&obj=8&cmp=36&slev=4&sty=9999&eny=-1&chy=20052007
- Weber, P. J. (2018, March 13). US Appeals Court Upholds Texas’ Ban on ‘Sanctuary Cities. AP English Worldstream. Retrieved from http://0-eds.a.ebscohost.com.libcat.sanjac.edu/eds/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=33d0293d-555e-4b8b-80d3-d800c5242603%40sdc-v-sessmgr02&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#AN=APef675c557d2a4c118aafd59f51b03fb5&db=nsm
