Why Immigration is Good

Immigration has divided Republicans and Democrats since the 2016 election. Immigration has become the center of attention. Republicans oppose immigration while Democrats approve of it. The topic of immigration has divided the United States. Americans view immigrants as a threat. Americans are blaming immigrants for taking American jobs. However, immigration holds the prospect of filling positions that currently can’t be filled by Americans.

Problem

Americans fear that present and future generations will not have profitable employment opportunities. Since the year 2000, the United States has outsourced five million manufacturing jobs.

American workers have found it difficult to find new employment opportunities in a changing labor market where manual work has declined. The U.S economy has been impacted by an economic slowdown. When there is a higher immigration influx the supply of labor increases. Americans tend to think that immigrant workers will make jobs unavailable to them and cause them to get paid less. Immigration has divided Republicans and Democrats since the 2016 election. Immigration has become the center of attention. Republicans oppose immigration while Democrats approve of it. The topic of immigration has divided the United States. Americans view immigrants as a threat. Americans blame immigrants for taking American jobs. However, immigration holds the prospect of filling positions that currently American workers are not able to fill or don’t want to fill.

Background

Within recent years employers have voiced their complaints regarding a shortage of skilled workers, specifically workers that have higher degrees in the healthcare occupations, skilled-trade occupations, and STEM occupations. Presently, the prosperity of the future labor demands determines who obtains a temporary or permanent visa to ingress to the United States. The family reunification visa is a top priority in the United States Immigration system. The immigration system and its policies are currently outdated. The current policy addresses the needs of employers with policies established decades ago. It is not focusing on how the economy has evolved and will evolve to determine the visa programs needed today.

If the United States created an employment-based immigration policy, it would prompt an outstanding economic growth that would better accommodate the needs of all of the citizens in the United States. However, employers need to determine where the job shortage is. They need to see what fields are not being filled by Americans. The United States issues a small number of visas for work-bound immigrants. The impact it has on the job market for employees that are U.S. citizens is minimal. It will not affect the number of jobs or the wages paid. The economy grows at a faster rate when visas are given to immigrants in a desperate job market that U.S. workers are not filling because they can’t or don’t want to. A higher production would boost the economy by and benefit Americans.

Research

An immigration reform would benefit businesses because it would allow them to access the talent needed to expand their growth and therefore be able to generate more profitable top-quality employment opportunities for Americans. The immigration policy needs to attract workers that possess skills that are sparse among those of U.S. citizens. In doing so, it will not replace workers or lower their wages. During the next decade, the American economy will have a shortage of workers that are highly skilled and qualified. If the United States increased immigration to the United States, it could help improve the labor force. The three types of workers that America urgently needs due to severe labor shortages are health care workers, skilled-trade occupations, and STEM occupations. The U.S. Immigration policy is not fully used to its potential.

The most substantial number of visas issued every year goes to the family reunification category. There is a limit on the number of visas issued each year. The visas are not being issued based on the skill needs of the United States economy. In 2015, only 14 percent of the legal permanent resident visas issued were under the employment-based category. There are different policies when it comes to temporary and permanent work visas. The U.S. economy can grow if the steps in the immigration policies are improved.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant work- based visa issued to highly skilled professionals. The H1-B visa enables U.S. businesses to have graduate level workers employed in specialty occupations. Immigrants with a bachelors degree or higher degree can come work to the U.S. with an H1-B visa as workers that will fulfill specialty occupations. Unfortunately, there is a limit on the number of visas that are issued. Due to the visa shortage it is very rare that a visa application for an H1B visa will be approved. The current immigration policy fails to issue the number of visas businesses need that are important to the economy and to meet the businesses labor shortage. The needs in the business world change according to supply and demand. The needs of different professions change and evolve with time. The issuance of the H-1B visa has not changed. It has remained the same, no matter how the industry changes.

Even though there is a shortage of health care workers, access to visas allowing them to work in the United States is lacking. The H-1 visa program was in effect during the late part of the 1990s. The visa program formed a special category to offer temporary visas to health care workers. The program failed, and due to its failure, now health care workers have very little access to temporary visas even though the occupations face an extreme shortage risk

Temporary visas are issued based on the needs of the labor market shortage. Permanent visas are issued differently. There are five employment-based visas that give immigrant workers permanent visas. The visas are issued under the category known as third preference, category (EB-3). The category includes nurses, home health aides, and skilled trade workers. For skilled trade workers to qualify, they have to have a two-year minimum training in their field. Included in that visa category are professionals whose jobs have a requirement of a bachelor's degree or workers that are not skilled in their occupations. The competition for this type of visa is very competitive. There are only approximately 40,000 EB-3 visas issued. This visa is also not in sync with the changes in the labor market that are continually changing.

Each country has a limit on the percentage of employment -based admissions they are allowed in each category. In essence, each country has the same number of entrance visas granted into the United States regardless of the population and its size and the workforce that it has. It has become an issue for the health workers that are coming from the Philippines. Only 5% are allowed to enter the United States as registered nurses, yet the demand is 20 percent in some states. Immigrants that are coming from countries like China, India, and the Philippines have to wait several years to be able to receive a permanent resident status due to the limit on visas available. If the limit of visas increased, it would allow immigrant workers to enter the country and help meet the needs of the economy. Every year the United States is affected by limited visas ,therefore, is unable to get enough immigrant workers to enter the country to work, and that causes a shortage in labor supply.

Findings

To achieve economic prosperity, the United States needs to revise its immigration policy and convince the American people that immigration can benefit the economy. The job market in the United States should give jobs to Americans and immigrants. By doing so, it would address the labor market shortages. The immigration policies should aim to provide an economic growth that gives a well- disposed immigration system. Lawmakers need to make education, training, and the retraining of Americans a priority. It will help Americans find jobs that will become a higher demand. The United States needs to create a powerful economic system that allows workers to adjust and develop. Training and education need to go hand in hand with the immigration policies established to ensure that immigrants are only issued visas when Americans are not able to train for those particular jobs.

Immigrants can help fill urgent labor shortages. Visas issued should be issued to workers that can fill jobs that American’s are not filling. Immigrant workers can help increase production in areas where the U.S. labor force is not able to meet its labor production. Immigrant worker visas are more than often issued to highly educated workers that can work hand in hand with American workers to help enhance the economy. Immigrants not only come to work in the United States they also help the economy grow by consuming services and goods in the places where they live. The United States can help its elderly population by using immigration as a benefit to prepare to fill jobs that the elderly leave as they retire. Immigration can help technology grow and help give Americans a better life.

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