Illegal Immigration: Breaking Open the Myths

Myth 1: Illegal Immigrants CHOOSE to come illegally instead of taking the proper channels to be documented.

Reality: According to Pramila Jayapal, an immigrant activist and founder of We Are One America. org, a major reason why people who come to work here do so illegally is because our system doesn't allow them with either the opportunity or the guidance to help them follow the proper procedures to legality. She argues, "there's an enormous discrepency between the number of immigrants permitted by law to enter the US and the number needed by the economy...The US allows roughly five thousand visas per year for low-skilled workers, but every years about four hundred thousand low-skilled jobs are filled by immigrants."

Aside from this gap in numbers, which doesn't offer immigrants the opportunity to even apply for visas, those who do try, or those who may come with a visa are often left alone to deal with a very complex system that is mean to push them out. Jayapal points out that "More than 90 percent of people who go through the incredibly complex immigration system don't have a attorney, and those who do get one often hire someone who exploits them and sometimes worsens their situation. "

The combination of lack of money, lack of understanding of the system and a lack of viable visa opportunities creates a situation where the United States demands the labor of immigrants but doesn't make it possible for them to come legally. Essentially, the new global economy, which greatly benefits the "developed " countries of this world creates a situation where these people have no other alternative than to migrate- it is a matter of survival.

Myth 2: Immigrants threaten our Social Security

Reality: Jayapal argues that the undocumented do not benefit from Social Security at all, but that they do "contribute $7 billion a year to the fund through pay-check deductions...[many] file tax returns every year, hoping that when immigration reform is passed, they can show themselves to have been responsible citizens...The National Foundation American Policy estimates that a moratorium on legal immigrants entering the country...would devastate the Social Security system, ballooning the deficit by one-third over a fifty-year period.

Myth 3: Immigrants compete with low-skilled workers and drive down wages

Reality: Although it is true that in the past years, especially since 2006 "wages and salaries made up a smaller proportion of the country's gross national product than any time since the 1940's" (Aviva Chomsky 12). However, it is not possible to discuss this effect without looking at the bigger picture and taking into consideration the root cause of these low wages: corporations and companies that pay low wages in order to increase profits. As Chomsky points out, "If you look at the small picture, it indeed seems to be the case that immigrants and low-skilled citizens are competing for the same jobs. Businesses certainly want this kind of this kind of competition- it means they can find people willing to work for low wages. And, businesses argue, keeps prices low. " But this is not the only part of the picture that people fail to recognize. As Jayapal points out, there are other causes the lead to the driving down of wages. For one, she argues that unionization has gone down significantly and therefore we have less labor laws to protect workers. In addition, Jayapal argues that we no longer have a "fixed number of jobs. Between 2000 and 2010 more than 33 million new jobs that require little or moderate traiing will be created in the US. Even if unemployed American workers agree to take these low-skilled jobs, we will still need more workers to fill them."

Essentially it is important to take other factors into consideration when looking at this myth of driving down wages because it is not right to point at illegal immigrants as the ONLY contributing force. Especially when the people who are benefitting are not those workers who are easily exploited and abused for lack of protections from the government or unions, but rather the CEOs who reap the economic benefits of their nearly free labor.

Myth 4: Immigrants bring crime to the United States

Reality: History shows that immigrants have greatly contributed to this country. Jayapal's organization has found that "Numerous studies have shown that crime rates are lower among immigrant populations than native-born populations." For those who would like a path to citizenship, demonstrating a "strong moral character" is an essential part of their request for citizenship. For this reason, these people tend to live model lives for themselves and their families.

Myth 5: Immigrants bring poverty to the United States

Reality: There are many economic contributions that immigrants provide that are not recognized by anti-immigrant groups. For example, Jayapal shows us that "immigrants provide a net economic benefit to the United States, estimated to be $10 billion a year...[immigrants] start small businesses and promot downtown revitalization."

Those who cannot make it financially don't struggle for lack of work or trying to better themselves, rather, this happens because the proper "mechanisms for integrating them into society" don't exist. Jayapal points out that in other countries in the European Union, there are formal integration programs that provide "basic information and orientation to new immgrants, along with language courses. In Denmark...your visa is contingent upon your completing integration classes within your first few months in the country. There are about ninety thousand people on waitlists for ESL programs in the US, and that doesn't even count the ones who have given up." This demonstrates the fact that although the United States clearly needs the labor of people from other countries, by not providing these programs of integration do not make it possible for them to ever rise above their low-economic status. As Jayapal says, "immigrants without English fluency earn about ten thousand dollars less in annual income than immigrants who do speak English. Many who don't learn English stay at the bottom of the economic ladder their entire lives."