Olivia Helman (Edison College) Illegal Immigration

According to U.S. immigration facts found on http://www.ethnicharvest.org/index.htm, 5,000 immigrants who are unauthorized arrive in the United States daily. Although 4,000 are caught just after crossing the U.S.- Mexico border, 1,000 illegal immigrants manage to make it through to America which they now call their home.

Illegal immigration has brought many arguments and disputes among Americans who hold different views on the topic. To put it simply, one is either for giving illegal immigrants access to American rights or against the fact that they are even in America.

The reason I want to talk about immigration is because I believe my present and past views on illegal foreigners living in America represent most of the views of young adult s in America. Because of the influence of my father growing up I subconsciously viewed illegal immigration as completely intolerable. My father is and always has been prejudice against illegal immigrants. The arguments he makes primarily have to do with American’s paying tax money to support illegal immigrants and allowing them sometimes free access to health care and education. And, although I understand where he’s coming from I believe there’s another side to the argument that many American’s are either ignorant of or choose to ignore. The usually unknown side of the story is the knowledge of the personal lives of illegal immigrants. The knowledge of their hardships and the limitations that keep them from living a life that is only dreamed of yet can be attained if they were only citizens of the United States. For American’s have rights that Illegal immigrants do not solely because they were born in America. And that’s all. It’s by the land that each person’s mother gave birth to him or she on that determines his or her way of life. Birthplace determines people’s opportunities and access to education, health care, and freedom which all furthermore determines people’s ability to make their hope s and dreams a reality. How, therefore, can many American’s form the foundation of their views against illegal immigrants primarily upon birthplace? I believe if they were born in Mexico rather than America their mindset which shapes their views would be quite different.

http://www.myimmigrationstory.com/ reveals the personal stories of different illegal immigrants from Mexico who came to America in order to live a better life. In these stories hardships are shared as each journey to America and fight to stay in America. One girl blogs about her journey which started at the age of two when her mother sneaked her across the U.S.-Mexico border. Returning to Mexico as a teenager she expresses the shock of the fact that education there is only optional and most had to drop out of school in order to work where they only earned fifty dollars a week. Like the story of this teenager, many express the struggles of living in Mexico but also the determination and dreams that each have which allow them to succeed in America where opportunity is given.

From a sociological perspective illegal immigration is most noticeably characterized by social conflict as well as social stability or instability.

Social conflict arises because of two main aspects: the battle for power and the battle for status. Status is determined by social stratification which is defined by which group has more control over basic resources. It’s obvious that American’s have more control over basic resources such as food, clothing, shelter, education, and health care than illegal immigrants do. The control of these basic resources determines who will have access to these resources. In this case America decides how much or how little access illegal immigrants have to basic resources. The main issue is that American’s do not want to lose power to illegal immigrants. Because of American’s rights as citizens they want the power to control what illegal immigrants either receive or don’t receive such as health care, education, and jobs.

Social stability encompasses the way of life in a society. Because illegal immigrants have a more distinct culture than American’s, American’s fear the dominance of their culture over the American culture. The group that started off as subordinate is on the pathway to dominance which will bring change in American and, therefore, instability.

The fight for power and the fight for dominance over illegal immigrants thus exist among the American people. Yet while power and dominance are the concerns of American’s, a life of opportunity and success are the concerns of illegal immigrants. And although many arguments based off of the amount of rights that should be given to illegal immigrants as well as equality will continue to exist, the opportunity to give illegal immigrants a better life will also continue to exist. Illegal immigration has brought many challenges to America yet our decision to ethically fight through these challenges holds the power to change the lives of thousands of illegal immigrants for the better giving each opportunity and success.

This entry was posted on 27. April 2009 at 23:02 and is filed under Introduction to Sociology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.