Immigration Into America Has Made It The World Power It Is Today
Immigration Into America Has Made It The World Power It Is Today
As in every election, hot topic political issues tend to come up which split people’s ideas about what policies we want our future leader to work on. However this election specifically seems to have a much larger focus on immigration and immigration policy. Not only in the US, but with events like the Syrian refugee crisis going on in Europe, immigration is heavily being debated world wide. As economies also seem to get worse around the world, and unemployment rates increasing, many are turning to more extreme ideas and adopting policies with xenophobic ideals. Especially in the US where Trump is running his immigration campaign on deportation and exclusion of immigrants from American society, I think it is important to look at our history and see how immigrants have helped turn America into the world power it is today. I want to give a few examples of how both unskilled and skilled immigrant laborers helped America develop into an industrial and military power.
Chinese “Coolies” And The Transcontinental Railroad
In the mid 1860s, America, still a fledgling country in the eyes of the world , was gearing up to industrialize the country in the wake of a massive civil war that destroyed much of the country’s infrastructure. In an attempt to catch up to England, which at the time was still a huge economic force to be reckoned with, America decided to lay down the foundation for a transcontinental railroad that would help populate various parts of the country and increase economic production. However by the time construction was meant to start, there was a problem. The companies that had planned to construct the railroad, lacked a sufficient labor supply to get it done. Even the newly free slaves knew what types of conditions they would endure if they chose to work on the railroads and many chose to pursue other work.
In an attempt to find a sufficient labor supply, Chinese “coolies”, or unskilled workers, were contracted to come to America, usually under deceptive circumstances and employed to work on the railroads. The Chinese were often tricked into coming with lies of how much income they would be making or how great the job would be and when they arrived in America were often treated as disgusting by other Americans. Even if they wanted to go home, they couldn’t and were stuck in America undertaking a unthinkable job, no other American wanted to do. It was basically indentured servitude with Chinese workers making near nothing despite being promised more by contractors in China. Many of these Chinese workers died due to the grueling labor conditions and overwork. However without them the transcontinental railroad would not have been finished in the time it was and America would have fallen behind in the race to industrialize.
German Immigrants in WWII
There is a saying among historians as to why we were able to win the war against Germany, “We won the war because our German Scientists were better than their German scientists”. As it became quite clear in the 1930s that Germany was planning on working towards strengthening its military, cracking down on personal freedoms and entering another war, many Germans sought to flee the country and in some cases America took them in. Although these people were immigrants, they were usually highly educated and massive assets to the scientific community in the US. Most notably , Albert Einstein who came in 1933 to escape the escalating problems in Europe.
More importantly, after the war, many ex Nazi scientists immigrated to the United States to help further improve the technology in the aerospace industry, which would ultimately help America win the Space race to the moon. Specifically Wernher Von Braun, who created the V-2 rocket for the Germans was brought over and his direct work helped created the Saturn V rocket for the US. There are a plethora of other cases of famous German immigrants who came and made our aerospace industry the best in the world at the time. Without these German Immigrants who knows if we would have been as successful or advanced at the time.
Indian Brain Drain
The famous Indian brain drain is a form of immigration that not only helped put Sillicon Valley on the map, but has continued to help keep America as a prosperous economic power for the last 100 years. A brain drain, is the idea where a more advanced country immigrates the smartest and brightest people from a lower quality of life country and gives them jobs and educations in the hopes that they will settle and provide value in the future. Although America does this with almost every third world country on the planet, India is notorious for being brain drained over the past 50 years. Intelligent Indians are usually sought after, given high paying jobs or research opportunities that wouldn’t be available in India and come to the US to pursue them. In the early days of computers and Silicon Valley , the Indian brain drain brought some of the smartest engineers and programmers to the United States, who would help make prototypes and advance the industry years into the future. Competitive companies like Intel sought after employing these newly immigrated Indians and used them to grow Silicon Valley into the economic beast it is today.
It is no surprise that in many of the tech fields you see Indians with high level positions or startups with second generation Indian children of the initial brain drain wave. The level of success the brain drain has give America can basically be summed up with this quote by Sunainaa Chadna from firstpost “The biggest surprise - or should I say shock - is that Indians are dominating immigrant entrepreneurship. Indians now outnumber the next 7 immigrant groups combined. Our research has shown that they start 32.4 percent of all immigrant-founded startups in the US," Neesha Bapat, lead researcher, Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance, Stanford University, and co-author of the report, said.” There is little doubt that without the Indian brain drain we as a country would be as competitive in the information technology field as we are today.
Todays Immigration And Conclusion
To finish this article off I just want to talk a little bit about bringing unskilled workers to America and how it still benefits you in an economic sense. The majority of the jobs that these immigrants are taking are low skilled jobs that pay under minimum wage because they are off the books and eventually are going to get replaced by machines in the near future. The jobs they are doing at low costs are benefiting most Americans daily by keeping the cost of their products cheaper and allow a higher quality of life. We as a country specialize in technology, information and output that requires higher education. Creating jobs in manufacturing for the sake of creating jobs isn’t how the free market works. We as a country are better off outsourcing and using immigrants to do undesirable work because we as consumers reap the rewards.
So if you are saying they are taking your job, your job isn’t going to be there in the future anyway or not. What you need to do is go back and get further training or education so that you can become an asset in the labor force. Stopping illegal immigration needs to be done, but to go to the level of deporting people who have been here and established their lives here already is inhumane. A better approach would be to give them a chance to bring them into the system so they can pay taxes and if they choose not to do this, then they can be eligible for deportation. Immigration has made our country competitive and the world power it is today and to stop partaking in it would be foolish.
-Calaber24p
Wow.
419 upvotes.
$859 in rewards.
8 hours.
6 comments.
And not one person called you out on the most glaring problem with your argument: LEGAL IMMIGRATION != entering without declaring.
I bet even the Chinese rail workers were at least counted at the San Francisco port.
But if you're arguing against enforcement of existing immigration laws, you're arguing for more instability. That's where we are now and it's pushing people to desperate times.
I can't wait till there are more whales on Steemit so this sort of half baked utopian naïveté isn't the only well rewarded content on the site.
Actually illegal immigration has little effect on the job market and economy because they make up such a small amount of the wages. Often times two illegal immigrants will be hired instead of one American, so its not like kicking them out is going to create jobs. Not to mention the jobs they take, like picking oranges in the scorching heat, no American is going to take at minimum wage. Im not arguing against enforcement of existing immigration laws, im arguing for expanding them. Immigration INCLUDING ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION has benefited consumers in our country and helped keep products that we buy cheaper. The only people that illegal immigration statistically hurt are those without or attaining only high school degrees, which means they need to educate themselves. So stop attacking my character because you disagree with me politically and act like an adult. Your xenophobic ideals have no place in the international economy we now live in.
sources:
http://money.cnn.com/2014/11/20/news/economy/immigration-myths/
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/17/magazine/do-illegal-immigrants-actually-hurt-the-us-economy.html
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/203984-illegal-immigrants-benefit-the-us-economy
I don't know for sure, but there was a point where we certainly weren't counting everyone who took a boat here and got off. I understand the worry from all people who have to compete with legal imigrants for jobs, and I still think trying to braindrain the worlds smartest people is a good idea that strengthens the country. Those people are either going to stimulate our economy or their economy, and I'd rather them stimulate ours.
I flagged this post exactly because of the point you just stated @blakemiles84 because of its "Intentional miss-characterization".
This article is so slanted and made to mislead any casual, uneducated reader.
Honestly @calaber24p I've enjoyed, and have up voted previous material but, this article is so out of balance it's almost comical.
The Immigration issue in America is about Undocumented, ILLEGAL Immigrants....you know, those that come across our border without asking permission! Kinda like, ohhh you know... Breaking and Entering, Trespassing etc, etc. You know, the ILLEGAL stuff.
Since you brought up Mr. Einstien about his questionable Immigrant status... here's a link to his "Declaration-of-Intention" to become a LEGAL immigrant...
THIS IS HOW US IMMIGRATION IS SUPPOSE TO WORK!
I can't debate your stance/claim of "abuse" and "death" to Chinee's Immigrants working on the Transcontinental Railroad. I can say this... if it's hot, hard work and out in the middle of nowhere and people are dying because of dehydration; how is this America's fault? Shit, people die yearly due to heat exhaustion... in big Metropolitan cities...with PLENTY of access to immediate drinking water. So again, why are you painting the picture that America was a Chinese "slave" driver? Did you ever consider that the Chinese culture is ingrained to be hard workers, no matter what job it is... or how hot it is, under any condition?
Could have the US " Over advertised" potential job offerings/earnings and under advertised the labor details? Sure, I could possibly say yes to that. But, I'm sure all those Chinese where in some way, shape or form, documented when they entered this country. They sure as hell didn't come running across the US/Mexico border.
Since I'm on this rant regarding Illegal Immigrants, I really need to write a post about how Illegal (and even some legal) immigrants are abusing our tax system by being 1099 "employees".
Im sorry we disagree ajvest, I dont appreciate you flagging the article because its no more slanted than 1000 other pieces that appear here on a daily basis, you just dont agree with the way that this one is slanted. Obviously it comes down a lot to personal beliefs but I try to put out content that is on my mind and im thinking about, so thats what I did. Its your right to disagree, I just ask people not to be hostile when doing so, which is why I responded to blake in the way that I did. It sucks if you didnt enjoy this piece, but I have more, less polarizing, pieces coming and I hope you enjoy one of those more.
While I certainly agree that America has benefited from immigration, your argument that immigrants are manly taking low-skilled jobs making under minimum wage is no longer true... maybe 20 years ago but not today. Immigrants (mainly through the H-1b visa program) are increasingly taking white-collar jobs that have traditionally went to degree-holding Americans. A record number of college graduates are living with their parents because they can't find good jobs... immigration is one reason why. It's cheaper to import high-skilled workers from overseas than pay an American. Good for corporations but terrible for the American who put him/herself through school and depended on that job. What good is a cheaper product to an American consumer(cheap due to decreased labor costs) when he/she can't afford it anyway because all the jobs in the field they went to school for are now taken by cheaper immigrants from foreign countries? This is happening in many different industries in many different parts of the country. A quick google search can verify it. That said... I don't blame the immigrants for wanting a better life, I blame the government for putting corporate profits before American workers.
Yes like I talked about with German scientists and the Indian brain drain, they are taking high skilled white collar jobs, but we as a nation benefit from taking the smartest people in the world and having them take those jobs. We live in an international world today and isolating ourselves from it would only create less economic well being for everyone. The real problem with unemployment is NOT immigrants, its a generation of baby boomers who are now working until they cant work anymore because 2008 destroyed their savings and social security is a joke. If we want corporations to stay in America at all, we need to allow them to bring in the most competitive people in the world at lower costs, because if not they wont stay and we will lose out on their tax revenue. We are increasingly moving towards a more international and integrated labor market, this is unavoidable and it going to continue to move that way in the future, so if you are looking for a job you have to be competitive and have something that your competition does not. The days of graduating and finding a cushy job you can sit on for the rest of your life are over.
Yes, immigrants have helped turn America into the world power it is today. It's the land of opportunities and that nice mix of cultures is what made USA what it was for most of the XX century.
Well done and thank you.
Some said to me the other day that the cycle is turning where Americans will be migrating to other countries. If so lets hope it will be under better circumstances!
dubloon135
Hi calaber24p, this result really interesting to me because I known a lot of people than emigrated to the US running away from our political and economics situation, some of them are very smart people and other don't really have many skills, now they are worry about the trump campaign and the emigration situation if him become the new president, my question is, you guys really think that your country don't need these people who are willing to do any work?
Nice post good finish at the end "Immigration has made our country competitive and the world power it is today and to stop partaking in it would be foolish" no doubt America is the world super power but now only one neither face nor survive without other superior countries co operation and help.
Good Points Here
Very Well Thought Out
And Written
^ upvoted!
Steemon!
There's a world of difference between Mexican and Central American people who cross either legally or illegally and mostly want to just work, and the small fraction of Islamic radicals who want to tear down our way of life and want sharia law in the usa.
great post.. can you run it by Trump?
Excellent writing - setting the STEEM benchmark as always!