Shaping My Views - Immigration

Immigration was easily one of the most polarizing issues leading up to the 2016 US Presidential Election. It is for this reason that I have decided to undertake immigration for the second installment of my "Shaping My Views" series in which I analyze a particular issue. The issue at had is usually polarizing, such is the case here, but is also an issue that civil discussion can help to shed more light on and hopefully help us all see things in a different way.

Defining the Issue and My Assumptions

As is important in analyzing my own view on any topic, I must first define the scope of the topic or issue in order to create a framework to guide my thinking of said topic. In the case of immigration this is somewhat difficult for a few reasons. The first is that there are already current laws in place when it comes to the topic of immigration and these laws a different depending on the country at hand. As someone from the USA, I will frame my thinking here in the US. This brings up a slew of issues because of the fact that this thought exercise is meant to be done from absolute ground zero. Attempting to claim I will be 100% unbiased in this case is therefore impossible. This also brings up the issue of boarders and the fact that these are man made constraints. I am not here to argue the validity of boarders between countries and as such will begin my exercise at the fact that boarders exist and individuals are citizens of certain countries. How they move from one country to another will be discussed as well.

With that being said, I want to circle back to what I brought up earlier about current laws on immigration. This brings to light the fact that there is a difference between what we can consider legal and illegal immigration based on the laws of the USA. My end goal with this thought experiment is to figure out what I personally believe the laws should be. Therefore, I will discuss the process by which I believe individuals should abide in order to become a citizen of the US and who I believe should be allowed to engage in this process. I will also look at possible solutions to the problem of illegal immigration.

Lastly, before we jump into the analysis of immigration, I believe it is important to address a major factor in my understanding of immigration to put any potential biases out in the open. The US is a land of immigrants. As someone who is not a Native American Indian, I realize the fact that I could potentially be eliminating myself from ever making it into this country had my end policies been in place previously. My grandfather immigrated to the US from Poland. Family more distantly in the past also immigrated here, as is the case with a vast majority of people who now call themselves American. It would be impossible to completely understand the implications of projecting current policies on previous time periods. As such, I am strictly looking at policies that would be in effect in present day and into the future.

Analyzing Immigration

Now that I have build a framework for understanding the issue of immigration as well as defined my biases and assumptions, it is time to jump into the topic at hand. Immigration is an issue that simply does not have a great starting point. The sides of the coin are not necessarily as defined as with other issues and dealing in such a gray area makes creating blanket policies difficult. I have been thinking through this issue for a long while and have been unable to place a good cornerstone on where to begin, but I believe the best place is to decide on an overall theme to cover my thinking. This can best be summarized with the statement that "individuals that provide or will provide a benefit to the US should be allowed in, and those that would either not provide a benefit or would be a detriment on the US should not be allowed in." As I mentioned before, this is a simple summary in order to provide a starting off point.

Based on the theme above, I find it important to define pieces of that statement in order to better understand what policies will be effective and how those policies can be put into place. First off, I must define what I mean by benefit. A simplistic way to view this would be to say that someone who adds more value to the country than they use up would be considered a benefit. For example, a person who produces $10 of value and consumes $8 of value would be welcomed to enter the US. Obviously, this is an extremely simplistic example and in real life the situations are much more nuanced. The biggest difficulty is determining someone's value as there is no objective measure available. I could simply think of it economically and look at the dollar amounts produced and used by the individual, but that simply would not work as there are countless other variables that go into someone's value or perceived value. For simplicities sake, I will say that if a person does more good than harm, they are valuable to the US.

Now that I have defined what I mean by benefit, I can actively continue my thought exercise and build a framework of understanding on the issue of immigration. I must first say that I believe the entire system needs to be simplified and should be more efficient than it currently is, but that is a story for another day. There are a few aspects of a person that I believe need to be checked prior to granting citizenship. First, the person should not be a criminal based on the laws of the United States. Laws differ from country to country and I find it unfair that someone convicted of a crime in another country that would not be considered a crime in the US would be denied access. Obviously, this is a one way street as there are acts that are considered criminal in the US that are not in other countries. I don't have a better way of solving this problem so for now it will remain as a solution in progress. Secondly, I believe that the incoming immigrant must have a documented ability to pay their living costs in the US. Whether this is through a build up of savings in their previous country, or a contract to work in the US upon their arrival, the immigrant must be able to survive without help from the government in the way of money. Lastly, the immigrant must be able to document and prove a place of residence in the US upon their arrival. I simply think it is necessary to cover the essentials such as food, water, and shelter prior to their citizenship being granted. I also want to be clear that I don't believe there should be a test to gain citizenship in the US. I don't personally believe that one's knowledge of a country's history has a significant effect on the value that person is able to provide to the US. Upon providing evidence of an ability to earn income and an ability to house oneself and one's family, I believe the individual should be grated full access to all aspects of American life. Obviously, this is a gross oversimplification for the process of becoming a citizen as there are many nuanced aspects of the process, but as this is a theoretical exercise, simplification is likely the best I am going to get. This therefore closes the chapter on legal immigration to the United States.

Legal immigration is one aspect of immigration, but the part that seems to flare tempers is that of illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants in this case would include anyone in the United States or attempting to enter the United States without completing the process outlined above. In terms of illegal immigrants already in the United States, I believe that many would actually fall under the above proposed plan and would be able to gain citizenship under the new legislation relatively easily. I think we forget that there are many productive individuals that are in the United States illegally and those folks certainly deserve at least the opportunity to earn their citizenship. I think it is important to reiterate here that the immigrants under the proposed system would not be a strain on the government to provide for them, therefore the money that had been budgeted to systems to help immigrants needing welfare could be used to better enforce the new laws put in place.

This still leaves the issue of illegal immigrants that would not be seen as productive and producing value, yet have already made it to the United States. While I believe there would be fewer than many expect, it would still be a substantial number of human beings that would be displaced. The fact that there is no better solution than deportation to their home country strikes me as lazy, but I myself have been unable to come up with a better solution. While deportation is a harsh and traumatic experience, the individuals in question have broken the law and must be punished for their crimes.

Finally, I do want to add one item that I think could produce amazing results. This would be a savings account that individuals who want to immigrate to the United States could apply for with a financial institution in the United States to safely house money they wanted to put toward their savings requirement for the new system. Not only would this give potential immigrants a safe place of storage and easy access to currency upon arrival, it would also pump large amounts of money into US financial institutions. When the immigrant reaches the necessary level of savings to apply for citizenship, the account would roll into a traditional savings account in the United States, assuming the individual was granted citizenship. I am open to criticisms of this idea though as I am sure there are pieces that would need to be hammered out by someone with better knowledge than myself.

My View Shaped

In conclusion, it is easy to see why immigration has become such a hot button issue here in the United States. With the strain it can put on the economy and government programs, immigration is something that affects a wider swath of the population than simply the boarder states. My underlying view is that I believe immigrants that will provide value for the United States should be let in as long as they can provide documentation that they have the ability to live at a reasonable level and have a savings in case of emergency. They must not be criminals under United States law and shall not enter the country to reap welfare benefits. A special immigrant pre-savings plan shall be instituted by US financial institutions to facilitate the savings required to gain citizenship, which will help provide a safe place for immigrants to store wealth as well as bring foreign money into the United States economy. While deportation would be needed, I believe it would be less than is currently necessary as a more streamlined process is introduced to gaining citizenship.

Obviously, there are flaws in my solution to the issue of immigration, but I believe that my proposed solutions are realistic and extremely helpful to both the United States and immigrants hoping to enter the country. We must remember that most of us are immigrants in our own right and that immigration is an issue that should be addressed with civility and compassion.

-Brandon

PS. As I mention in my article, discussion is highly encouraged in the comments. Please keep things civil and any personal attacks will be dealt with accordingly. Remember that everyone is entitled to their opinion and whether or not you agree with that opinion is up to you.

Thank you for reading. Please follow @brandonp for upcoming posts directly to your feed.

Part 0: The Introduction - https://steemit.com/life/@brandonp/shaping-my-views-series-part-0-the-introduction

Part 1: Abortion - https://steemit.com/life/@brandonp/shaping-my-views-series-part-1-abortion