Essay for Myth2

LATINO MYTHS 1 Xi Wang

LATINO MYTHS 6

Latino Myth

Xi Wang

Myth Outlining Worksheet

What is your myth?

Another common myth about Latino is that Latino immigrants are seen as coming to the US to take the US economic system. Most immigrants are considered lazy and live off government benefits.

- What is your argument about your myth? (Should be two to three concise sentences.)

This myth is wrong because Latino promotes the growth of the economy through payment of taxes and working. Additionally, Latino immigrants encourage productivity and increase investment. Latino immigrants are no eligible for programs.

Evidence

1. Latino Immigrants pay taxes

· Although it is claimed that Latino Immigrants hurt the economy of America, they contribute to the growth of the economy.

· In addition to buying and using local products, Latino also helps create jobs by starting their own businesses.

· Just like any other consumer, they pay taxes; this includes property taxes even in incidences of renting (Lima, 2010, p.6).

· More than half of undocumented immigrants in America have federal and state income, Medicare taxes, and Social security, which are automatically deducted from their paychecks.

· Each year, a total of $90 to $140 billion are collected by the US government as taxes from the immigrants. A study shows that each year, the United States received a total of $11.64 billion as taxes from undocumented immigrants alone.

· Immigrants contribute $1.9 billion and $591.1 million federal and state taxes in Della respectively (New Americans in Dallas, p.19).

· Technically, immigrants do not cause unemployment to native citizens. If anything, 25% of the American engineering and technology entities launched in the last decades, they were founded by immigrants.

· For instance, Google Company, which plays a critical role in the economy of America, was co-founded by a Russian immigrant. These companies play a significant role in creating jobs and generating revenue for the country.

· New Americans in Dallas (p.9) asserts that 20,405 immigrants who own private businesses in Dallas generates a total of $ 495.9 million as revenue.

2. Immigrants increase productivity and stimulate investment

· Unlike the belief that immigrant workers drive down the wages of American workers, they play a role in increasing the wages of native-born workers, thus raising the economy of the country.

· The level of education between the immigrants and native differ. However, their jobs are interdependent, thus enhancing the productivity of the native workers who are considered more qualified than immigrants.

· According to Suarez-Orozco, 2012, p 5), an increase in productivity leads to high revenue and, subsequently, high wages.

· Immigrant workers stimulate new investments in the economy, thus increasing the demand for labor (Lima, 2010, p. 11).

· A rise in labor demand exerts upward pressure on wages, even for the least skilled workers. Competition for work between new immigrants and native employees have a positive impact on the salaries of the later.

· Immigrants are considered cheap labor and uneducated, thus majority performing casual and low-income jobs.

3. There are strict eligibility restrictions

· There is a myth that immigrants depend on federal public benefits. However, this is inaccurate as undocumented immigrants are often not eligible for the benefits program.

· Immigrants work for everything they have.

· In the case of legal immigrants, they are also required to meet stringent requirements for them to attain the benefits (Perea, 1997, p. 24).

· Undocumented immigrants in the United States are not eligible for public programs and support such as Supplemental Security Income, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, and food stamps.

· The only exception, in this case, is that the immigrants are victims of human trafficking.

· Legal immigrants need to have stayed in the country for at least five years for them to be eligible for the benefits (Suarez-Orozco, 2012, p.16). Social security is often deducted from the immigrant workers, but they are not allowed to access the benefits.

· The study shows that immigrants receive 27% fewer benefits as compared to natives of the same age and income (New Americans in Dallas, p.19) Again, more native poor families use the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP more than immigrants.

· Welcoming Dallas Strategic Plan argues that 18% of children with native parents use Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). This is higher than 12% of immigrants who use the same services (New Americans in Dallas).

· A study has also shown that an average immigrant pays higher prices for services and products than ordinary citizens.

· Immigrants are said to pay more taxes than the services they receive. The services include healthcare, education, and law enforcement resources that they use while in America.

References

Lima, A. (2010). Transnationalism: A new mode of immigrant integration. The Mauricio Gaston Institute, University of Massachusetts, Boston.

New Americans in Dallas. Welcoming Dallas Strategic Plan: Plan for Civic, Economic, Linguistic and Social Integration & Inclusion 2018-2021. Accessed from https://dallascityhall.com/departments/wcia/DCH%20Documents/COD-WCIA-Booklet.pdf

Perea, J. F. (Ed.). (1997). Immigrants out: the new nativism and the anti-immigrant impulse in the United States. NYU Press.

Suarez-Orozco, M. M. (2012). Everything you ever wanted to know about assimilation but were afraid to ask. In The new immigration (pp. 81-98). Routledge.