essay

December 13th, 2017

Paper #3

The Consequences of A Sudden End to US immigration

Immigration is the act of moving from a country to another country for a variety of reasons such as political, social, environmental or economical reasons. Usually, the purpose of immigration is for a person to increase his chances of having a better life. Today, the United States is considered to have one of the highest number of immigrants in the world, if not the highest, with a number that accounts for about 13.5 percent of its population (US Immigrant... ,Camarota & Zeigler, 2017). Regardless of the negative effects some legal or illegal immigrants might bring, an end to immigration in the United States would cause a significant negative impact on both its economy and culture. The presence of immigrants in the United States is crucial in healthcare, agriculture and cultural influence, where what they provide is way more beneficial than harmful.

With the aging of the baby boomer generation, the United States will most likely face a serious problem within the upcoming years in healthcare. The baby boomer generation is the generation brought up after World War II. The baby boomer, the biggest generation in US history, are mostly going into their senior years and/or on the edge of retirement. Although family members usually take care of their own elderly, but in this case, new generations are getting smaller compared to the baby boomer. A high demand on caregivers will show up within the next few years which means more workforce will be needed in home healthcare. Immigrants represent about one quarter of the working hands in home healthcare. With the huge number of immigrants that work in this field, it seems like they’re the perfect solution to rescue this American generation. According to Ted Hesson in an article titled, “Why Baby Boomers Need Immigrants”, he states, “There’s a reason foreign-born workers take so many home health jobs: they’re low-paid, low-skilled and increasingly plentiful.” (2017) A sudden stop to immigration would not only affect immigrants, but it also means that a lot of Americans will suffer from it since they have to pay more for such services. it could be okay for some people to pay more money, while it could seem impossible to some who are living on a paycheck to paycheck. Hesson also stated that “The number of home health aide positions will increase 38 percent by 2024. That puts it among the top five fastest-growing U.S. occupations.” (2017) Looking at the fact that there will be a huge increase in demand for care takers, it’s clear how significant the role immigrants could fill and how a stop to immigration would negatively influence the US in healthcare.

Moreover, the help provided by immigrants to the medical field is not only restricted to home healthcare, but is also clear in the development of a number of effective natural treating and healing systems, such as, acupressure and acupuncture ( 4 Ways.., Kumar, Rohit, 2013). First, acupressure, it is a developed chinese therapy that helps in improving the blood flow, increasing energy and releasing stress in the body. The way it works is by putting pressure on specific body points that follows curtain patterns to help with the energy to flow through them. The flow of energy in these patterns would promote some sort of a relaxation feeling and a release of stress. Second, acupuncture, it is also a chinese developed therapy, very similar to acupressure, that manipulates the energy flow in the body. The way it works and its result is not very different from acupressure since It also uses the same specific body points. The difference is that instead of putting pressure on these points, thin needles would be inserted to the body on these exact points. It is mostly used for pain relief in different parts of the body. These two types of therapy are just some out of many therapy techniques that were brought to the US and they’ve shown high effectiveness ( 4 Ways.., Kumar, Rohit, 2013). These are just two out of many other therapy techniques that the United States benefited economically and culturally from. Such techniques might’ve never been practiced in the US if immigration wasn’t legalized.

Economic contributions comes first when it comes to immigrants, disregarding how they affect Americans culturally in different ways such as: deepening the understanding of spirituality, traditional cuisines. The United States has the highest number of immigrants, who came from all around the world in different ethnicities and races. According to Rohit Kumar “Meditation, yoga, and qigong — the ancient Eastern arts for connecting with the soul — are taught throughout America. These are rich cultural practices that Asian immigrants helped to bring from their homelands.” (2013) They come from different cultures that have taught us a lot in the past, for instance, the way we learned from them to have a better understanding of spirituality. Both the Bible and East Asian teachings have their own individual unique way with a similar spiritual goal. Learning from them would give Americans a better understanding of other religions and spirituality (Kumar, 2013). Furthermore, one more effect immigrants had on Americans was teaching them about proper diets by bringing traditional cuisines. As Kumar stated, “Traditional cuisines are complete systems for eating that give a person the full spectrum of nutrition needed to thrive.” (2013) The majority of these cuisines focus on having meals full of nutritions that mostly consists of vegetables and good fats. Proper dietary helps reducing the chances of having diseases such as: diabetes. Exchanging knowledge with immigrants is one of the ways that helped the US develop culturally.

Immigrants contribute a great deal to the agricultural field, farming in specific. According to an article titled “Expelling Immigrant Workers May Also Send Away the Work They Do” by Eduardo Porter “These days, over one-quarter of the farmhands in the United States are immigrants working here illegally” (2017). This shows the importance of immigrant working hands in farming and how denying them of a chance for a better life would shake the farming workforce. Moreover, the farming methods American-born farmers mostly use include chemicals, which is the reason why we have to pay more for anything organic. Rohit Kumar, in an article that he wrote, titled “4 Ways Immigrant Cultural Wisdom Is Inspiring America”, says “There’s a word for organic farming in most other countries: farming”(2013). Farming is growing crops naturally, which is the case in most countries where they avoid the use of chemicals. Some countries were able to maintain very rare food cultivating methods that goes back to centuries. Any immigrant with a such knowledge should be considered important and would be of a great help to the field ( 4 Ways.., Kumar, 2013). These are two out of several reasons on why not it’s only important but a crucial part immigrants are economically and culturally.

Finally, it is clear that immigrants play a significant role in both the economics and culture of the United states. Healthcare, agriculture and cultural influence are three out of several fields that helped the US in boosting its economy and culture. A sudden end to immigration would affect the United States negatively causing a huge impact on its economy and culture. The fact that Americans have learned from immigrants something helpful in mostly every single field, should not be taken for granted, but they should be treated better and equal.

Works Cited

Camarota, Steven A. and Zeigler, Karen. “U.S. Immigrant Population Hit Record 43.7 Million in 2016.” Center for Immigration Studies. Oct. 2017. https://cis.org/Report/US-Immigrant-Population-Hit-Record-437-Million-

2016.

Hesson, Ted. “Why baby boomers need immigrants.” Politico. 25 Oc. 2017. https://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2017/10/25/immigrants-caretaker-workforce-000556

Kumar, Rohit. “4 Ways Immigrant Cultural Wisdom is Inspiring America.” HuffPost News. Oath Inc. 21 May 2013.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/rohit-kumar/4-ways-immigrant-cultural_b_2926214.html

Porter, Eduardo. “Expelling Immigrant Workers May Also Send Away the Work They Do.” New York Times. 24 Oct.2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/24/business/economy/immigration-jobs.html?emc=eta1&_r=0