Module 8 ((RUBRIC)) Peer Evaluation: Analyzing and Evaluating Social Policies
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COURTNEYSPolicy2Powerpoint1.pptxIntegrating Knowledge of Social Policies Courtney Collins Chamberlain University MSW 513: Policy II: Social Policy and Social Justice Dr. Battle April 17, 2022
Social Issue
The inequality in the workforce/access to employment for college age immigrants. The main area of concern is that many of these individuals obtain their college diplomas, however, are unable to enter the work force.
Target Population
College age immigrants who are in the workforce.
Severity of Social Issue
Immigrants face hurdles when entering the workforce, those being the lack of appropriate documentation to legally work and language barriers.
Many immigrants are unable to express their needs due to speaking broken English, or sometimes limited English. When looking to apply within the workforce, documents such as a social security cards, birth certificates, pay stubs, ect., are needed and these individuals are unable to obtain them.
Severity of Social Issue
To work within the United States, one would need to provide, school or employment records, birth certificate, driver’s license, and social security card (Guerin, 2021). Due to the lack of having these documentations, there is an increase in immigrants working outside of their desired work area.
Immigrant student population in postsecondary education was around 2.9 million students in 2000, and in 2018, the number was around 5.3 million immigrants pursuing postsecondary education. When looking at those numbers, that is roughly about twenty eight percent of students nationwide (Batalova, 2020).
Immigrants upon graduation are struggling to obtain employment in the field they are skilled in, and or arriving to the United States and obtaining employment once settled.
Severity of Social Issue
According to Bowen & Elejalde-Ruiz (2017), “Those already here say the expertise they brought with them to the U.S. often goes to waste. Lengthy recertification processes, language barriers and employers' unfamiliarity with foreign credentials hobble immigrants' efforts to find work in their fields. They take jobs as janitors, babysitters and valets to get by”.
As well as, according to Camarota, Richwine, & Zeigler (2021), “Combined, 64 million natives and immigrants were not working in May 2021 — unemployed or out of the labor force — 4.3 million more than in May 2019”.
Policy Analysis: Policy 1
Immigration and Nationality Act or also known as the McCarran-Walter Act.
According to the U.S Department of Labor, this act, “Prohibits employers (when hiring, discharging, or recruiting or referring for a fee) from discriminating because of national origin against U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, and authorized aliens or discriminating because of citizenship status against U.S. citizens with work authorization”.
Adopted into action in 1952 and was an amendment to the former Immigration Act of 1924. Provisions throughout the act also helped visa applicants, including those with specialized skills and families whom already resided in the United States obtain their visa’s.
Policy Analysis: Policy 1
Senator Pat McCarran was one of the bill’s primary sponsors. Mr. McCarran felt passion for this act as he thought it was necessary for the nation’s security (Rasmussen, 2022).
Monetary resistance was not a concern, as it simply allowed individuals to have specific rights as other individuals.
Main opposer for the act, Harry Truman. He believed that the passage of this act would actually set the country backwards. He felt as though the current quota system was just enough and nothing more was needed for immigrants.
Policy is great to be in existence, however, there are still guidelines and regulations when it comes to obtaining a work authorization, therefore without the proper documents, immigrants with degrees can still hit the wall of not obtaining employment.
Policy Analysis: Policy 2
The Dream Act.
Unfortunately, this policy has not been enacted. Has hit the executive floor several times, the first being in 2001. Since 2001, 11 different purposes have occurred.
Luis Gutierrez was one of the first representatives to back the act in 2001.
Policy Analysis: Policy 2
Three steps within the Dream Act: Conditional permanent residence, Lawful permanent residence, and Naturalization.
Step one, conditional permanent residence would grant legal status to specific undocumented immigrants specifically those who arrived in the United States as a child and those who received education, graduated high school or obtained their GED here (American Immigration Council, 2021).
Step two, lawful permanent residence would allow those who have acquired a higher education degree, served in the military or have worked a total of three years or at least 75 percent of the time having an employment authorization to obtain citizenship.
Step three, naturalization would grant citizenship to those individuals who have had lawful permanent residence for five years. If this act would pass, many immigrants who have received a diploma within the United States would be able to join the workforce and achieve their dream and practicing in the field of there interest.
Policy Analysis: Policy 2
Currently there are two versions of the Dream Act before congress, the Dream Act of 2021 and the Dream and Promise Act of 2021.
Two main legislators who support the passage of this act are Senators Dick Durbin and Lindsey Graham (American Immigration Council, 2021).
The Dream and Promise Act of 2021 is backed by representative Lucille Roybal-Allard.
Those in Congress who are in opposition of the Dream Act feel that this act would encourage individuals to illegally migrate into the United States.
Policy Analysis
Jansson (2018),expresses “Stakeholders are persons with a vested interest in a specific policy or issue being contested”. (pg.74)
Stakeholders for the policies on immigrants are politicians
Gaining backing from political parties, has the persuasion that is needed to pass the Dream Act.
CDC Policy Framework
CDC evaluation framework to the Immigration and Nationality Act. The CDC aims to look at if the policy is achieving the goal set forth for the target population.
This act’s the primary goal was intended to eliminate discrimination within in workforce for citizens of different ethnicities who had work authorization.
It did achieve the goal, however, receiving the work authorization still posed an issue for some immigrants. Through provisions made within the act, it expanded the allowance for individuals to receive visa’s if they were specialized in a trade. That is where the target population for this paper has received great strides in success.
This policy however, does not address immigrants entering the workforce specifically.
CDC Policy Framework
CDC evaluation for the Dream Act that is not implemented yet, the target population is immigrants who were born in the United States or whom have been in the United States since childhood.
Policy goal: to grant immigrant individuals citizenship so they can further their life and better their future. The policy focuses on education, entering the workforce, obtaining citizenship for thousands of immigrants from multiple different backgrounds. The implantation of this act would serve the target population once put into action.
CDC Policy Framework
Attached on the next slide is the table from the CDC showing how the Immigration and Nationality Act and the Dream Act compare to one another when looking at inequality in the workforce/access to employment for college age immigrants. Both score exactly the same.
Although, both policies aim to provide the same outcome and that is equality to those who are immigrants, the policy that presents the best legislative solution for the target population is the Dream Act, due to the focus on the actual workforce incentive.
Funding for both policies are slim to none to actually implement.
CDC Policy Table
New Policy Proposal
The new policy would be the passage of the Dream Act. As stated before the Dream Act would help many immigrants within the United States.
Current gaps and deficiencies associated with the existing policy are immigrants fear being deported every day, even though they have lived in the U.S. since birth.
Current policy lacks inclusion of immigrants within the workforce.
For feasibility and integrity of the Dream Act, no outside funding would be needed for the passage.
The benefits would be the inclusion of thousands of individuals that have a set skillset join the workforce in their desired areas.
Social Media Campaign
The Dream Act has used social media to spread the word and stories of many immigrants, however, the workforce inclusion has not been a specific topic discussed. Many immigrants have shared the horror stories and treatment they have experienced, and advocated for change on several posts to inform the public.
According to Garcia (2019), “Using slogans such as “Undocumented and Unafraid” or “Undocumented, Unafraid, and Apologetic”, has been a campaign for the Dream Act.
From this, immigrants have been able to capture the minds of political parties’ affiliates and voice their wishes.
Other Social Media Ideas
Future social media campaign ideas:
1)Have immigrants post about their challenges
2) Have supporters post about the benefits and unfairness as well.
This would show that others besides immigrants feel strongly about this issue and feel that change needs to occur.
Conclusion
The purpose of this PowerPoint was to bring to light the social issue of college age immigrants within the workforce. Providing background and knowledge on the topic, discussing current policies, looking at the development of a new policy to address the issue, utilizing the CDC policy framework within policy development and to determine how the utilization of social media can affect policy.
References
Batalova, J. (2020, October). Immigrant-origin students in U.S. higher education. Retrieved March 14, 2022, from https://www.migrationpolicy.org/sites/default/files/publications/immigrant-origin-students-postsecondary-ed-final.pdf
Bowen, A., & Elejalde-Ruiz, A. (2017, March 27). Skilled immigrants often struggle to put degrees, credentials to use in U.S. chicagotribune.com. Retrieved March 14, 2022, from https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-merit-immigration-brain-waste-20170326-story.html
Camarota, S. A., Richwine, J., & Zeigler , K. (2021, July 19). The employment situation of immigrants and natives in May 2021. CIS.org. Retrieved March 14, 2022, from https://cis.org/Report/Employment-Situation-Immigrants-and-Natives-May-2021
Garcia, Y. (2019, January 18). Social Media, politics, and the Dream Movement. Queens Latino. Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://queenslatino.com/social-media-politics-dream-movement-yohan-garcia/
Guerin, L. (2021, June 3). Documentation required to work in the United States. www.nolo.com. Retrieved March 14, 2022, from https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/free-books/employee-rights-book/chapter16-3.html
Immigration. United States Department of Labor. (2022). Retrieved March 14, 2022, from https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/discrimination/immdisc
Jansson, B. S. (2018). Becoming an effective policy advocate: from policy practice to social justice. Brooks/Cole.
Rasmussen, S. (2022). Immigration and nationality act of 1952. Ballotpedia. Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://ballotpedia.org/Immigration_and_Nationality_Act_of_1952
The DREAM act: An overview. American Immigration Council. (2021, March 16). Retrieved March 13, 2022, from https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/dream-act-overview
