Topic Paper 1 (5-8 Pages of Text) (1) Essays - Border Crossings

Skylar Rose Goodman September 27, 2018 Topic Paper #1 Immigration Policy in the United States Immigration and the policy surrounding it has always been a hot button topic in the United States, stemming from the beginning of the country's birth. There has always been an aura of racism and toxic nationalism when concerning immigration. The current issue of immigration mostly focuses on the idea of illegal immigration, particularly from Latin America. The current administration takes a very conservative approach with immigration, wanting to not only close the borders, but to go so far as to build a 30-foot cement wall around the southern borders of the United States, connected to Mexico, just to keep out the people of Latin America and Mexico, despite the costs, assuming that they will "get Mexico to pay for it". The leader of this nation's direct quote is as follows, " The Wall will be paid for, directly or indirectly, or through longer term reimbursement, by Mexico, which has a ridiculous $71 billion dollar trade surplus with the U.S. The $20 billion dollar Wall is pean uts' compared to what Mexico makes from the U.S. NAFTA is a bad joke!" This quote comes from the president's Twitter, which has proven to be detrimental numerous times, most recently with North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un. (Nixon Qiu) The country of Mexico has made no comment suggesting that they will be paying for this ridiculous project. (Id.) Although the idea of national security is a topic to be addressed, completely isolating the country is going to be nothing but disastrous to the democracy that the United States uses to run itself. An open border policy, one similar to that of the European Union, would benefit the country as a whole, however, there would need to be certain precautions and policies in place for national security purposes. Immigration became a booming trend during the twentieth century, with mostly European immigrants, and again in the twenty first, with a larger population of South American and Mexican immigrants, causing the nation to become greatly divided during both periods. ( Woodard) T here are 43.3 million immigrants in the United States, 13.5% of the total population, as of 2015. ( Amadeo) When including the children of these immigrants, who are natural born citizens, that makes up 25% of residents in the United States, of which, three quarters are legally allowed in the United States. ( Id.) The stigma that immigrants are "stupid" and uneducated is not supported with recent data. Although immigrants are less educated than the average American - 30% of immigrants lack a high school diploma compared to 10% of native-born adults - t his divide is nothing compared to the majority of immigrants without a high school diploma or equivalent in the 1970s. (Id.) Furtherm ore, 29% of immigrants have a college degree , fairly equal to the 30% of native-born Americans. ( Id.) The European Union has an open border policy in place so that a citizen of one country can easily enter another for purposes such as employment, purchasing products, or simply visiting the country. This became policy under the Schengen Agreement, allowing free flow of people between nations, passport free. This agreement is a treaty between twenty six nations, all of which have come to terms with free travel between their borders. ( Schengen VISA Information) However, should a citizen of a country not apart of this agreement wish to enter the Schengen area, they must in possession of a Schengen Visa, allowing them to travel freely. (Id.) The open border policy of Europe, the countries apart of the Schengen agreement, is essentially of that used in the United States when visiting another state. Open borders in the United States similar to those in the European Union would allow citizens from Mexico and Canada - and other countries- to work in the United States while st ill residing in their country of origin. This would stimulate the workplace, as a more diverse workforce would encourage better effort and more productivity. The competition for work would also be motivation for employees to do better work in their field. Citizens of other countries who could work in the United States