Why America Should Be More Open to Immigrants

Article written by guest writer Rin Mitchell

What’s the Latest Development?

According to reports, immigrants residing in America are either looked down on for coming to take the jobs of the natives; or they are looked down on for not doing anything, but taking advantage of government assistance programs. It can be a tedious process for a foreigner to obtain American citizenship in the United States. Some do it the right way and deal with the paperwork for green cards, visas and tests involved to finalize citizenship. There are the ones that take the shortcut to the system and marry a native to obtain citizenship. The thing is, in the U.S. it does not matter that an immigrant is a legal citizen living in America. If they are not American born, then it can be a disadvantage. As the article points out, a person from Africa with great skill assets and a great work ethic is more likely to get passed up for an opportunity by an American, who may be less skilled and not work as hard. The conspiracy surrounding President Barack Obama regarding his place of birth—Hawaii or Kenya—is a great example. If the rumor had started in the midst of his run in the 2008 election race, his time would have been cut short. However, that was not the case; and he was elected by the people as the right man for the job. Yet, this is still a major concern for many American people. If it turned out that he in fact was born in Kenya, it would cause an outrage. But the outrage would be more towardshim not being a native-born citizen, than the fact he lied. It is this type of discrimination that can hold the U.S. back from becoming a better society.

The U.S. government chooses who is allowed to enter and claim citizenship—usually based on what they can offer—a method adopted by other countries as well. However, the U.S. does have a tighter grip on immigration laws than other countries. Australia, Japan, and Canada are a few of the countries that have taken the U.S. Immigration policy and tweaked it to create a better form of the policy to execute in their countries. These societies have become “pluralistic and diverse” because they exhibit more openness towards foreign migration. 

What’s the Big Idea? 

Societies thrive through openness to goods, services, inventions and other people and cultures.  Foreigners have contributed to the agriculture, economic and innovative growth in the U.S. As the article points out, many of our greatest innovations like Google, Yahoo!, eBay and many others were created by non-native Americans. Of course, no country wants foreigners to enter their land and not carry their weight. No country wants jobs being filled by immigrants, when locals are struggling to find work. But, there needs to be balance and fairness—choosing the best person for the job based on skill and work ability is more important than whether the person is black, a woman, gay or an immigrant. It should not matter where a person comes from, but what they do when they get to their destination.