Thursday, November 8, 2007
Legal Vs Illegal Immigration
As a person who is an Indian citizen in the United States legally for the last six years, the whole debate about providing some sort of amnesty for all the people who are here illegally affects me personally. Irrespective of all the good or bad social and economic consequences that illegal immigration brings with it the message that this so called amnesty sends to the millions of legal immigrants working in the US is "Break the immigration law and you will be rewarded a legal status in the United States, follow the law and wait in queue for years to get the legal status". On the flip side there is very little to no debate on increasing the H1B visa or the number of green cards to increase legal immigration, even though there is documented shortage of technologically skilled workers. Every time the issue of H1B/green card comes up, the US congress decides that there are adequate number of visas available. I guess the Congress was not paying attention to the fact that this last year, all of the 65,000 available H1B visas were allocated the first day they became available. This mismatch of priorities beats me.
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I agree with your viewpoint in principle, but I am not sure if it presents any solutions to the problem at hand. You have very articulately presented two facets of the immigration problem - amnesty for 'illegals' on one hand and the woes of a 'legals' waiting to get permanent residency status.
ReplyDeleteSo what is the solution to illegal immigration? Should the US send all the illegals back? Yes, that's what the law says (or so I think it does), but wouldn't that mean disregarding the humanitarian aspect of this problem? The very premise of laws is to serve society. Sending people back would amount to uprooting entire communities who have peacefully coexisted with the American population. What about the consequences for the labor market?
I guess I am asking too many questions without offering any plausible solutions. So here it is..
Firstly, strengthen border security and stop the influx of illegal immigrants. Secondly, create incentives for illegals to come out of the shadows and join the mainstream. Most of the illegal immigrants are law abiding individuals who will follow the rule of law and pay taxes once they are legal.
On the woes of H1B quota..
How about improving the quality of the American education system so that it can produce better science and math graduates? Is getting more skilled workers from India and China the only solution? I don't think so. I think every country should look at harnessing its own human resource before seeking talent from foreigners.
I think my contribution today is not a solution but an invitation for a constructive debate on issues that affect all of us today.
Make it a good day!!
I agree with Imran on most of the solutions proposed for dealing with the issues of illegal immigration. I also am of the view that more H1B or more green cards are not the be all end all of solving the issue of labor shortages in the math and science fields. They are just a temporary fix to the much larger problems at hand. Unless the government of the United States addresses some of the fundamental problems in the education system by making math and science more attractive for students, this issue is just going to get worse. Also we cannot ignore the fact that other countries like China and India are turning out people with math and science backgrounds at a much faster pace then in the US. In the coming years there is going to be a huge global competition for talent. And the way it looks right now, India and China seem to have a step ahead of the rest of the world.
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