Love Thy Immigrant
Love thy neighbor.
It seems to be a pretty simple commandment, but maybe not. I like to think of Canada and Mexico as America’s neighbors, apparently other people have different views on the matter.
—————————————————————————————————
Mark 12:30-31
“Love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
—————————————————————————————————
In the most simplified version: republicans are against immigration reform, democrats are for immigration reform.
Obviously, there are lots of ifs, buts, and in-betweens, but that’s the gist of things. One of the “in-betweens” being republican business owners who favor less immigration regulation.
Less regulation = cheaper work = more profits
A popular opinion is that immigration has foreigners taking good jobs away from hard-working Americans.
Here are the facts though:
- “Immigrants often fill labor-intensive jobs that American citizens are not choosing to do”*
-NO WAY.
- The Brookings Institution’s found that “on average, immigrant workers increase the opportunities and incomes of Americans”^
-Don’t trust Brookings? Check this study out: http://www.frbsf.org/economic-research/publications/economic-letter/2010/august/effect-immigrants-us-employment-productivity/
- High-skilled immigrants are very entrepreneurial and drive a lot of job creation`
-More jobs, sweet.
FAIR (Federation for American Immigration Reform) argues that “the more that illegal aliens are able to take jobs in a sector of the economy, the less attractive the sector becomes to U.S. workers.*” Now if I’m being completely honest, I view that as a personal problem. If a U.S. worker becomes “unattracted” to a job simply because of an immigrant that says more about the U.S. citizen and their work ethic.
—————————————————————————————————
Titus 3:1
“Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work”
—————————————————————————————————
God wants us to follow man’s law, but as long as it doesn’t conflict with His law. Illegal aliens are still very illegal and against the law, so this post is not supporting illegal activities.
However, this post is supporting finding a middle ground. Why not reform immigration to make it simpler, easier for those hard-working immigrants who want to come and find a better life in America?
Mark Zuckerberg asks, “Why do we offer so few H-1B visas for talented specialists that the supply runs out within days of becoming available each year, even though we know each of these jobs will create two or three more American jobs in return?^”
Great question, Zuckerberg, but the answer isn’t what you want.
Here are the disappointing highlights about the H-1B visas debate:
- “most H-1B workers — ostensibly the “best and brightest” in the world — don’t really make that much money.`” Essentially, “they don’t make as much money as one might expect, given their pedigree as a highly skilled worker.*”
- “[outsourcing] firms pay their H-1B workers less than American workers and use the savings to secure work from American firms looking to outsource functions at lower costs.^”
The purpose of the H-1B visa is to bring in talent/brains/expertise to make businesses better. At least, that’s what I gathered from it. But what’s happening is companies are maliciously using the visa in extreme ways to “save” money.
Cheaper labor is a factor of globalization. The U.S. outsources to India, China, Vietnam, basically a lot of Asia. Why? Cheap labor. Despite it being “un-American” it provides cheap goods and services. Goods and services that become easier for the poor sector of America to afford and obtain.
So what’s the overall consensus here?
Immigration is good! Why? Because they’re hard-workers and they even increase U.S. workers salaries!
Illegal aliens are bad. Why? They’re breaking the law, and therefore against God’s word.
BUT, and this is a pretty big but, if we could make it easier for immigrants to secure citizenship America would basically be a better place for everyone. Yay!
—————————————————————————————————
Exodus 22:21
“You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.”
—————————————————————————————————
Want some good news? Immigration reform could be in the works this year.
Head to the Washington Post for more details!
In other news, I’m still obsessed with Frozen.
If you enjoyed this blog post, then don’t forget to subscribe by email to get all the updates!
Sources:
*http://berkshireic.com/?page_id=8
^http://www.nationaljournal.com/congress/left-and-right-agree-immigrants-don-t-take-american-jobs-20130322
`http://www.nationaljournal.com/congress/left-and-right-agree-immigrants-don-t-take-american-jobs-20130322
*http://www.fairus.org/issue/illegal-aliens-taking-u-s-jobs
^ The Economist, A plea for open doors
`http://royaleclass.com/homepage/a-lotta-sottilotta/battle-for-h1-b-visas.html#.UxfpsfldXEo
*http://royaleclass.com/homepage/a-lotta-sottilotta/battle-for-h1-b-visas.html#.UxfpsfldXEo
^http://royaleclass.com/homepage/a-lotta-sottilotta/battle-for-h1-b-visas.html#.UxfpsfldXEo
