Benefits of Immigration in the Us

Immigration – America’s Keystone

We are a country of foreigners, and foreigners have played a vital role in the development and success of the United States of America. The social and economic contributions of these foreigners, and their eventual settlement in the United States, have been the driver for our extraordinary growth over the past 500 years. In order to maintain our status as being an unchallenged leader in a global economy and society, we must recognize the contributions of immigrants, strengthen immigration reforms by providing a means for illegal immigrants to become permanent residents, and ease our stringent anti-immigration policies. To turn our backs on immigrants and on those who wish to be Americans, as so many have been pushing for, we are turning our backs on our richheritage and are severely limiting our economic, political and social competitiveness throughout the world. We need only to look to our past to see how critical immigration was to our nation’s strength, and to know how it can impact our future.

“Give me your tired, your poor

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, the tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

- Emma Lazarus, 1883

These words are emblazoned in bronze at the base of America’s most iconic symbol: the Statue of Liberty. However, long before she was constructed to welcome immigrants to the United States, these lands were already welcoming people from other countries. This is where we find that our history is firmly entrenched in immigration.

The “great American melting pot” has created a unique culture in just a few generations, and it has also made America immune to cultural clashes that plague other countries. From the days of Christopher Columbus and the Pilgrims, the very first Americans were immigrants. With dreams of a new life, these people journeyed across the Atlantic to a foreign land to create a more...