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16 February 2012 'Common Sense' Immigration Policy Recommended by Md. State Panel

 Immigrants are improving Maryland’s economy. A state panel, //The Commission to Study the Impact of Immigrants in Maryland //, recently organized a study about the impact of immigrants in Maryland, and other findings related to immigration. Immigrants have been very important to Maryland’s workforce expansion. In fact, a recent report says that the state’s foreign-born workers accounted for more than 57 percent of workforce expansion from 2000 to 2010 (Common). The report shows that the benefits of immigration in the long run will outweigh the costs. Both economic and fiscal benefits have been found. Evidence from 2000 to 2010 is detailed in the report that shows the contributions of immigrants to Maryland’s science, information and medical fields. In addition, immigrants are also important in agriculture, construction, seafood, transportation and tourism. Without foreign workers, the report says, these labor-focused industries could not grow. When the economy is down, immigrant competition can lead to lower wages and unemployment among American workers. However, immigrant workers contribute largely to the tax and other resources that are needed to deal with this larger population that immigrants cause. In the long term, immigrants pay more in taxes than they end up using in government services. About seventy-five percent of these costs are for providing a public education for children, many of which are U.S. citizens (Common).  Immigration is a widely debated topic in America. As the article talked about, studies have shown there are both positives and negatives to immigration. So is immigration really worth it? Immigration has been very important in U.S. history. Since the colonial periods, people from many different countries have immigrated to the United States. By 1910 alone, there were 13.5 million immigrants living in the U.S. In a 1980s study, economists viewed immigration, including illegal immigration, as a positive for the economy. According to James Smith, a senior economist at Santa Monica-based RAND Corporation, immigrants contributed almost $10 billion to the American economy each year. Around 2009, several states passed stricter immigration laws. When Georgia passed immigration law HB 87, 50% of its agricultural produce was left to rot in the fields, costing more than $400 million. After Alabama intensified their laws in 2011, about 80,000 illegal workers left, costing the state upwards of $11 billion (Immigration).  Again, this issue is mostly about whether the positives of immigration outweigh the negatives. Immigration definitely does help the economy; this has been proven many times since the colonial period. The article points out those immigrants contributed to Maryland’s economy, and this has shown to be true in other states as well. Immigrants do make up the large majority of the unskilled-labor industries. If they are forced to leave, the U.S. will lose a lot of this industry. Immigrants mostly balanced instead of competed with U.S. citizens for jobs. So overall, it would appear that immigration is beneficial to the United States, but that remains to be seen in the years to come. 1. Is immigration really positive or negative to the U.S.? 2. Would it be more beneficial to the U.S. if immigrants were made legal? 3. When the economy is bad, how drastically does competition for jobs increase because of immigration? "'Common Sense' Immigration Policy Recommended by Md. State Panel - Business - Press Releases - Msnbc.com." //Msnbc.com - Breaking News, Science and Tech News, World News, US News, Local News- Msnbc.com//. Web. 15 Feb. 2012. .
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<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">"Immigration to the United States." //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia//. Web. 16 Feb. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_the_United_States>.