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Anas Ahmed 10/28/2013 CO 150 Kristen Foster The Exploratory Essay Does Immigration Do More Harm Than Good? Came to US for the first time in January 2013, I was surprised to see many Mexicans working and studying here in Fort Collins. I asked my-self how there are so many immigrants working here? Is it easy for immigrants to find a job in US? Being an international student and an alien in US these were the questions in my mind. I knew already that were some pros and cons of immigrants in a country but I did not know what were they. So for this research project, I begin to think about immigration as my topic and I choose Does immigration do more harm than good? as my research question. I thought this question needs to be investigated because I had to choose my topic controversial for my research and I think I am part of this controversy as I am also an immigrant in the US. Moreover, I wanted to learn about peoples perspective on this topic. Before I could begin my research I brainstorm myself and started thinking about the effects of immigration economically. I started with the Dailymail article which I found through Google Revealed: How immigrants in America are sending $120 BILLION to their struggling families back home" by Tomlinson. I found out although immigrants fill the gaps which are left unfilled by locals in a job sector which means immigrants are not stealing locals job opportunities but they are sending $120 billion to their families each year which has negative effect on countrys economy. Tomlinson states that although the money sent back to their families help to improve

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family and developing countries condition making the world a better place, it has disadvantage on countrys economy from which the money was sent. This source helps me to understand negative affect on economy not because of having immigrants but due to the money sent back to their native country. This source gives me facts and statistics which help me in better understanding of outflow cash and I learned where the most of the money was sent from US. However, I didnt get any opinion from immigrants in this article which I will keep in my mind for my next source. After learning negative effects on economy from having immigrants, I realized its time to learn about positive effects of immigration so I opt for "Coming to America: The Benefits of Open Immigration." (Lehman). I found this article through Google and I found this credible as it was published by FEE which is an American organization which promotes the principles of laissezfaire economics. Lehman talks about benefits of immigration for US in different sectors such as labor force, welfare, culture and freedom. Lehman goes on saying that immigration makes labor force competitive as a result causing cost of production less, henceforth making US globally competitive. Lehman also provides little bit of American background by saying that US was built on immigrants and condemning them would be against US history and culture. This source gave me a clear idea why immigration is important for any country and I got to know benefits of immigration. Furthermore I got to know the benefits of free trade and open border as well as why US comprised of so many immigrants from different parts of the world. But the most importantly I found immigrants opinion in this article which I couldnt find in my previous source. After having an idea about positive and negative effects of immigration and now it makes more sense to me why the immigration is a controversial topic, it was time for me to take my research to the next level. I was beginning to change my topic from immigration to immigration is the US

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because I thought it would be more specific and I am also an immigrant in the US. For my next research I wanted to know how immigrants have influenced American culture and for that I typed influence of immigrants on American culture on Google and found Griswold, Daniel. "Immigrants Have Enriched American Culture and Enhanced Our Influence in the World" by Daniel Griswold. Griswold is the director of the CATO organization and has authored several studies on trade and immigration policy. In this article Griswold explains how immigrants are important for US culture and how US has been benefited from immigration as it gives economic edge in the worlds economy. Again in this article I found that immigrants tend to fill the jobs which are unfilled by the Americans. He also gives the example of Canada and explains how they are prospering because of immigrants. From this source I learned that immigrants are part of the US culture and part of the US success. Immigrants have brought labor force as well as entrepreneur skills and the skills which locals do not have, making US a country comprising different skills in every sector. After researching web articles, it was time for me to find an academic journal as part of my requirement for my composition class and to gain knowledge from experienced and well reliable source. To find an academic journal I took help from my Colorado State University library database. I typed immigration in US and found a scholarly article "The Impact of Immigration on the United States in the 21st Century" by Melissa J Doak. Doak states that instead of snatching job opportunities from locals, immigrants have created many job opportunities in various fields such as language translators. She also presents list of billionaires who are immigrants. Throughout the article Doak provides with facts and figures of the contribution made by immigrants. This source made me realize that immigrants are not only working at a lower level but there are some multi-national companies owned by immigrants which has created

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job opportunities for domestic as well as immigrants. Also I found out that immigrants are more likely to start a business than native born Americans. This source changed my perspective as before that I used to think that immigrants only work at a lower level but after reading this source my perspective has changed. I was now in total command of my research but I wanted to know more about immigration, henceforth I began to search more as I wanted to know different perspective of different people and I found an article called The Environmental Argument for Reducing Immigration to the United States by Philip Cafaro. In this article Cafaro talks about environmental issues caused by the growing population as a result of immigrants coming in. According to Cafaro, immigrants contribute to the environmental problems such as deforestation, air and noise pollution. Immigrants also increase the natural resources consumption such as water and fuel. Philip Cafaro is an associate professor of Philosophy at Colorado State University and writes mainly about environmental ethics. This source helps me to find other related immigration issues besides economic related issues. I learned that immigration contributes in the environmental problems as the resources are not enough to facilitate immigrants, thus extensive use of resources may cause extinction of resources before time. Although my research was done, I had to find another source for my project. I decided I should find positive or negative effect of immigration so that I will have many sources to write a conclusion and I will have many points of view regarding immigration, I found an article in the New York Times How Immigrants Create More Jobs by Tyler Cowen. The author says that each immigrant consume product sold here. Cowen meant to say that by consuming products immigrants helps to create jobs and they are cost saving labor. In addition, he says that to compete globally, we need to be aware of the benefits of immigration including the service

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benefits that immigrants bring to US. Although this source answers my question and explains the benefits of immigration, yet there was nothing new in this article. These questions were already answered in previous sources, however it makes my topic more valid and I learn to know different point of views. Through this research I found different peoples perspective on immigration which changed my point of view. Before I started this research I did not know the effects of immigration on countrys economy and globally. The most important thing I learned is that immigrants create job opportunities and fills the gap in which is left unfilled by locals.

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Work Cited Doak, Melissa J. "The Impact of Immigration on the United States in the 21st Century." Immigration and Illegal Aliens: Burden or Blessing?. Melissa J. Doak. 2011 ed. Detroit: Gale, 2011. 101-113. Information Plus Reference Series. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 20 Oct. 2013 Griswold, Daniel. "Immigrants Have Enriched American Culture and Enhanced Our Influence in the World." Cato Institute. Cato Institute, 18 Feb 2002. Web. 16 Oct. 2013. Lehman, Thomas. "Coming to America: The Benefits of Open Immigration." : The Freeman : Foundation for Economic Education. N.p., 01 Dec. 1995. Web. 16 Oct. 2013 Tomlinson, Simon. "Revealed: How Immigrants in America Are Sending $120 BILLION to Their Struggling Families Back Home." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers Ltd, 31 Jan 2013. Web. 17 Oct. 2013 Cafaro, Philip. "The Environmental Argument for Reducing Immigration to the United States | Center for Immigration Studies." Center for Immigration Studies. N.p., June 2009. Web. 17 Oct. 2013 Cowen, Tyler. How Immigrants Create More Jobs Business Day. The New York Times. 30 Oct 2010. Web. 18 Oct. 2013

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