It can be said that the illegal work in the United States of America, despite a possible appeal, is fraught with many dangers. Apart from the fact that this kind of accommodation in the United States could lead to expulsion and the next time, even a legal job in America can not be expected, there are other challenges. On the one hand – living this way in the United States, a person can hardly rely on health insurance, and cases of workplace injuries among illegal workers is much higher than usual across the country. Also, it could be that an employer did deceive you by paying less than the agreed or not paying at all. Thus, we can easily come to the conclusion that legal methods of employment in the U.S. are still preferable.
In the U.S. there is a huge problem of illegal immigration. According to official estimates, there are about 12 million (and the unofficial is around 40 million) illegal immigrants in the country. There are two categories of illegal immigrants: those who arrived legally and stayed with expired immigration documents, and those who crossed the borders illegally. Most illegal immigrants caught in the U.S. across the southern border with Mexico, mostly from Mexico and other Latin American countries. As a fact, 90% – are of the Mexican descent.
Sale of marijuana, pornography and the use of illegal labor in the U.S. have created a black market, which accounts for almost 10% of the country’s economy.
Business for delivery in the U.S. of illegal immigrants is very risky, but at the same time, it is extremely profitable and is not inferior to the profitability of smuggling drugs and weapons. Interpol data show that illegal carriers around the world earn more than $ 30 billion annually. The fee for delivery of an illegal immigrant from Asian countries such as China, Western Europe is $ 3 thousand, in North America – $ 4 thousand, Mexicans and Latin Americans pay for border crossing U.S. $ 1.5 thousand, the residents of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe – $ 10 Thousands, and it is curious that prices for the services of smugglers have increased after the attacks of September 11, 2001. Immigrants, most of whom do not have such money, shall undertake to pay the smugglers after arrival at the destination.
Illegal movement of people annually causes hundreds of deaths. According to the customs and border services of the United States \ Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, only in 2003, at least 346 illegal immigrants from Mexico and other Latin American countries died trying to illegally cross the US-Mexican border. Most of the victims died of thirst and heat exhaustion in the desert, through which is routed the US-Mexico border. Many were drowned in the border river Rio Grande, or died under the wheels of cars, at the time when the highway ran.
However, this statistic is not complete and does not include, for example, illegal immigrants suffocated in the containers and car bodies. In January 2000, three Chinese were found dead in a cargo ship bound for a U.S. port city of Seattle. When Customs officers searched the vessel, they discovered another 15 migrants, who sat huddled in tight metal boxes. Two weeks they were fed only water, bread crumbs and rotten vegetables. According to the U.S. border in 2003, they saved the lives of more than 1.2 thousand illegals, giving them medical care and sent to the hospital.
In 1998, there were arrested the ringleaders of the three major criminal cartels, that for three years, were taken to the U.S. There were 12 thousand illegal immigrants from India and the Middle East. At the same time in Los Angeles were found 2 million fake identity cards, which were intended for illegal immigrants.
In most industrialized countries it is prohibited to employ illegals. In the U.S. employer who illegally hired a person is not entitled to work, and in the best case is finished with a fine of $10 thousand for each accepted them on the job an illegal immigrant. Nonetheless, hiring illegal workers is considered to be very profitable. The employer saves on taxes and PRSI. Workweek of an illegal immigrant, as a rule, is 1.5 -2 times higher than that of the legal staff. According to U.S. law on minimum wage \ Minimal Wage Act, the lowest wages received by an employee of a private company can not be below $ 6.15 per hour. Data by CNN show that illegal immigrants are paid an average $ 2.5 per hour. Illegals almost never violate the rules of conduct in the workplace. In addition, undocumented immigrants do not claim to decent working conditions and agree to perform the most difficult and dirty work. They go to work even when sick, and almost never protest against the tyranny of the employer. In the Los Angeles area, 28% of workers receive a salary with not the bank checks, as is customary in the U.S., but cash, with high probability means that their existence is not known to the tax authorities.
Most illegal immigrants in the U.S. live in subhuman conditions. In the California town of Soledad, according to the municipality, among 1.5 thousand people – one out of eight residents – live in the garage. According to the American economist Eric Schlosser \ Eric Schlosser, labor illegal workers annually brings $ 50 for each American family, according to Immigration and Labor in the U.S. Economy.
In 2003, immigration officers and customs officials \ Immigration and Customs Enforcement Services caught the world’s largest retail network Wal-Mart in hiring illegal immigrants – they were used as a night janitor stores. More than 300 illegal workers were arrested in 61 supermarket Wal-Mart. Among those arrested were a lot of immigrants from the former Soviet Union – 14 citizens of Uzbekistan, 12 – Russia, the 11 – from Georgia and Lithuania, two citizens of Ukraine and Tajikistan.
Nowadays, society is increasingly experiencing racism towards new generations and ethnic minorities and even violent conflicts between different communities. The most frequently reported cases of such conflicts may be rivalries between blacks and Koreans (vd. Los Angeles riots) or between African Americans and Hispanics of color. In prisons have been seen a resurgence of violence between African American and Mexican prison gangs, particularly in California there have been several riots and killings Committee in prisons, as described in Immigrant Entrepreneurs Shape a New Economy. After the recent migration of African Americans into neighborhoods, was occupied mostly by the Mexican side, and there have been reports of aggression on both sides. In recent years, increased cases of violence among Hispanic Americans and Europeans, Africans and African Americans, and new immigrants among Hispanics born Americans and newly immigrant.
All in all, U.S. immigrants have become an indispensable part of the American economy. Today it is difficult to imagine United States without the immigrates, because they work at the places that are not occupied by the native Americans. U.S. immigration (immigration to the United States of America) refers to the movement of non-residents to the United States. Immigration has been a major source of population growth and cultural change in much of American history. The economic, social, political and immigration issues have caused controversy in relation to ethnicity, religion, economic benefits, job growth, settlement patterns, impact on upward social mobility, levels of criminality, nationalities, political loyalties, moral values and work habits. Since 2006, the United States accepts more legal immigrants as permanent residents than any other country in the world. In 2006, the number of immigrants amounted to 37.5 million people. Many people state that despite all the disadvantages of immigration in the U.S., there are many advantages that the immigrants bring, and increasing the immigration makes it beneficial for the country’s economy (Hernandez, 2010)
Works cited
Kitty Calavita. Inside the State: The Bracero Program, Immigration, and the I.N.S., Routledge. 1992.
Kelly Lytle Hernandez. Migra!: A History of the U.S. Border Patrol, University of California Press; 1 edition. 2010.
Mae M. Ngai. Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America. Princeton University Press. 2005.
Daniel Rothenberg. With these Hands: The Hidden World of Migrant Farmworkers Today. University of California Press; 1 edition. 2000.