An Argumentative essay on

“The United States should not restrict immigration or have

immigration quotas”
Immigration has always been a key matter of discussion for the United States.
This phenomenon is not new and thousands of immigrants have come into US
from various parts of the world. To limit the number of immigrant population US
has a restriction or a quota system. In the Immigration Act of 1990, there is an
annual limit of 700,000 visas for immigration quota. Within the quota system,
there are several categories to divide the immigrants. Such as, family sponsored
immigrants, diversity immigrants, employment-based immigrants and so forth.
The United States try to limit the number of immigrants from a particular country
using the quota system. It means, a certain percentage of people from a particular
country can migrate to the US every year. The US government uses an
immigration quota calculation formula to determine that number. While keeping
the immigration quotas is almost like a law in the US, it has its fair share of pros
and cons.
Sometimes it’s better for the US to not have any restriction on immigration or
have immigration quotas whatsoever. One of the major benefit of not having
restriction on immigration quotas is to gain skilled and enriched workforce. For
instance, having Japanese immigrants can provide great benefit to the country
because of their highly skilled workers. They have the best labor force in the
world with most skills. Without the immigration quota system, the US could gain
more Japanese workers to increase the skill level of workers.
By not having restriction on the immigration, US could avail maximum number of
immigrants and gain maximum economic growth from the immigration process. A
major issue with having immigration quota is that, it’s solely based on theory and
calculation. The US tries to allow a certain number of people from every country
to be a part of immigration. But some countries may not have enough people
willing to migrate to the US to fill that number. This results in lowering the
number of immigrants which in return hinders the potential economic growth of
the country. No immigration quotas can properly utilize the allowed percentage
of immigrants, to maximize the economical growth and workforce.
One of the major disadvantages with unrestricted immigration is the lack of
cultural diversity. Without the quota system, it’s quite possible for most
immigrants to come from a particular region and fill all the spots of immigrants in
the US. As a result, the country almost becomes a secondary home for the
particular region without enough cultural diversity in it. Whereas a key feature of
immigration for a country is to have enough cultural diversity. Without the quota
system, that benefit of immigration becomes almost void.
Another disadvantage with unrestricted immigration is that the developing or the
people from the needy countries might not get the opportunity immigrate to the
US for better opportunities. Without any restrictions, people from an already
developed country may fill up the allotted number of immigrants for the US. As a
result, people from the under developed or developing countries won’t even get
the opportunity to make it in the US. This creates an imbalance and also sounds a
bit unfair to the people seeking opportunities.
To conclude, there are advantages and disadvantages of unrestricted immigration
policies in the US. For the benefit of the country, to gain maximum economic
growth and gain skilled workforce they should remove the quota system for their
immigration process. On the other hand, seeing from a humane point of view,
having a quota system seems like a fair policy for all the people around the globe
looking for opportunities in the US.