Candy Avila

Melania Popa-mabe

Social Welfare Institutions, Policies, and Programs

November 21, 2021

Public Education Program

Are immigrants really stealing American jobs? I created this flyer as a sort of propaganda

as well as a dramatic exhibition to draw people’s attention to the matter of inequalities that

immigrants face. This country that is the United States of America was not founded by native

Americans or the people who already lived here. In fact, those people were stripped of their land

and their rights when the British began to colonize.

Moving forward to our present day there is a lot of immigration issues and a big wave of

people who have recently been coming from Latin America. The reason for their migration is

circumstantial, but mostly related to violence, poverty, lack of jobs and opportunities, or even

dangerous threats to them and their families. With these big migrations of people comes the right

and the wrong, where some people immigrate to America with a visa or apply for citizenship and

are allowed properly into the country. However, there is also those people who manage to enter

the country illegally without proper documentation. This brings forward a big problem with the

government. The process to get proper documentation to live in this country can take decades

which is what sets back some people in applying or trying to get proper documentation.

With, a lot of immigrants don’t have the proper documentation so they cannot get an

indoor desk job, or even go to school if they wanted to because they don’t have a social security

number which is necessary for most things. So, with this issue, they work common jobs such as

house keepers, landscapers, construction workers, field workers, jobs that are easily accessible
and have the minimal interaction with people. However, a lot of these jobs are hard manual labor

and most of the time they are overworked and paid under the table. This leads to richer

employers because who knows if they report that profit or if they just hide it when tax time

comes around. This leads to more immigrant workers hired and more money for the employers.

Now, there are people that will argue that these people are stealing their jobs, but I have yet to

see where a white American will go onto a field and pick crops. This goes back to slavery where

they enslaved African Americans to do this. As well as without a social security number these

are the only jobs immigrants can get. They cannot work at Target, or at an agency, or even go to

college.

As time has passed and new presidents are elected to office, they enforce new rules and

regulations. In 2012 Barack Obama signed into law The Dream Act of 2012. This act offered

eligible undocumented immigrants which were young people between 18 and 32 the opportunity

for full integration into larger society and a pathway to legalization and citizenship (Warde, 148).

This gave many illegal young people the opportunity to go to college, get a drivers license, and

get a better job. However once President Trump came into office, he halted this process. As new

officials come in this will go back and forth and change, however, there needs to be a process to

get these citizenships faster, and more appropriately to the correct people.

Now I understand where people can try and say that the US has a problem with homeless

people and people in poverty as it is, and we don’t need these extra foreigners in the country

making it worse. However, this country is built on foreigners. If a person with no documentation,

can attempt to speak two languages, and came to this country with nothing can get a job and

make a life for themselves in a country they don’t know, then there is a problem with Americans.
 In class we discussed how immigration may not be a bad thing. How there are many

problems that have to do with the government and people in America not necessarily the

immigrants as it is. There is influence by racism, as well as nationalism, but there is also that

worry that American’s will have no jobs left. When right now that is the exact opposite where we

have a lot of jobs that people do not want to do. Would you say this is an immigrant’s problem?

Citations

Warde, B. (2016). Inequality in u. s. social policy : An historical analysis. Taylor

& Francis Group.