Immigration, and especially illegal immigration, is seen as a harm to the overall US economy, yet this is vastly false. There are countless ways that the people who come to the US benefit the economy. Immigrants are more likely than non-immigrants to start businesses. The Small Business Administration says foreign-born people are 30% more likely to start their own business. Already, 18% of small business owners are foreign born. These businesses greatly produce jobs and reduce unemployment. The U.S. Labor Department identified in 2007 that businesses started by immigrants employed 4.7 million people. These same immigrant run small businesses generated an astounding revenue sum of $776 billion dollars annually. Many of the companies that those of foreign birth start do not remain small. 25% of publicly traded companies in the US were started by immigrants with the help of venture capital investors in startups and growing companies. This includes companies such as Google, Yahoo!, eBay, and Intel. In addition to being successful entrepreneurs, immigrants also contribute a proportionally large size of the math and engineering industries. Although only making up 16% of the population, immigrants make up 33% of engineers, 27% of mathematicians, statisticians, and computer scientists, and 24% of physical scientists. Additionally, foreign-born investors contributed to more than 75% of the …show more content…
Yet again, this is simply a misconception. A study was done researching violent acts by 3,000 males and females in Chicago ranging from ages 8 to 25. Shockingly, the rate of violent acts committed by latino immigrants were far less than that of whites or blacks. Additionally, another study found that on a graph of homicides vs. immigration, they are actually inversely proportional to one another. During 1990, immigration was at its lowest during the 1990-2004 period, yet homicides were at its highest. In contrast, the year 2000 yielded the most immigrants, yet homicides were at an all time low for the period. In another study, it was found that cities with concentrated immigrant populations are among the safest places to live. The blame of terrorism upon immigration is also vastly untrue as none of the 19 terrorists who planned the 9/11 day attacks were immigrants. They were in the US as “tourists”. It is foolish to blame terrorism on immigration because terrorists are not here to immigrate. They get here the easiest way possible, even when illegal. A mass restriction on immigration will have little to no effect on the terrorism within the US. Tightening and mastering the screening of all the tourists and people with visas who come to the US is the broad solution to that. (Sampson 29, 30,