However, an educated and rational debate about this issue requires that these prejudices, which have now become stereotypes, be clarified. First, estimates indicate that around 57 percent of undocumented immigrants come from Mexico, the next largest group (or 15 percent) comes from Central America, and the rest come from other countries (as cited in Nadadur, 2009, p. 1039). Hence, not all undocumented immigrants are Mexican. Second, “between 25 to 40 percent of undocumented immigrants entered the country with legal documents such as student visas, tourist visas, or temporary employee visas, but failed to leave or properly extend their documents” (Lipman, 2006, para. 12). Thus, not all entered the country without inspection (illegally). Finally, “more than 90 [percent] of adult undocumented immigrant men and 50 [percent] of adult women are in the labor force” (Lipman, YEAR, p.819). Hence, the great majority are not terrorists or individuals that come to disrupt society; rather, they come to …show more content…
Moreover, it is essential to clarify that the U.S. domestic situation is also responsible for these immigration waves. Specifically, Michael Piore (1979) explains that international migration is the result of a high-demand for lowskilled workers in the host country and not necessarily always due to unfavorable conditions in the sending country (p.15). Piore (1979) also argues that there are four different factors in developed countries that influence the demand for unskilled labor. One of these factors is what Piore calls “structural inflation” (p.15). As Piore describes it, society usually expects both, social status and wages to correlate. Hence, low-prestige jobs consequentially have lower wages. Since people generally like status, low-wage jobs become undesirable. Because there are no people willing to occupy the unskilled positions due to the low social status attached to them, the ideal thing to do would be to raise the wages of unskilled jobs to attract workers. However, this would also imply raising the wages for everyone else in the labor hierarchy, since wages should match social status and prestige. As a result, the easier way out is to hire immigrant workers who are willing to take those jobs for low