America is sometimes referred to as a "nation of immigrants" because of our largely open-door policy toward accepting foreigners pursuing their vision of the American Dream. Recently, there has been a clamor by some politicians and citizens toward creating a predominantly closed-door policy on immigration, arguing that immigrants "threaten" American life by creating unemployment by taking jobs from American workers, using much-needed social services, and encroaching on the "American way of life." In fact, immigrants actually enhance American life by creating jobs and bolster social service funds through tax payments and they bring valuable technical knowledge and cultural diversity to our country. .
A common argument among those opposing further immigration is that foreigners take U.S. jobs and cause unemployment among the displaced American workers. In the July 13, 1992 , a poll states that sixty-two percent of non-blacks and sixty-three percent of blacks agree that "new immigrants take jobs away from American workers"(The Immigrant,2 ) This is a widely held, if erroneous belief, among Americans. However,in a book states: immigration does not provocative unemployment.Immigrants not only take jobs, but also create them (Simon, Ch 4). Their purchases increase the demand for labor, leading to new hires roughly equal in number to the immigrant workers.In the same poll, eighty-three percent of non-blacks and eighty-seven percent of blacks agree that "many new immigrants are very hard-working"(The Immigrants,30 ) The results of the poll may seem somewhat contradictory, but not necessarily negative. Those polled seem to be at least a little open-minded in their view of the quality of new immigrants. However, in order to overcome their distrust of foreigners, Americans must abandon their suspicions and recognize, as Simon has, that our lives are enhanced by immigrants creating, not taking, U.
