by Priscilla Benfield

Created on: January 31, 2010

There are very few of us who can trace our ancestries back and say that we are Native Americans. Many of us are the descendants of people who came here from other countries to escape poverty, war or just to have the American dream. The older members of our families can tell us stories of how our grandmother or other family member came here as a child and struggled not only to learn the language, but to fit in to become an American.

I think the reason why Americans today fear immigration is because many of us feel that too many immigrants enter our country illegally and we fear that criminals are livings amongst us. Another reason for the intense anger many feel towards immigrants is because our country welcomes them too easily. Many seem to have no problem receiving government assistance in the form of health care and welfare benefits. Americans who struggle to make ends meet see immigrants who receive food stamps and we resent supporting them.

Many immigrants come to America from very poor nations and are willing to work hard. That in itself is not a problem. The problem is that over the last ten years or more, employers have figured out that many immigrants, even illegal ones, mean cheap labor. Immigrants will work for far less money and because of this wages in this country have gone down. Jobs that many Americans used to do are being filled by immigrants. One of the reasons why immigrants will work for less is because of the way they live in America.

Immigrants band together and help each other. Many of them share housing and often go against occupancy laws and many towns are fighting back against this. Coming from a poor country, they are not spoiled like we are and are happy to just have a bed to sleep in. Many do not even drive cars instead riding bicycles to and from their jobs.

Americans have reason to fear immigrants. They have taken jobs and made the pay scale change for many of us. Many of them get business loans easier because of government quotas that need to be filled. Many of them work here but send a good portion of their money earned back to their home country. When the money that they earn here is not being spent here, it hurts our economy.

I almost feel embarrassed to complain about how immigration has changed the American way of life. Illegal or legal aliens are what this country was made of. As my father likes to remind me, his ancestors may not all have become citizens although they wanted to be. They worked hard, learned the language and settled in a neighborhood amongst other immigrants from their country.

The problem many Americans see today is that the immigrants sometimes do not want to learn our language and too many special considerations are made for them. This does put fear into Americans. Residents along the Mexican border worry about the increase in crime due to drugs that come from Mexico through illegal aliens.

The America that my ancestors came to is a far different place today. There definitely are some immigrants who come here feeling blessed to be here and work hard and do not take advantage of the system. There are others who have changed things for so many of us and that is where the fear comes from. Although I believe that many immigrants do not take advantage on purpose, it is just become a learned thing to do. The only way to curb American's fears is to get a handle on immigration by really studying how it effects the lives of our citizens.

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