Everyone will benefit with immigration reform (VI)

by Donna Poisl

If parents had to learn English, which first generation immigrants have always struggled with, they would be better able to help their children with their school work and encourage them to do well in school. It would also give their children more incentive to become proficient in English. Many children who are born here, yet live in a home where the parents speak no English and few of the neighbors do either, do not become proficient in English. Children all over the world are learning English, knowing that anyone who is bilingual has a huge advantage, yet many children born here are falling behind and are not learning our national language.

The dropout rate for immigrant children in high school is very high, especially for Latino students. They know that even if they do well in high school, they won't be able to attend college at a price their families can afford. Most states charge illegal immigrants out-of-state tuition and they aren't eligible for grants or scholarships. If they get over that hurdle and do well in college and get a degree, they can't get a job with that degree because they are here illegally. The only jobs they can get are in hotels, restaurants, farms and others that are low wage. This defeats the purpose of their education and our country loses the benefits of these well educated young people.

If these children were given legal status, think of the incentive they would have to succeed in school. Our tax dollars are paying to educate them, we should be looking for ways to encourage them to do well in school. If we have more students successfully graduating from high school and going on to college this country will benefit. Many immigrant children will return to the same communities their parents live in, so the cities that educated the children get the benefit of their employment and tax money for many more years.

If these college students get their degrees and go on to highly skilled jobs, we would not have the shortage of high skilled workers we are experiencing now. The small H-1B visa quota for high skilled immigrants is filled early every year (which means these people go to work in other countries). Companies then have to out-source their work, or worse, not be able to start new projects or do research and development. Some of these jobs don't require college degrees, but they do require bright young people who are educated in high school math and science and can be trained in the high tech jobs.

Students who earn a degree get better jobs, pay more taxes, purchase more cars, electronics, houses and often start their own companies. These companies, in turn, employ more workers and pay more taxes. This is usually thought of as the American way.

Learning English and getting a good education are the most important things new residents can do here and when these two things happen, everyone benefits.

We all know the undocumented people living here have broken the law by coming in illegally or overstaying their visa and yet, something has to be done to get them registered and legalized. A majority of our citizens say we should find a way to solve this problem. This country needs them.

In the first column of this series, I listed several areas where we will all benefit when there is immigration reform which would legalize the millions of people living here illegally; the military, Social Security, our economy, our future economy, education and national security. The first column talked about our economy, the second one was about Social Security and the military. This one was about language and education. The next one will discuss national security and some others.


About the Author
Donna Poisl is the author of "How to Live & Thrive in the U.S. / Como Vivir y Prosperar en Estados Unidos" and president of Live & Thrive Press. She wrote this reference guide to help immigrants learn our system and succeed in this country. Contact Donna at http://www.howtoliveandthrive.com or Immigrants in USA Blog at http://immigrantsinusa.blogspot.com