Let Migrants Work

Over spring break, I returned home to Chicago. One of the first things I noticed was that sections of the airport had been closed and converted into migrant shelters. Outside of an ice cream shop, I saw a single mother with two young boys. When I was driving, I noticed a man pacing back and forth on the shoulder of the Dan Ryan expressway. Chicago’s migrants aren’t threatening or obnoxious; rather, they shrink away, weary after their long journey here. These timid refugees offered a stark contrast to the City of Big Shoulders and its vibrant neighborhoods.

America is a nation built by immigrants. We have welcomed immigrants ever since our founding, yet our attitudes toward immigration have soured. The chief reason Americans take anti-immigration stances is because we view migrants as burdens on our social safety net. Except, at the same time, we don’t allow migrants to provide for themselves in any meaningful way. As a country, we fail migrants consistently at every turn. First, we greet them with the herculean task of securing immigration appointments to enter the country legally, a task that proves impossible for most. Upon entering the country, migrants must then apply for asylum, a process rife with delays. After completing the asylum application, immigration courts will leave migrants in limbo as they wait years for their court dates. Due to weak outreach and poor communication, most migrants don’t even realize that there is a process for legal work authorization. However, migrants only become eligible after 180 days following their asylum application. Applying for legal work authorization with an I-765 form also requires a $410 administration fee: ironically enough, many migrants can’t afford to work. We tell migrants to “pull yourselves up by your bootstraps” without giving them the right or legal incentive to even try. 

Instead of helping these new arrivals integrate into their communities and contribute to their new homes, certain states have decided to ship migrants across the country to more liberal “sanctuary cities,” rendering them ‘someone else’s’ problem. This is how migrants find themselves homeless on the streets of America’s largest cities: broke, alone, and scared, forever waiting for their day in court. Of course, we need sweeping immigration reforms to broaden the path to legal status: our courts need to be better funded and staffed, and migrants need better protections. There seems to be this idea that migrants will stop coming if we shut down this country. That won’t work. They will keep coming, undeterred. We also legally and morally can’t stop migrants from entering the country. Helping out migrants is the right thing to do, and as members of the UN’s 1967 Protocol, we have a legal duty to both take in migrants and protect asylum-seekers and legal asylees from “refoulement”, theor forced return to a territory in which they may face serious threats. The Trump-era policy of forcing asylum-seekers to wait for court dates in Mexico was actually in violation of international law, as the U.S. cannot deport, and has a duty to shelter, asylum-seekers and prospective applicants until a court has invalidated or rejected their application. So, we have migrants, and more are coming. With no comprehensive immigration reform in sight, the simplest, most important thing we can do is allow America’s ever-growing migrant populations to work. 

We must also realize immigration policy is population policy. Right now, U.S. fertility rates are the lowest they’ve ever been: the U.S. birth rate is 1.7 births per woman, which is well below the “replacement rate” of 2.1 needed to maintain a population’s size. Over time, America’s  population will shrink. We can attribute this decline in births to a variety of causes: millennials don’t feel as comfortable starting families, housing is more expensive now, and college debt weighs heavily on most Americans.— These are long-term problems with no imminent solutions. Programs such as social security are funded by payroll taxes of working-age adults, creating a pool of money that these same adults can draw from upon their retirement. Social security and comparable programs are essentially a ponzi-like scheme, in which each generation pays to provide benefits for older generations. If America’s population decline continues, public safety nets, such as social security and Medicare, will collapse within decades. Paradoxically, despite the conventional argument that migrants burden our public goods, we actually need to expand our tax base and grow our population if we want to continue offering these services. To compound this, economic growth will slow as the U.S. adjusts to a smaller labor force and consumer base.

Fortunately, we have an entire Wyoming’s worth of migrants literally dying to get into our country: our population implosion would be much more troubling without the huddled masses. While we need to solve the problems that are lowering birth rates, our migrants can help us alleviate population loss and contribute to the economy. Currently, the United States has enough job openings to employ the entire city of New York, as unfilled positions sit at almost 9nine million. Available jobs still soar above their pre-pandemic highs. According to Thethe Wall Street Journal, 1one in 5five jobs at small businesses are available, with job openings increasing 20% in workplaces of less than 10 employees. There is so much work to be done in the U.S. You have work. I have work. America cannot afford inaction or impotence. Migrants are here;, they’re at our borders and in our streets. Why do we let migrants continue to suffer on the street without work?

Imagine a Guatemalan migrant, speaking little English, arriving in Texas after a year-long odyssey through Mexico. They turn themselves in at some bordertown after crossing the Rio Grande illegally and apply for asylum. Governor Greg Abbott offers them a bus to Chicago; they take it. Upon arriving in Chicago, they’re offered shelter, and they apply for jobs. For the years that they await their court date, they work at a local job—a job that keeps them off the street, gives them stable income, fulfills a small business’ employment needs, and allows them to better the local community and contribute to a broader national economy. Eventually, they get their day in court, where the judge notes that they’ve been a productive and successful member of society despite hardships, and they’re granted a legal path to citizenship.

This should be the story of every migrant who sets foot in our great country. Immigrants provide solutions to our greatest problems; they can help correct our declining birth rates and fill a surplus of job openings. Every American has potential. Our policies need to help them unlock this potential. Each immigrant has something incredibly valuable to offer our nation. We could change millions of lives just by changing our policy. We need immigrants. They need us. The American Dream is thriving, if we choose to let it live.