Reasoning Reason

An influx of foreign-born workers will be an effective solution to the labor shortage that inevitable would otherwise arise beginning over the next few years. However, the window of opportunity for these workers, the window during which Americans will value immigrants properly as opposed to viewing them derogatorily through the negative connotation associated with “the aliens,” will last only a short period of time. Second-generation baby-boomers will begin to enter the workplace soon after their parents retire, refilling the American workforce with a fresh batch of personnel. While immigrants are the short-term solution to keeping American companies supplied with superfluous secretaries, the arrival of numerous middle-aged people to American society will fuel over-population and drown the already-sinking concept of Social Security. In addition, when the new generation of workers enters the job market, the immigrants who have filled the previously empty positions will raise the supply-to-demand ratio and subsequently increase unemployment, a statistic that can never be too low. While immigration is necessary, especially to a nation less globally informed than it should be, increasing immigration in an already ever-increasing society will lead to long-term dilemmas. If sacrificing America’s long-term needs for appeasing America’s short-term needs seems a fair trade, then by all means I encourage employers to attract foreign demographics of workers to move to the United States. However, in an economy that increases at a progressively slower rate each year, I suggest that America uses the already unemployed sector of the job market to cover the wounds of the initial post-baby-boomer economy. Through this experience, America has the opportunity to become more efficient in its businesses, and decrease unemployment. More importantly, the openings in the job market will encourage young people to get good educations in an effort to obtain the highly touted positions that would be available.