Immigration has been an essential topic in political debates for decades. It implies economic, humanitarian, and security concerns for the entire world but especially for the United States, one of the countries with more immigrants in our era. Here, people from different cultures and necessities fight to find their place in the “promised land” where “all dreams come true” if you work hard and take the chance. As John F. Kennedy said, this is “a nation of immigrants,” –a phrase that has been used by many politicians ever since–. However, for young people, every day is more challenging to look for their future here. Why is that?
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, immigrants comprised about 26 percent of U.S. inhabitants (immigrants and their U.S born children). It is a matter that has occupied the daily agenda for the governments since the United States launched its first migrant labor program during World War One: from efforts to expand the immigration reforms to policies aiming to curb it. Each president made its own regulations changes depending on the political and economic context, with or without congressional approval.
But today, the U.S. faces another situation: the post-covid 2019 and “the Great Resignation.” It is well known that the pandemic had a significant impact on the economies and interpersonal relations. In 2021, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, over 47 million Americans quit their jobs. In the last month of that year, 11 million positions were opened in the US, but roughly more than 6 million Americans were seeking for a job.
One of the possibilities to solve this problem is improving the immigration system. The number of foreign workers has increased over the years, and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has different types of visas for them. Still, the pandemic has discontinued many programs, and a larger number of companies downsized and forced their workers to move. Moreover, the past administration advocated reducing legal and illegal immigration.
Nowadays, inflationary levels are high (as it hasn’t been seen in four decades), and Americans are worried about their cost of living. Some researchers suggest that the leading cause is the supply chain disruptions. And foreign-born workers could fill the labor shortage in the U.S., but in many cases, they have lost their legal conditions because of the slow work permit renewals, or because the wait is too long for those abroad who want to apply for a visa. As a result, the U.S. is showing the lowest level of international migration in decades.
The Biden administration is working to reduce paperwork requirements for immigration and recently announced that it would accelerate the processing of applications by reducing wait times and speeding up the work permit renewals.
In the last years, USCIS faced increasingly high stress in the application processes because of the restrictive immigration policies and the pandemic. The delay has left millions of people navigating uncertainty and companies struggling to find qualified workers.
In the long run, this situation will be critical since the developing countries are dealing with a decline in population growth, representing an unprecedented setback in history; this may cause less workforce stock and more retired people, challenging the pensions system and threatening the strength of their economies. It appears evident that if visa programs come out faster, it will allow more young and qualified people to contribute to the workforce in the country. In other words, America needs to strengthen its immigration system, or it will face difficulties in sustaining growth.