Ethical Analysis of Immigration Reform Research Paper

I. Executive Summary

The problem of the illegal immigration has a considerable impact on the economic, social and political life of the US. In face of such problem, the US government considers the introduction of the immigration reform which can resolve current problems and issues associated with the illegal immigration. The question that begs is who should take decisions in the development and introduction of the immigration reform. The government traditionally takes the lead since it is the government responsibility to develop and implement policies to execute laws introduced by the US Congress. However, the public opinion is very important and influences not only policies conducted by the government but also laws taken by the US Congress. Therefore, there are two major actors: the government and the people, who can take or, at least, influence the decision on the immigration reform consistently.

The analysis involves the detailed evaluation of the proposed policy which is the immigration reform oriented on the legalization of immigrants and clarification of admission requirements to facilitate the migration on the legal ground and discourage the illegal immigration.  The evaluation of the policy involves the analysis of interests of the key stakeholders and the impact of the recommended policy on them.

Ethical analysis based on the use of different ethical theories, such as deontology, virtue ethics, and others. The study involves the use of Geuras and Garofalo’s 4 Step model which helps to view the recommended policy from different ethical perspectives and elaborate the effective solution to the problem of the illegal immigration the US confronts at the moment. The use of the 4Step model helps to conduct the effective analysis of the problem and reveal different issues that may relate to the problem of the immigration reform in the US. Different ethical perspectives help to determine the effectiveness of the recommended policy

The immigration reform should legalize immigrants, who have been in the US for at least five years, including their children and family members, i.e. spouses. Second, clear admission requirements should provide opportunities for people willing to migrate to the US to have the legal access to the US as long as they comply with existing standards and requirements to the admission of immigrants to the US.

II. Body

Part A. Basic Policy Analysis:

Political debates over the immigration reform lead to the severe criticism of current policies as well as the rejection of the idea of the liberalization of the immigration policy. The immigration reform is the way to the solution of current problems associated with the illegal immigration and related problems. At this point, it is worth mentioning the fact that the illegal immigration triggers a bunch of problems. For example, illegal immigrants often work illegally, while neither employers nor employees pay taxes. The violation of fiscal regulations is harmful for public funds because state and federal budget under-receive revenues which could be used for the enhancement of current policies, such as education. Also the illegal immigration may trigger the rise of crime rates because, being a desperate position, illegal immigrants may slip to criminal activities or join ethnic gangs, where they find support and means for living. In addition, the illegal immigration raises the problem of the lack of education and health care services for illegal immigrants, while, if they do receive education and health care services, they deprive immigrants and native-born citizens of the same services, which they could have received instead.

However, the decision on the immigration reform raises a number of ethical issues. This is why the immigration reform should take into consideration ethical issues and meet needs and interests of the key stakeholders, including immigrants both legal and illegal ones, their children born in the US or brought from their home countries, native-born Americans, legislators and the US government at both federal and state levels.

The possible solution to the problem of the illegal immigration and the current situation with immigrants in the US is the implementation of the immigration reform. The immigration reform should legalize immigrants, who have been in the US for at least five years, including their children and family members, i.e. spouses. Clear admission requirements should provide opportunities for people willing to migrate to the US to have the legal access to the US as long as they comply with existing standards and requirements to the admission of immigrants to the US.

The four criteria of the policy analysis include: Feasibility, Political, Budget/Economic, and Administrative. These criteria are very important with budget/economic criteria being the most important, followed by political, administrative and feasibility. The budget/economic criterion includes economic effects of the illegal immigration and expected economic benefits of the immigration reform. The political criterion involves policies conducted by the government now and their impact on immigration and immigrants because the political situation and the government policy have a considerable impact on immigration. Administrative criterion involves the technical implementation of the immigration reform, including government agencies or law enforcement agencies responsible for the reform and its implementation. Feasibility reveals the overall effectiveness and viability of the immigration reform in the US.

The recommended solution is two-fold. On the one hand, the immigration reform should legalize immigrants, who have been in the US for at least five years, including their children and family members, i.e. spouses, while, on the other hand, clear admission requirements should provide opportunities for people willing to migrate to the US to have the legal access to the US as long as they comply with existing standards and requirements to the admission of immigrants to the US.

The recommended solution matches the economic criterion because it helps to cut costs on the deportation of immigrants and struggle with illegal immigrants due to the legalization of a large part of illegal immigrants.

The proposed solution also matches the political criterion because the new policy will ease the tension in society as it puts the end to the debate on illegal immigrants and their possible deportation.

The recommended solution also complies with the administrative criteria because the government can perform the legalization of immigrants to ease the tension in society and to provide them with larger opportunities to exercise their rights, especially for their children, who often identify themselves as Americans.

Finally, the recommended solution has feasibility because the solution is viable and is likely to gain a large public support. The solution is fair and attempts to address the key stakeholders and their needs.

The government traditionally takes the lead since it is the government responsibility to develop and implement policies to execute laws introduced by the US Congress. However, the public opinion is very important and influences not only policies conducted by the government but also laws taken by the US Congress. Therefore, there are two major actors: the government and the people, who can take or, at least, influence the decision on the immigration reform consistently

Part B. Ethical Analysis

  • Ethical Evaluation/Analysis:

Geuras and Garofalo’s 4 Step model allows conducting the analysis of the recommended solution from different ethical perspectives.

  • Teleology/Consequences:

Teleology concept implies the focus on the greatest good as the key criterion for the morally correct action or decision being taken. Therefore, the recommended solution should comply with the concept of the greatest good to be ethically and morally correct from the teleological perspective. The good of society is the sum of the happiness of individuals in that society (Mill & Bentham, 8). Another fundamental principal defined by Mill and Bentham is the promotion of the good in society which is one of the main purposes of morality (Mill & Bentham, 8). In such a way, the greatest good is the major criterion for the ethical evaluation of the recommended solution.

In such a context, the legalization of immigrants, who have been in the US for at least five years and the introduction of more effective and simple regulations concerning the immigration has to be evaluated from the perspective of the greatest good. In this regard, the greatest good means the good for the majority of society or the sum of happiness of individuals in the society. The legalization of immigrants will be definitely good for immigrants, which though comprise a minority of the population. In this regard, the main question is whether the rest of the population will be happy with such reform or not. At first glance, the mainstream society is likely to be dissatisfied and not happy with such a policy because there are many opponents of the illegal immigration and many people believe that illegal immigrants are taking their jobs.

However, on analyzing real world consequences of the recommended reform, it is possible to estimate that many individuals in the society will be happy. First of all, the legalization of immigrants will put them on the equal ground as other Americans. Therefore, illegal immigrants will not have their advantage in the labor market because their employer will have to pay them legally and, thus, they will not be able to pay them less than the minimum wage. Hence, illegal immigrants will not only gain the legal status but they will also be in the same conditions as other employees. This is very important because the unfair competition in the labor market is one of the main reasons for the criticism of the illegal immigration so far.

The introduction of more effective and clear regulations to admit immigrants to the US will also discourage them from the illegal immigration because there will be the legal way to enter the US. Therefore, fair competition in the labor market will be enhanced through the legal immigration to the US. In such a situation, it is also necessary to take into consideration that many people in the US society will be happy due to the legal flow of immigrants, who do not have any illegal advantages in the labor market. Also the immigration reform will help to resolve issues related to education and health care coverage for immigrants. The improvement of their education and health care opportunities will improve the public health and create safer environment in communities with a large share of the immigrant population.

Therefore, the recommended immigration reform is morally correct from the perspective Teleology because consequences of the reform will be rather positive than negative and, thus, bring happiness to many people in the US.

  • Deontology/Principles:

Kant’s Categorical Imperative and Formula for the End in Itself and his ideas concerning ethics and morality of human actions reveal his devotion to deontological principles. However, Kant argued that for something to be morally good, it is not enough that it conforms to the ·moral· law, but, instead, it also must be done because it conforms to the law (Kant, 2017, 43). In case of the recommended immigration reform, the reform will be the law that conforms the moral law which has to be implemented and justify the morality of the change in the immigration policy. To put it more precisely, the moral law implies that people cannot be put into the worse conditions of living just because they have moved from a different country in the illegal way. They could flee from a war or unaffordable conditions of living. This is why it is morally wrong just to send them back. Instead, the moral law implies that such people should have shelter in the country, where they moved to. In addition, this is particularly true and morally correct in relation to children of illegal immigrants, because many children just feel being Americans and many of them just do not identify themselves with their country of origin. Therefore, there is the moral law which justifies the legalization of illegal immigrants and creation of fair conditions for immigration to the US.

The recommended immigration reform will be the law, the real world legal norm which will enact the moral law and enforce it. This is why the recommended immigration reform is moral and justifiable from the deontological perspective. At any rate, if illegal immigration does not evoke any violation of moral norms, then the recommended reform is good and right.

However, one may argue that some people may view the illegal immigration as the violation of the law which is morally wrong. Therefore, the legalization of illegal immigrants as proposed in the recommended immigration reform will be wrong too. The criticism of the illegal immigration is reasonable and the violation of the law is definitely immoral.

On the other hand, one has also to take into consideration reasons why people flee to the US from their home countries. As a rule, they are not just profit-seekers or people, who simply want to improve their standards of living. Moving to a new and totally different country is a challenging and, to a significant extent, desperate step for any person because one should change his/her cultural environment, traditional way of life, abandon friends and even family, break up ties with the cultural group one has always identified him-/herself with and sacrifice many other important things. In such a context, the economic stability is not the major reason for their immigration. Instead, the economic stability is just a reason even for legal immigrants because this is not the only and main reason for their immigration as well. This is why people are driven by desperate reasons which urge them to abandon their country and to move in the US, where they also live in conditions which are far from perfect, especially in case of illegal immigrants. This is why the criticism of the illegal immigration as morally justifiable act is inconsistent that means that the legalization of illegal immigrants is morally correct and justifiable too. Consequently, the recommended immigration reform complies with deontological principles and is morally justifiable and good.

  • Intuitionism/Moral Sense

The solution of the problem of the illegal immigration is very important and morally good and justifiable because the illegal immigration causes too many problems to leave the issue unaddressed. At the intuitive level, the recommended immigration reform is right and good because the reform will not cause any harm, but, instead, brings benefits to many people. Illegal immigrants are already in the US and, if they stay in the US for more than five years, then they have managed to adapt to the life in the US, they have found some job, and they have found their place in their new community. Therefore, they have proved to be able to adapt to the life in the US. Their deportation would be definitely wrong, especially from the moral perspective, because people, who have managed to change their life completely, will be returned back to countries, where their life and wellbeing may be compromised. This is why the decision to let them stay and gain the legal status as proposed in the recommended immigration reform seems to be morally correct.

The moral sense implies that people cannot just be abandoned or moved to worse conditions of living, when they have made so many efforts to change their life for better. Their return to their home countries is just wrong as well as their illegal status in the US is also wrong. Their illegal status is harmful for them as well as for citizens of the US. They suffer from their illegal status because they are deprived of basic rights Americans have. Americans suffer from the unfair competition in the labor market and risk of rising crime rates.

  • Virtue/Character

Aristotle’s works reveal the evaluation of action or policy as moral by identifying the goal, extremes to avoid, and critical virtue(s), i.e. habits, that a person/organization must develop to reach this goal. Aristotle argued that since ‘good’ has as many senses as ‘being’ (for it is predicated both in the category of substance, as of God and of reason, and in quality, i.e. of the virtues, and in quantity, i.e. of that which is moderate, and in relation, i.e. of the useful, and in time, i.e. of the right opportunity, and in place, i.e. of the right locality and the like), clearly it cannot be something universally present in all cases and single; for then it could not have been predicated in all the categories but in one only (Aristotle, 9:6). This means that good is not the absolutely universal concept that is acceptable for all people. In this regard, the recommended reform may be perceived as good by some people and as bad by others.

However, one has to consider the goal of the reform, which is to help many people to gain the legal status and avoid discrimination and oppression in the US as well as the risk of their deportation which is even worse for them than their current position in the US. Such a goal is worth achieving because it leads to the enhancement of the stability of the state and happiness of people. Illegal immigrants, who obtain the legal status, will be definitely happy. Other Americans may also be happy after the reform because the burden of health care services, education and other public services will be not only on them but also on immigrants, who have gained the legal status, and their employers. The public safety and health are also likely to improve that will make people happy and the state will become more stable and prosperous.

Aristotle also argued that people should avoid extremes. The recommended reform will prevent the further radicalization of the US society and the growing confrontation between illegal immigrants and Americans. At the moment, illegal immigrants and the illegal immigration cause the radicalization of the US society since the illegal immigration leads to the confrontation between opponents and proponents of the legalization of immigrants as well as between illegal immigrants and Americans. The radicalization of society has negative effects for all stakeholders. Illegal immigrants suffer from discrimination and oppression. Americans suffer from dissatisfaction with government immigration policies, while many believe that illegal immigrants take their jobs. In such a situation, the recommended reform can help to close gaps because it will put illegal immigrants on the equal ground compared to other Americans because they will gain the legal status.

The recommended reform will breed virtues in people, such as tolerance, mutual respect, and respect to democratic and fair principles. The elimination of the cause of the conflict between Americans and illegal immigrants will lead to the development of the positive interaction between them. The prevention of the confrontation will definitely have a positive impact on the stability in the US and ease the social tension which is currently caused by the problem of the illegal immigration.

Machiavelli conducted the analysis of the leadership character and claimed that the leader should conducted policies and govern the state as needed that means that the leader has to meet needs of his people and the state. Otherwise, the leader will be ineffective and people may grow dissatisfied with such a leader that may lead to social unrest and conflicts within society. The recommended immigration reform will address needs of the US and people of the US as well as illegal immigrants, who have already moved to the US and looking for options to gain the legal status in the country to become Americans.

Final Recommendation

The recommended solution has passed the ethical criteria and has proved to be the right and morally correct decision to be taken. The immigration reform is worth implementing because it has multiple positive effects which prevail over drawbacks of the proposed solution to the problem of the illegal immigration. At this point, it is possible to take into consideration several ethical factors that justify the introduction of the proposed reform to resolve the problem of the illegal immigration. First of all, the illegal immigration is apparently the problem for the US that causes not only the heat public debate but creates conditions for the growing confrontation between native-born Americans and citizens of the US, including legal immigrants, on the one hand, and illegal immigrants, on the other. The latter are traditionally perceived in the negative way and many Americans have a very negative attitude to illegal immigrants because they do not just break the law by entering the US illegally but also because they take jobs, which Americans could have potentially taken, they create the social tension and may increase crime rates, they may deteriorate the public health, while their children need education and need to have access to the public education that also increases the burden on the state budget which is covered at cost of American tax payers, whereas illegal immigrants pay no taxes at all, neither do their US employers. This is why the recommended immigration reform is good to prevent the tension in the US and resolve the rising conflict between illegal immigrants and citizens of the US.

The major arguments against the recommended immigration reform are morally immature because they do not look beyond the mere problem of the illegal immigration as the violation of the law. The illegal immigration naturally involves the violation of the law which is indisputably wrong from the ethical perspective. But the problem of the illegal immigration cannot be narrowed down to the problem of the violation of the law. This is not only the legal matter but also ethical one. From the ethical perspective, the legalization of immigrants is justifiable and good for many people in the US.

At this point, one should look not only at consequences of the illegal immigration but on its causes. As a rule, illegal immigrants flee from desperate conditions of living, when they are insecure to the extent that they determine to make such a desperate step as to migrate to a new country illegally. They are not afraid of breaking the law that means that the legal action against them, which they may confront them, is less fearful for them compared to their life in their home country.  In such a situation, it is morally correct to grant such people with an opportunity to stay in the US. Such policy is a virtuous act that serves to the good of many. This is why the immigration reform is worth implementing, especially taking into consideration possible disastrous effects of the further confrontation between Americans and illegal immigrants and disregard to human rights of illegal immigrants as well as rights of their children. The ethical analysis revealed the fact that the recommended immigration reform is morally good from different ethical perspectives.

Part C. Conclusion

The ethical analytic method used in the course of the current study should be used in problem solving on the job as well because this method has proved to be effective. To put it more precisely, the ethical analytic method used in the course of the study allows viewing ethical problems from different perspectives, including deontological, teleological, virtue ethics, and others. Such diversity of views helps to conduct the in-depth analysis of the specific problem from different angles and find out pros and contrast of the proposed recommendation. The application of different ethical theories helps to uncover issues which remain unnoticed, when one ethical theory is applied only. The identification of strengths and drawbacks of the proposed recommendation allows making the weighted decision on whether the recommendation is worth implementing or not.

The problem solving on the job requires the detailed analysis of the situation from different perspectives because the analysis has to provide as accurate results as possible. Ethical issues are often highly controversial. This is why the researcher has to remain as objective as possible. To get rid of the impact of the researcher’s background, the researcher should view the issue from the standpoint of a distant observer. The latter is possible only if the observer takes into consideration existing moral norms and rules, consequences of the proposed recommendations, and the impact of the decision on stakeholders. When all these factors are taken into consideration the right decision can be made.

Furthermore, the current ethical analysis involved the use of theories developed by different philosophers, from Aristotle to Kant and others. Philosophers and ethical teachings that have the diverse background and that have different views on ethical issues and principles can help to develop an objective view on the problem. For example, viewing the problem of the illegal immigration from Kantian perspective only could lead to erroneous conclusions, while the use of other philosophic teachings and ethical theories help to determine the overall effectiveness of the tested policy and this method is applicable to other ethical issues that may be studied in different environment.

Finally, the application of the method used in the course of the current ethical analysis contributes to the better understanding of ethical issues and their root problems. The understanding of their problems can help finding effective solutions to those problems. Therefore, the identification of causes of problem is possible through the diverse ethical analysis and helps to find the plausible solution to problems identified.

References:

Aristotle. (2014). Nicomachean Ethics. New York: Routledge. ISBN-13: 978-0-87220-464-5 

Betham, J.T. and Mill, J.S. (2003) The Classical Utilitarian’s. New York: Hackett Publishing Co. ISBN-13: 978-0-87220-649-6

Gueras, D. and Garofalo, C. (2011). Practical Ethics in Public Administration. New York: Management Concept. ISBN-13: 978-1567262957

Kant, I. (2017).  Groundwork of The Metaphysic of Morals. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-06-176631-2

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016.

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

freeessays.club (2016) The terms offer and acceptance [Online].
Available at:

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]
close
Haven't found the right essay?
Get an expert to write you the one you need!
print

Professional writers and researchers

quotes

Sources and citation are provided

clock

3 hour delivery

person