Sociological theory

Illegal immigration is a major social issue in the United States. Illegal immigration is a social, problem and the government has been taking action against the illegal immigration. The main problem facing people with regards to immigration is who is allowed to migrate and permanently reside in the country legally. The main concern with illegal immigration is that they take away the value of the economy through weakening the legal and the national security environment. With many undocumented people as a result of illegal immigration, there tends to be a profound security problem.

Functionalism

The functionalism theory is the study of the function of the social activity, to analyze contribution that the activity makes to the continuation of the society as a whole. With illegal immigration, there is the depiction that the immigrants take jobs and opportunities that would be afforded to a legal citizen. Those who live in a country illegally tend to work jobs that are unwanted by others and the pay is below the average citizen. Functionalism is the idea that parts of the society work together so as to maintain status quo and also meet social needs (Ferrante, 2007). About the illegal immigration problem, functionalists would favor illegal immigration, and they would consider opening more borders because there are many industries dependent on the labor of illegal immigrants.  Functionalists may ask how industries such as agriculture may survive without illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants work mostly in the agricultural industries. Thus, functionalists would suggest that if the illegal immigrants are willing to work for less, then they should have the opportunity to work. Without workers willing to do work, the society will fall apart.

Conflict theory

The conflict theory state that people are out to promote their self-interest and conflict and not the corporation is what motivates the society (Ferrante, 2007). When considering illegal immigration, there tend to be large discrepancies in regards to class and power. Those who entered the country illegally are most likely to be in the lower class of the society. The conflict theory tends to suggest that illegal immigration drags the economy down through increasing unemployment rate among the legal citizens. Conflict theorists would ask the question of how to eliminate the problem of illegal immigration. The question that these theorists may pose is how to ensure that the immigrants do not pose a threat in the future. The solution to avoiding the problem of illegal immigration based on the view of the conflict theorists is through keeping the number of illegal immigrants as low as possible by securing the borders.

Symbolic interactionism

The symbolic interactionism tends to support the fact that communication is based on the exchange of symbols. The terminology provided to a current social problem tends to contribute to the creation of the perception that people have (Ferrante, 2007). With symbolic interaction, the title of illegal immigrants suggests that they are wrong or taking something from someone. The theory gives insight into the daily working of illegal immigrants. Interactionists would think that it is possible that people in other countries experienced interaction with Americans or success of many Americans, and they wanted to take the role of being successful Americans, so they decide to immigrate to the country. An interactionist would consider avoiding referring to them as illegal immigrants but as an undocumented immigrant.

Reference

Ferrante, J (2007). Sociology: a global perspective. Cengage Learning

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