Immigration and Social Inequality and Injustice

Module 3 Essay
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Question 1
Immigration has been one of the most controversial issues linked to various forms of inequality including race, class, gender and culture. Immigrants are highly likely to experience social inequality. Some of them have limited access to health services, quality education, and rights due to their origins, race, and backgrounds. The United States, for instance, receives millions of migrants each year (Tesfai & Thomas, 2020). Most of these individuals move into the country to search for greener pastures. However, due to high level of discrimination against immigrants, they are less likely to secure jobs, and access quality healthcare and education. Sometimes, native citizens think that immigrants take away jobs from them. This belief creates xenophobia which intensifies racial discrimination against foreigners.
Immigration is also connected to class discrimination. Economists found that some undocumented immigrants in the US are less-skilled. These individuals increase low-skill labor supply in their destination countries, potentially attracting low wages (Tesfai & Thomas, 2020). Low wages create class inequality as the gap between the wealthy and low-income individuals continue to expand. It is worth noting that immigration subjects foreigners into a racist and classist structure that significantly determines an immigrant’s socioeconomic future.
Question 2
Inequality and injustice are institutionalized through structures that create disparities in opportunities, resources and representation. These structures develop or transform rules and procedures that influence human interactions. Every country has laws that govern human behavior. Anti-discrimination laws, for instance, are formulated through institutions. Formulating weak policies that fail to prevent or end inequalities and injustices shows that these social problems have been institutionalized because they come from the said structures. This institutionalization poses a major challenge to anti-discrimination laws.
From a sociological stance, inequality and injustice are products of institutional processes, not personal attitude. They originate from the structural conditions that form major social institutions like the family, the state and the market. Albiston (2010) outlined that institutions are the product of historical conditions. They tend to mirror and reestablish the social patterns and belief systems. Since people take institutions for granted, these institutions lose their relevance to any statutory discrimination claims even as they shape human behavior subtly. According to Albiston (2010), once an institution is created, it invisibly structures social life in ways that reinforce and recreate themselves.
Question 3
As noted earlier, immigration comes with social injustices that affect most migrants. Many real life stories and news about immigrant challenges have been unveiled and are available in various media platforms. One of the real life incident related to this social issue that I found in the news is exploitation and discrimination of immigrant workers at Terra Universal. According to the...