GMAT Essays (AWA)

The autonomy of any country is based on the strength of its borders; if the number of illegal immigrants entering a country cannot be checked, both its economy and national identity are endangered. Because illegal immigrants pose such threats, every effort must be made to return them to their country of origin.

Illegal immigration is a very hot topic for any developed or developing nation. For a nation to prosper it needs not only natural resources but also human resources. Many of the developed countries around the world are having issues because of lack of human resources.In the above statement author claims that for any country to protect its economy and national indentity , it must ensure that the illegal immigrants are returned to their country of origin. Though the author tries to give the example of economy and national indentity, he fails to provide proper evidence and weaken his assumption, thereby making his argument invalid.

Primary issue with the authors reasoning lies in his unsubstantiated premise. As per author economy and national identity are endangered because of the illegal immigrants. Author does not provide any survey done, or any historical records to backup his statement. Simply stating the premise does not hold good. There can be various reasons why the economy and national indentity are endangered and he must mention the proper factors which causes the same. One reason can be that the the time when author did his study it was recession. As a result of recession overall econonmy was not doing good. So illegal immigrants cannot be considered the primary cause.Second reason can be that at the time of his study many nationals were leaving the country in comparison to illegal immigrants who were coming into the country. So to attribute illegal immigrats as the reason for national identity does not hold ground.

Another issue with the author reasoning is the assumptions are not substantiated. Author assumes that illegal immgrants cause threats to the country, but fails to clearly establish the reasons. There can be many reasons why the economy might be at problem and why national identity is endangered. Author without properly first establishing the premise assumes that immgrats causes the economy to fall. One benefit of illegal immigrants can be that the country gets huge number of human resource. Previously the country might be suffering from lack of human resource. With the illegal immigrants the resource problem might be solved. So to assume without proper establishing the facts makes author arugment weak.

Though author argument suffers from many issues, we can strengthen his argument by providing evidence for the premises and clearly stating the assumptions. If author provide evidence that the historical data of last few years shows the the illegal immigrants caused job losses for the native people, increased the burden on the economy, causes more unemployment then it can stregthen his argument. Also author could show surveys and past records that national identity is getting lost because of the illegal immigrants and there is no other factor beside immigrants for loosing national identity

In sum we can say that the author argument suffers from many flaws and issues. The premises are not properly substantiated and the assumptions are made which can be proven wrong. Author has failed to provide necessary support to his argument.Therefore if author wants his audience to appreciate his arugment than he needs to work on his premises and assumptions. If author fails to work on his argument then it is very unlikely that he will find many audience who will appreciate his argument