Stephan: Day after day I read or hear on television the most egregious nonsense about immigration. Here is the reality: Every single person in the United States is either an immigrant or the descendant of an immigrant. That means you, that means me. Far from being inundated by immigrants in 2017 the last year for which I can find data the United States had a smaller share of immigrants as a percentage of its population than Canada, and both nations have amongst the lowest population densities of any countries in the world. And then there is the reality that we do not have a replacement birth rate.
One point that’s often lost in heated debate is that immigration could be vital in helping countries to have enough young workers in the economy to support their aging populations.
The bottom line: The control of borders is a serious political problem, but experts are eyeing legal immigration as one solution to a future demographics challenge. As nations age, many will be short of workers to support social programs relied on by the older population.
Robust immigration has buoyed the populations of the U.S., U.K. and other developed nations, keeping them from shrinking for now. But a number of aging countries don’t have enough immigration to replace their population as their fertility rates continue to plummet.
“Young and working-age immigrants do this directly as they integrate in a country’s society and economy, and they also contribute to population growth when they have children.”
— Irene Bloemraad, sociology professor and director of the University of California Berkeley’s Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative
The U.S. is unlikely to see any population decline over at least the next couple of decades because of immigration. […]
I agree Stephan, everyone who is not a Native American is an immigrant.