Economics of Birth, Part 2

On the Economist Blog, a posting from December 2012 deals specifically with the issue of falling birth rates, but also with a second falling demographic: immigration. A commenter on the first post on the Economics of Birth below suggested that Indian immigration has fallen off in recent years, and the Economist blog agrees. And it is not simply Indians who have stopped migrating, but Mexicans as well. Mexican migration is the largest contributor to US immigration, but some statistics suggest that more Mexican immigrants may be headed back to Mexico than are coming into the US. The reasons cited by the Economist are, of course, economic, but many other factors contribute as well. The commenter from India suggested that lax American morality has a part to play, and the current climate of America towards illegal (and legal) immigrants is certainly a contributing factor as well. As birth rates fall in America, down since 2007, and as immigration trails off, the Economist predicts that their will be a significant economic impact within two decades from a smaller population. The number of retirees will account for 22 percent of the population, with the working population accounting for 57 percent. What is perhaps just as worrisome is that while the working population has grow recently by 5 percent, only an additional 1 percent of new jobs were added to the economy. As the population demographics shift and shrink, the time is quickly ending where Americans can point to the demographics of other countries and laugh. Instead, the problems will be here at home. Christians need to be cognizant of these issues as they relate to immigration reform and to social issues affecting birth rates. There is now an economic conversation piece available to Christians when talking about birth and immigration.

Leave a Reply