The argument is often made that if Americans won't have enough children to balance out our aging population, higher rates of immigration are needed. "It's not a crazy argument; it just happens to be incorrect."
nationalaffairs.com/publications/d…
nationalaffairs.com/publications/d…
“Demographers have known for a long time that, absent truly gargantuan and ever-increasing rates of immigration, it isn't actually possible for immigrants to undo or dramatically slow the overall aging of society.”
“Immigrants are human beings, not just the idealized workers or child-bearers that some commentators imagine. As humans, they immigrate at all ages, grow old over time, & are choosing to have smaller families… They do not fundamentally change the nation's age structure.”
"If immigration is unlikely to dramatically transform the age demographics of our society, how can low-fertility, high-life-expectancy countries like the United States deal with population aging? The most obvious solution is to raise the retirement age."
“Another effective option… is to increase the number of Americans in the labor force. [if] the share of those working were raised to 75% from the pre-pandemic 71%, it would increase the worker share of the population by as much as adding 75mil people… through immigration.”
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