Posted on 09/02/2007 10:38:37 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
WASHINGTON - Immigrants and their children will account for more than half the country's population growth over the coming half-century, according to a study released Thursday.
The examination of new census figures by the Center for Immigration Studies found U.S. population levels, currently around 300 million, will shoot up to 468 million by 2060. California alone could be home to more than 60 million.
Immigrants - both legal and illegal - as well as their descendants are expected to make up about 105 million, or 63 percent, of the national increase.
"It's important to understand where we're headed in population size and why. The why is largely, but not exclusively, immigration," said Steven Camarota, author of the report.
The Center for Immigration Studies, a D.C.-based think tank, openly advocates immigration restrictions. While demographers across the ideological spectrum verified the group's numbers, opinions vary on what they mean for America's future.
William A.V. Clark, a geography professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, called 468 million "a really huge number, and it's being driven by immigration, there's no doubt about that."
Neither politicians nor city planners are preparing for or even discussing immigration's impact on population growth, he said.
Meanwhile, the impact in California, which is home to about 10 million foreign-born, will be particularly acute.
"If you think the 405 is bad now, it won't be moving unless they put a double-decker bus on it," Clark said.
"This is like the elephant in the bathtub," he said. "We're not building the infrastructure for the population we have now, much less this kind of growth."
But Jeff Passell, spokesman for the Pew Hispanic Center, which also is preparing population projections based on immigration, noted that without newcomers the U.S. could not have a growing labor force.
Dowell Myers, a professor of urban planning at USC, agreed.
Myers studies aging trends and called immigration part of the solution to the graying of America.
He noted that the ratio of senior citizens to working-age people will go up 30 percent in the next decade and spike another 30 percent after that.
"That is the central policy question America has to solve, and we have to solve it now," he said. Because foreigners who come to the U.S. tend to be young, he said, immigration can reduce the aging problem by about a quarter.
Myers also cast doubts on the study, noting that the analysis hinges on the assumption that fertility and immigration rates will both remain high.
Currently, the nation sustains an immigration rate of about 1.2 million annually, according to the study. Researchers based their projections partly on the past five decades, during which there has been a net immigration increase.
Does anyone recall them making it clear that white Christian immigration would be cut to a trickle, either?
-ccm
If we have a reproduction problem, let’s encourage citizens to have children, through tax policy, or public service announcements.
Why couldn't we make it a condition of granting the PRIVILEGE of immigration, that the retirement age of immigrants be 5 years later than native born citizens? That would help a lot.
Also, we should stop "anchor baby" favoritism, and instead restore a preference for educated people and wealthy businessmen. "Chain" immigration of shirt-tail relatives, each as poor, ignorant, and dependent on government as the first, is one of the reasons our immigration policy is failing us.
-ccm
White Christian immigration as opposed to brown Christian immigration?
From the way it sounds, we need to cap LEGAL immigration as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7WJeqxuOfQ
How about ZERO armed citizens if we allow the amount of immigration you're talking about? If we lose our sovereignty once the elites have their way with making this place that used to be America into something entirely different, a third world hellhole peopled by slave labor, you don't really believe the 2nd Amendment will survive, do you?
We need a moratorium on immigration and a good housecleaning before we reach third world status.
Your ridiculous assertions that we need a population of nearly one and a half billion to stave off the military threat a future global coalition consisting of over 90% of world's nations is simply ridiculous. It's like something straight out of L. Ron Hubbard's writings.
In the world of international relations a multitude of individuals have made a multitude of suggestions/proposals. Nearly 99% of them never actually come to fruition.
We don't need to signicantly increase our population. We simply need to do a much better job of selecting which immigrants to take.
I don't, but I know of white, educated Europeans who would love to come to America to work and can't get in. Meanwhile, illegal Hispanics and Muslims are given a welcome mat (and welfare assistance).
Agreed. We need a moratorium.
The demographics continue to change and the problems with the entitlement programs [SS, Medicare and Medicaid] conitue to grow worse. If people were "crapping our pants" 15 years ago, I would say that they would have even more reason to do so today. They were prescient.
In 1990 the population of the US was 249 million. Today, it is 302 million. By 2050, the population will be 420 million. The demograhics of the country continue to change dramatically after the the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act. Prior to the act, the United States was overwhelmingly composed of whites of European descent (89% in 1965), with the only minority group of significant size being blacks (10%). Today, Hispanics are about 15% of the population and non-Hispanic whites about 67%. By 2050, Hispanics of all races will be 24.4% of the population and non-Hispanic whites 50%.
These demographic changes are causing social friction, witness the millions of illegals demonstrating in our streets waving Mexican flags shouting. "Today we march, tomorrow we vote." The Senate attempt at amnesty invited a huge backlash from the public and grassroots ogranizations all over the country are fighting back against the invasion of illegals that are causing huge burdens on our schools, hosptials, penal system, and social programs. Several thousand local and state legislative initiative have been passed or in the process of being voted upon. One in eight residents is foreign-born, the highest in over eight decades and will soon be one in seven the highest in our history. Half of the children 0 to 5 in America are minorities. This should give us some pause because blacks and Hispanics have the highest high school dropout rates and number of single parent households and out of wedlock childern. This is the social pathology for failure.
Our entitlement systems represent an unfunded liability of $60 trillion. And nothing has been done in 15 years to fix them. In fact, they are worse given the addition of prescription drugs under Medicare. SS will start paying out more in benefits than it is taking in by 2017. The SS "surplus" starts declinining in 2008. The Medicare program is in even worse shape and will essentially crash around 2013 or 2014 as it consumes more and more of the federal budget.
Mass immigration, legal and illegal, is making the problems worse not better. The economy will suffer as a result. We are headed for a major train wreck within a decade. Look for increased taxation to "save" the entitlement systems. This will hurt, not help, the economy. Enjoy the good times while they last and then start wearing diapers.
First, I favor changing the current immigration system eliminating extended chain migration, making it a merit based system based on the needs of this country, killing the visa lottery program, which brings in 50,000 people a year, and stopping birthright citizenship, i.e., anchor babies. I favor immigration levels of around 300,000 a year [vice 1.2 million today] as recommended by the Jordan commission. Our intake levels would change based on need.
Our current annual population growth rate is .89% a year, 3/4 of which can be attributed to immigration, legal and illegal. I favor about a .25% a year increase in population growth with a US population of about 425 million by the end of this century.
He was all over the board with his scenarios and “insights”, but when he drifted to space colonization is when I realized the kid is watching too many cartoons.
They know that if they keep the surge amped up, it will be only a few years before they have control of this country. It has been a dream of La MECHA and their followers et al for a long time. Now their long held dreams will finally come to fruition.
The dreams of the founders of America on the other hand.......(sound of crickets and snoring politicians).
Japan has 337 people per square kilometer.
California has 84 people per square kilometer.
Japan is 377,873 square kilometers in area.
California is 423,970 square kilometers in area.
Because you know, those poor blacks and hispanics are all so ignorant, that’s why we need to have more whites in this country.
</sarc>
Shelob and Willard's property is much more modest: a residential plot in a nice neighborhood at Punta Cana, in the conveniently located Dominican Republic.
“The US is a developed country, not a developing one.”
I meant “developed”, as the “developing” countries do not have declining demographics, yet.
That would help, as would a greater empthasis on learning English and assimilation as part of the process of being granted a green card/citizenship.
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