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.
Exactly who in the hell is going to invade us that we will need 1.5 BILLION armed citizens in order to repel them...??
Aliens from outer space...?
Okay, I have an idea. We have already allowed California and Florida to be colonized and taken over by the Third World. The East Coast is one, big crappy, worn out and overcrowded megapolis. Everybody who thinks we could use a few hundred million more people here gets to go live in the underpopulated parts of Utah, North Dakota, New Mexico, West Texas, Arizona, South Dakota, Nevada, Wyoming and Montana.
I like coastal beaches. But I like mountains, hills and rivers too. There is appeal in big cities, but suburbs and the country have appeal too. There is nothing boring about “flyover” country to anyone with an open mind and an ounce of imagination. Boring people are bored. I have no desire to return to either coast.
The US is a developed country, not a developing one. The world's population will continue to increase for the rest of this century up to 9 billion from the current 6 billion. We have 54 million Americans today between the ages 16-64 who are not working. We can still meet our need for workers if we reduce, not increase legal immigration. The average age of today's immigrant is 29. Under current immigration policies we are bringing in non-workers due to etended chain migration, e.g., aged parents and relatives of immigrants. And as the Rector study demonstrates, we are importing poverty.
Parts of Europe (such as France) also have blood dishes, and have had those dishes for over a millennium, even before the European population boomed after the Age of Exploration and brought new resources to Europe and also the medical advances of the recent era. Wouldn’t consider that to be because of a large population, but more of an Amerindian using-the-complete-animal, and the pre-Columbian Amerindians in what is now the United States definitely were not overpopulating the land (estimates have their population at around 1 million).
Opinions of the United States are very low, and have been for a long time--much longer than the Iraq conflict.
Of the opinion that the United States should be able to defend the country against all the rest of Earth's states, and win.
Beats me how people are still out there thinking there will be no such thing as a NAU style, or equivilent of it, on the horizon.
Each month things keep happening to march us in that direction.
The Pesos for pizza business is opening more around the country. I guess this is how the call for a common currency will happen.
Such a sad thing. Old Hillary will usher in the socalist government. Bushes will take off for Paraguay. Lucky them.
Paraguay's poor--and landlocked (apparently a bad thing since having a coastline seems the rage).
Nope. Nata one.
However I do remember a few people I have helped put into office push this reality on the populous long after the votes were counted and their years in office cemented going way back to the 1980's. Shameful.
As a Republican and conservative I have to say I am ashamed about this being activated most grossly during our reign(s).
I like to think that Reagan would be rolling in his grave today, if he could see what has happened to his lovely Santa Barbara and the rest of the state. Pathetic.
To think this is only going to get worse and with the advent of the pilot program allowing 100 Mexican trucking companies to drive over 540 Mexican truck on our freeways, highways, and city streets in the next year and then after that in limitless amount, I find myself grateful God did not bless my husband and I with children. I would not want to raise a future generation to live in this.
Thanks elected officials for leaving this legacy to your grossly overpopulated, third world nation . . . America, my sweet home. Sarc. Very sad.
Nonsense. Why do you think China and India are trying to reduce their population growth? If 1.5 billion Americans seem like a good idea to you, how about 3 billion? The USG's pro-population growth policy expressed thru legal immigration should be put to a vote by the American people. Do we want a population of almost 500 million within the next 60 years? I don't, especially given the problems associated with assimilation and massive demographic shifts.
The Bush family bought a lot of land down there. Thats the reason I mentioned it. I am sure their property is remote from the poverty stricken. Heard Big Daddy Bush bought down there too.
Its odd, the Clintoons bought property elsewhere too. Can’t remember where.
If you've stopped reading these comments, wouldn't blame you (they have dragged out quite a bit). Still, your views on how many Americans there should be could be helpful; another freeper has given a figure of 250 million.
Being someone who can remember those days, I hope you are right.
For Earth, a population large enough to take on the rest of the world combined (which is also why support Canada and Mexico becoming part of the United States--more land and resources comparable to the rest of the world, instead of the roughly (and relatively paltry) 1/16 of the world's landmass the United States covers today).
Thanks for letting us know you lack common sense.
Such manners.
Don't forget the redistribution of income to pay for the social services. Yep, illegals can come here and live off of other people and older people who are American citizens who have worked and paid taxes their entire lives cannot get the services they need. Disgusting.
Of the opinion that the United States should be able to defend the country against all the rest of Earth's states, and win.
That is the stupidest thing I have ever read here at FR. You are so paranoid it is ridiculous. Pull your head out of your ass.
There is a profound difference between having a low opinion of a country and actually launching a full scale military invasion of that nation. Trust me, that will never happen.
| Watch your language. Seems that the overwhelming consensus on this thread is that the American population is too high, and that large populations are bad. And that countering viewpoints (currently coming from one source on this thread) are shot down. Respect your opinion and the others expressed here, but disagree with them. A large population has many advantages. As does, occasionally, paranoia (which seems a tad extreme--you don't have a clue about what will happen centuries in the future [if the world even lasts that long]; the rest of the world aligning into a state or organization as a counterbalance to the unipolar United States might not be such a farfetched idea--indeed, more than a few prominent anti-Americans have already proposed such a union). So, how's this for a proposal: You can try to be polite and have your opinion, while will also try to be polite and have this one? |
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