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I wouldn't include Mexicans or many Muslims, for that matter, in that Malthusian future. I run into Iranians all the time in business. Granted, they are upper and middle class Iranians who attended school here and stayed when the Shah was overthrown. They talk, look like, act like, and do business like Americans, downplaying any Muslim affiliation. If they're a threat, they deserve an academy award.

The Mexican phenomenon is no threat to the U.S. In the process of becoming Americans they will change American culture, but that's okay, each new immigrant group changes it.

Americans of northern European ancestry don't have children. At least not enough to replace themselves. Take away immigration and we're Europe or Japan -- a land of geezers. From colonial days, U.S. immigration has been working class and the under class. It hasn't hurt us yet. The new immigrants aren't northern Europeans. That's fine. If I wanted to live with the Swedes, Germans, or French, I'd move to Europe. In fact, I can't abide them. I prefer some poor bastard who walks to the U.S. from southern Mexico, sneaks across the border, gets a dishwashing job and later a better job in construction, buys a little house, sends his kids to the community college, and within a generation or two is indistinguishable from other Americans. That's better human material than some German or Swedish bureaucrat, who lectures us while accepting our protection and who performs some make-work job or lives their entire life on the dole.

"take away immigration, and we're europe or japan"

While I agree with this on its face, it ignores a deeper point. Namely, that it assumes that there will always be places somewhere with a growing, surplus population to provide immigrants. The west has adopted a "McCulture" which encourages hedonism and socialism, which discourage having large families.

Immigration is merely a poor band-aid. First of all, there are problems with assimilation. Pouring vast numbers of immigrants into a society may provide lots of bodies, but its not necessarily true that paradise will result. There could be a rise in communal conflict that will cancel out the economic benefits of population growth.

Also, what happens when the third world adopts "McCulture"? What happens when Latin America and India adopt western culture, and start having 1 child per family? Will the world be condemned to a global deflation?

The real answer to this problem is not immigration (which is a temporary, dangerous answer). The real answer is for europe and america to alter our culture in ways that bring back an ethos of 2-4 kids per woman. Then, we get the benefits of a growing population base without the social upheaval of mass immigration.