Friday, June 29, 2007

The "Do Nothing" Immigration Idea

When in doubt do nothing?

A new article in the online version of The American suggests that the problem with illegal immigration will pretty much fix itself in a decade or so.

Now that's the type of problem solving I like: kick back and relax; no muss, no fuss.

It turns out that a change in the rate of Latin American reproduction holds the key.

"There has been a stunning decline in the fertility rate in Mexico, which means that, in a few years, there will not be nearly as many teenagers in Mexico looking for work in the United States or anywhere else. If this trend in the fertility rate continues, Mexico will resemble Japan and Italy—rapidly aging populations with too few young workers to support the economy."


Since Mexico's fertility rate has dropped 36 percent since 1990, there will soon be too few workers to support the economy, jobs will be more plentiful and wages will rise--presto, no need to come to America.

Several items are cited as reasons that the birth rate has changed, not only in Mexico, but throughout the region. Among those factors are better education, greater acceptance of birth control including abortion, and improved job opportunities for women.

Check it out. It is a short, interesting read.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's interesting to know where they get their stats. Mexico's standard of living might go up - education, better paying jobs, etc - but it's not for everyone.

Here in Canada we get a lot of students from Mexico that come and take highly respectable careers in engineering, marketing, even to get their masters. However, there's only a few far in between that is able to afford the education that in turns get them better paying jobs. As long as they are known as a country that you can outsource cheap labour to, I don't believe it will help the poor get better paying jobs than the minimum hourly wage in the US.

UGN said...

I guess that they think there are adequately-paying jobs in Mexico that will be available as the aging population retires.