Immigration Can Offset U.S. Population Decline

Alex NowrastehThe U.S. population is growing slowly and the average age of Americans is increasing as a result. Although theUnited States is not as old as other countries and likely to age better, the future looks demographically grim. Somesocial scientists andcommentators think that boosting immigration can help delay or reverse those trends.Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, makes a series of sillyarguments against the notion that immigration can slow the aging of the U.S. population. Camarota ’s points below are in quotes and my responses follow.In reality, a significant body of research shows that the impact of immigration on population aging is small. While immigration can certainly make our population larger, it does not make us dramatically younger.Camarota might be correct that the current and historically low rate of immigration to the United States doesn ’t much lower the average age of the population, but that does not mean that immigration could not lower the average age if it were expanded. He merely shows thatcurrent U.S. immigration policy, which is very restrictive and much closer to his ideal level than mine, cannot much affect the average age. We shouldn ’t expect a restrictive immigration system that allows in, at least prior to the immigration restrictions adopted by President Trump and partly maintained by President Biden (so far), a number of immigrants roughly equal to 0.3 percent ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs