Immigration's impact on America's population and Texas' suburbs

by. William McKenzie/ Columnist

There are two points in Kotkin's immigration reporting that jumped out at me:

First, the influx of immigrants into America will allow our population to grow in a way that populations in Europe and Japan won't. I know many find that thought abhorrent, but think of the alternative. Do we want to go on the kind of downward slide that a stagnant population creates? I don't see any value in either a downward slide or a stagnant population, so growth fueled in part by immigration can be a blessing.

He's also right that our post-ethnic society will help us relate better to developing nations, who supply immigrants to us. I'd add another aspect to that. Philip Jenkins wrote in the Christian Century recently that most of the fastest-growing nations are in Africa. If the economies of those nations ever take off, our ability to understand and do business with them could depend upon our own African population, which is not inconsequential.

Of course, as Tod points out, there's a danger in immigration without assimilation.


See More @: [Texas on Immigration]

Posted by: Carlos T. Alfaro

Summer 2010