https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2026/08/08/europe-us-fertility-immigration-01029122
Modern welfare states rest on an intergenerational bargain. Today’s workers finance pensions and health care for older people, trusting that others will eventually do the same for them.
Low fertility is straining that bargain. Fewer young people are entering the workforce just as large generations approach retirement. Pension reform has already become one of Europe’s most politically difficult issues, and the viability of the Social Security system is a perennial concern in the United States. Those political pressures will continue to intensify as the population ages.
That has forced governments to confront an increasingly urgent question: Can they persuade people to have more children — and, if not, can immigration prevent the demographic arithmetic from breaking down?
In much of the rest of Europe, immigrants have been harder to absorb: Newcomers often arrive without the language, credentials or cultural familiarity that make it easier to find work and settle quickly. Migrants from Muslim-majority societies have also faced greater political and public pushback than Spain’s Latin America newcomers
Years ago I left a brilliant comment on the Cross Currents blog (before they banned me). TGhe post was about a "Jewish continuity" seminar and how an Orthodox social worker had been told she could attend but not speak because "We know what you religious people will say already".
ReplyDeleteMy comment: Fine, they have conferences, we have babies. Let's see who wins.
Writ large, this is the changing face of the West. The rich White folks want personal fulfillment, careers and no unnecessary personal burdens so they have 0-1 children. To fill the jobs the missing next generation need to do they import people from elsewhere.
But whereas 100 years ago people washed up on America's shores and said "I want to be American!", they now say "I want to change America into the hellhole I just left!"
They made the same claim about Jews and the Irish 100 years ago
DeleteThe Jews came to America, said "this is the country we've been searching for!" and assimilated as fast they could. They loved America and did everything to participate and make it prosperous.
DeleteModern immigrants are of two kinds - many like the Jews want to become Americans but there's enough out there who want America to become like the hellhole they just left and bring their hatreds here.