http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/19/opinion/europe-should-see-refugees-as-a-boon-not-a-burden.html?_r=1Anti-immigration and anti-refugee rhetoric is, perhaps understandably, in the news at the moment, as is various kinds of articles urging pro-immigration or at least avoidance of hating stances. The above though points out that immigration into industrialized countries tends to improve the economy and acts, via economic forces, as a boon to local people (they move up to higher skilled work, perhps not willingly but it happens anyway).
To wit:
Numerous studies have found that immigrants bolster growth by increasing the labor force and consumer demand. Rather than being a drain, immigrants generally pay more in taxes than they claim in government benefits. Even a large influx of immigrants does not mean fewer jobs for the existing population, since economies do not have a finite number of jobs. Immigrants often bring skills with them, and some start new businesses, creating jobs for others. The less skilled often take jobs that are hard to fill, like in child care, for example, which allows more parents to work.The article also goes on to note that countries, like Germany, with aging populations and low birthrates
can benefit from immigration because someone has to do the jobs the locals increasingly can't, and it might as well be immigrants.
Which got me to wondering... China has a demographic hump coming up in the near future, all those older people who didn't die yet and all those younger people who weren't even born and won't be taking their place... And you know what? This "crisis" might not even be a crisis is China were to start making more permanent residents out of lots of people who aren't millionaires, don't have huge investments to make, aren't married to locals, and etc and so on.
Will they do it, though? Will China open the doors to the Other?