Our American Story is Largely One of Immigrants

This article is our lead story in the latest edition of The Rising Tide, a weekly online publication for business people and economic developers. You can read the entire edition?here .

On July 4, 1776,?the Second Continental Congress unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence, announcing the colonies' separation from Great Britain.

We celebrate July 4 as Independence Day, our national birthday.?And while many of us will celebrate with fireworks, parades, concerts, family gatherings, and barbecues,?more than 6,600 new citizens will be attending more than 140 naturalization ceremonies between July 1 and July 8.?

We should welcome and celebrate these new Americans for their courage to uproot themselves and come here to become U.S. citizens. They and generations before them have given us our national strength and character.?

As a nation, we are a gumbo, infused with many different cultural ingredients. We are shaped by?Irish music, German beer, Italian architecture, French literature, Latin American cooking, African art, and a wide variety of other cultural, scientific, historical and educational contributions. This is what makes us uniquely American and always has.

It is noteworthy that?the United States was founded as an asylum and a refuge: a sanctuary. Thomas Paine called America “an asylum for mankind” and the signers of the Declaration of Independence excoriated the king for obstructing immigration and naturalization.

“I had always hoped that this land might become a safe & agreeable Asylum to the virtuous & persecuted part of mankind, to whatever nation they might belong,”?wrote ?George?Washington.

And yet, I do not believe many Americans fully understand this most foundational principle of our American story.

?A Baffling Response

Not long ago, the day before I was to give a speech at an economic development organization's annual meeting, I met with the staff for what would be a broad-ranging discussion.

I mentioned the importance of legal immigration to the United States by infusing new blood into an aging population and enhancing the entrepreneurial spirit.

Afterward, the EDO’s chief executive took me aside and advised that I not mention immigration in my talk the next day. He said it would not play well with the attending community stakeholder audience.

It reminded me of another visit to another community, only a few weeks earlier, in which the local economic developer said he did not consider his community particularly welcoming to immigrants.

Hating immigrants is a perverse form of nationalism that I find commonplace and disturbing. It has nothing to do with patriotism. It has everything to do with ignorance. Should we let it prevail, our country will bear severe economic consequences.

Demographic Crossroads

I think it is time for a reality check. The truth is that the U.S. is continuing a two-decade trend in which the population has grown older and less White.?

Indeed, we find ourselves at a demographic crossroads. Since 2000, the national median age has increased by 3.4 years to 38.8, with the largest single-year gain of 0.3 years coming in 2021, the year after the coronavirus pandemic hit, according to the Census Bureau’s new 2021 population estimates.

The U.S. total fertility rate began to decline in 2008 and, except for a minor uptick in 2014, has fallen every year since. By 2019, on the eve of the pandemic, it had dropped to 1.7, an all-time historical low. The pandemic has driven it even lower, to 1.6 in 2020 and perhaps to as low as 1.5 in 2021.?

At the same time, immigration has declined from an average of 1.3 million per year from 1990 to 2007 and the beginning of the Great Recession to 0.9 million per year since then.?

At a time when immigration has been declining, I would argue that its importance to demographic and economic growth has been increasing. The reason: Growth in the working-age population has always been a key driver of economic growth in this country.?

With the large Boomer generation retiring and relatively smaller generations taking its place, immigration is already the only reason that the U.S. still has a growing workforce.?By the 2040s, it will be the only reason that our country still has a growing population.?

And whether we want to admit it or not, immigration has never been as critical to growth and prosperity as it will be in coming decades.

Our neighbor to the north, Canada, gets it. Canada has made immigration the lynchpin of its long-term strategy for confronting population aging.??

Certainly, there is considerable room for principled debate on immigration policy. We can disagree. But what is not in question is whether an aging America would benefit from increased immigration.?

In the past, when we had replacement-level fertility, immigrants were what kept the workforce growing. In the future, they will be all that keeps it from shrinking.

Dean Barber is the principal of Dallas-based BBA, offering objective insight to economic development organizations and companies.?Our?national network of esteemed consultants ?finds practical and tactical solutions that work.?Need a speaker? Email Dean at [email protected]