--- Gautam Mukunda <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Well, two points to be made on that. > 1) The effect on the US in particular (and hence the world) depends in > particular on our dedication to the assimilationist project. If we give up > on assimilation - as so many of our academic elites have - then this will, > over time, have a very large effect on the United States. But the defeat of > bilingual education in California, for example, suggests that the people, > with their usual wisdom, still believe fervently in assimilation. And in > the end in the United States the people get what they want. > > 2) It's probably a greatly overstated concern. The linear projection of > demographic trends is almost invariably massively wrong. A classic example > is Mexico - some of the newest statistics suggest that the population of > Mexico has begun to _decline_. This is quite extraordinary, to put it > mildly. Similar effects will probably spread to much of the rest of the > Third World. Even more strikingly, AIDS is far more serious in Third World > countries than it is in the US, Europe, and Japan. We are already seeing > catastrophic infection rates in Africa. We _just don't have_ numbers for > India and China, but most estimates are that it is significant and growing > rapidly. The demographic effects of AIDS, over the course of the next > half-century, probably cannot be overstated.
A few months ago, the very liberal New York Review of Books had a two-part article on immigration by Harvard sociologist Christopher Jencks (someone I respect very much): http://www.nybooks.com/articles/14868 http://www.nybooks.com/articles/14942 It makes the point that not all assimilation is good: "downward assimilation" could conceivably end up creating a large and persistent underclass. Paleoconservatives, e.g. Pat Buchanan have long called for less immigration, but this is the first time I've seen a prominent liberal argue in its favor. I'm curious as to what the feeling on this list is. Ronnie N. Carpio __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Sports - live college hoops coverage http://sports.yahoo.com/
