“Old and Rich Countries Seek Immigrants”This is the title of an article from the French newspaper Le Monde (Pays riche et vieux cherche immigrés dated April 28). This article stresses out the fact that rich and aging countries needs immigration if they want to reverse the decay of their population. The article mainly relies on a report released by the UN in April. For example, if France wants to have the same amount of inhabitants in 2050 as today, the country has to receive “1.5 million immigrants between 2025 and 2050”; if France wants to keep the same amount of people at the age of work, it has to accept 136000 more foreigners per year than it does now. These numbers are still not much higher than the ones of the actual situation. But, if the French government wants to keep the same ratio of “potential support (that is to say the number of people at the age of work in relation to the people over 65) as in 1995 (i.e. a ratio of 4.4), then, the country will have to accept 20 to 40 times more immigrants than in the last decade.
When a French journalist emphasizes the population decline of France and other developed countries, the English Telegraph’s article entitled UN predicts huge migration to rich countries seems more worried about the future increase of population and the future “invasion” of immigrants: “ – Can the UK cope with nine million more people? At least 2.2 million migrants will arrive in the rich world every year from now until 2050, the United Nations said yesterday. Britain's population will rise from 60 million to approaching 69 million by 2050 - almost entirely because of immigration. […] There will be billions more people in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Of these, tens of millions will migrate to Europe and America, while the indigenous populations of most countries in the rich world will either stagnate or decline.”
The fear of the barbarian invasion has to be moderated when one knows that between 1990 and 2000, the rate of migrants to the developed countries was 2.5 million, i.e. higher than the one predicted from now until 2050 (2.2 million according to the Telegraph and 2.3 million according to Le Monde).
To complete this information, you can also read the report about International Migrations Today which compares the political, legal and cultural situation in the US, the UK, Chile, Australia and other countries.
