Stop-Gap

We talked about this in class, gosh, I don't even know how long ago, how the welcoming of immigrants actually improves the economy of the United States, contrary to popular belief. I'm just really pleased to have found such a great example of it in this article.

The biggest factor that was a surprise to me is the impact of immigrants on the changing demographics of America. I’ve been hearing for years that the Baby Boomers are retiring, that our population is getting older on the average, and that sooner or later we’ll have a lot more retirees than we have work force to replace them. Reading this article, which touts immigrants as a potential solution to this problem, was like a huge aha moment. Of course immigrants are good for our economy—they’re filling a gap.

This is an issue that’s close to my heart as I, too, hope to fill a gap in the near future. I’m going to a foreign medical school as the American schools are too full to take me. But the American schools also aren’t producing enough doctors to care for our aging population, so us American graduates of foreign medical schools are going to fill the gap—just like immigrants are doing elsewhere.

Welcoming Immigrants