Baby Boomers and Immigrants

Here’s a good article on the importance of the link between baby boomers and immigrants. Since so much of the population growth in the country comes from Hispanics, boomers need them to be in a position to basically pay for the services they will need as they retire and get older. Some interesting quotes from the article:

One of the challenges is that Americans don't seem to be aware of the vital role the next generation will play. The predominantly white senior citizens and boomers, who account for the majority of the nation's decision makers, often vote against measures to boost services or raise taxes for schools increasingly populated by Hispanics. That's a problem, because better education is the ticket to prosperity for those on whose tax dollars boomers will rely.

A less-advantaged younger generation is less likely to be able to afford to pay top dollar for retirees' homes. "We need to cultivate new home buyers; it requires moving more Latino kids through high school and college," says Prof. Myers. "It's not for the good of Latinos. It's for the good of the nation."

This is a good way of making an argument—with hard facts and no sentimentalism. Relying on stuff like “give us your poor, your destitute . . .” isn’t really a way of convincing people to change the way they look at things.