Life / Poland needs more immigrants and their children - which nationalities are the best? [518]


So what size should Poland's population be and why?

Archeology all over the planet shows that abandonment of settlements are a fact of human existence. Before any human settlements there was nothing but the landscape and it was no problem for life here on Earth. If a settlement dies out it just shows that it ran its course and wasn't sustainable anymore for the population living there. Is it sad in a way? Sure. But demanding a flood of immigrants won't keep classes and churches full in many of these areas anyway since they almost always gravitate to larger urban centres and stay there. You can't invite immigrants to Poland and then force them to live in regions they don't want to go to. The communists tried that and look at the depressing toll it took on both people's lives and the environment during that era.

Poland isn't dying it is merely adjusting and if it is a downward adjustment then there is nothing wrong with that. 32 million is a very healthy number of Poles to have in any decade. Much wealthier countries like Sweden and Switzerland get by now with around one third of that size.

Life / Poland needs more immigrants and their children - which nationalities are the best? [518]


Everyone responds to the realities or understanding of the environment they live in.

Just a few generations ago European families were very large. Having anywhere from six to even twelve children was not uncommon. Europeans of a bygone era managed this but times and conditions have changed.

Almost all people in advanced economies like Europe are more educated today (this includes being more secular) and are living longer lives as well. Parents recognize that they must largely pay their own way and that of their children if they want to be successful in the highly competitive societies they live in. Poles may be more prosperous now but the living costs in Poland and elsewhere in Europe are significantly higher than in previous decades and have always been so compared to developing countries. There is also a general awareness that life has uncertainties that can affect a person's or family's standard of living. For example, a family may experience a job loss due to their employer relocating production or operations overseas. If they find another job it may be in a lower wage bracket due to immigrants in that sector who have forced wages down. Or they may face soaring costs in food, fuel, rents, taxes, etc. Whatever the circumstances parents recognize the benefit of being a smaller unit so by having fewer children they are able to accumulate more wealth and maintain or advance their family's quality of life. This results in peer pressure as well. When new parents see other families which are small but successful they are likely to follow that example rather than that of the larger but struggling families that exist in immigrant communities or the third world.

In contrast poorer nations do not have the same access to good schools and better health care and have economies that are still very labour intensive. Having more children still makes sense for them even though it is their larger populations that are actually holding back their development. This is why so many flee to find opportunities and better quality of life in developed countries which are that way because they have smaller but suitable population sizes.

Life / Poland needs more immigrants and their children - which nationalities are the best? [518]

Germany has retained a diversified market economy including a manufacturing base which still requires a good amount of human capital. This is in part why they have done better than some other countries during the recent economic troubles. But all economies run in cycles. What is beneficial today like the need for increased immigration to satisfy a growing labour market or counterbalance an older, graying populace makes no sense in other times. Although not pervasive the economies of today are still far more modernized than in the past. Businesses are always searching for ways to find efficiencies which nearly always translates into getting rid of expensive employees. This is still being done by finding cheaper sources of labour such as the young or immigrants or by outsourcing work to other countries. But efficiencies are also being found through more advanced computerization and mechanization too thus lessing the need for labour itself. America for instance has been struggling with its unemployment rate because such efficiencies were implemented by businesses. The recent economic declines in the developed world was an excellent opportunity for many business to get rid of their dead weight employees and not always replace them. If you hear that fewer people are claiming unemployment benefits it is not necessarily because they found a job. More and more it means they are no longer eligible to claim benefits and have simply given up looking for work. Often you can find some of their numbers re-emerge in retirement or medical disability figures.

Immigrants may bring with them motivation and a hard work ethic. If they are legal they are very likely to be paying taxes as well. But immigrants, unless they have amazing unequalled skills, are unlikely to be earning high wages and this tends to depress wages overall in sectors where they are largely hired. So with low wages you not only have an increased demand for cheaper goods because they are more affordable (and which are likely then to be imported from overseas) but you also have decreased tax revenues. Low wages also lead people to decide not to start a family or just have one or two children. Low wages creates further disparities in communities which result in social tensions and crimes both from and against immigrants. Overtime this leads to claims of exploitation and demands for higher wages and so by the time an immigrant or his descendants have finally assimilated in a new country with good wages they have become too expensive and the cycle starts all over again. Immigrants are also known for sending remittances back to relatives in their country of origin. In host countries like America remittances amount to tens of billions of dollars being sent back to other countries. El Salvador has so many of its people working in America that it has become dependent on remittances in its own economy and that is why it uses the US dollar for its own national currency. But this has not helped El Salvador improve its infrastructure or quality of life for its citizens that remain there. America's economy is not recovering like it has in the past and won't recover either from this sort of cheap immigration - legal or otherwise. That is why Poland needs to see the benefit of a smaller population with a more modern, efficient, diversified and sustainable economy so it can better withstand economic swings. This would give Poles less of a need to seek work elsewhere and give Poland less of a need to seek immigrants.


Thank you.

Life / Poland needs more immigrants and their children - which nationalities are the best? [518]


Overpopulation is a global problem. It strains resources everywhere and causes less to be available for current and future generations all over the planet. It is more acute in the developing world and this is the very reason why you see immigrants from there head to Europe, North America and Australia. The problems caused by overpopulation are only being transferred. Some people may believe for the moment that it makes sense to open the door and absorb this excess human capacity in the world just to keep their own current population numbers on the up. But encouraging immigration to Poland or other developed countries won't give an incentive to the third world to have fewer children. It won't act as a relief valve causing future immigration attempts to decline. What really needs to be addressed is what population size Poland should have and why? There is no reason why Poland can't exist with a smaller population than it has today for the reasons I mentioned previously.

Life / Poland needs more immigrants and their children - which nationalities are the best? [518]

With the Earth's total human population currently around a staggering 7 billion and growing the question shouldn't be about importing more immigrants or having more children just to give job security to the likes of teachers and politicians who rely on large numbers of people for their own existence.

If it is a matter of younger people being needed to pay for the ever growing expenses and other benefits for older generations then the only logical move would be to make cuts and find other savings instead. It is unsustainable for any country to have continuously large populations especially when they are tending to live significantly long lives.

In a post-industrial era there is no need for lots of people anyway. Additionally, rich countries tend to be creditor nations and specialize in their export markets rather than needing a large domestic market. If Poland needs lots of people they should be tourists.

Poland and every other country have existed just fine with smaller populations in the past. In fact, the quality of life in all of Europe blossomed after the Black Plague because there was more land and other resources available to the surviving populations which had been reduced. Same thing after WWII. And each European country managed a higher standard of living after both catastrophes by not resorting to having population sizes found in places like China and India.

Less is always more.