Elites ignore Africa's overpopulation problem

5 January 2020

Population pressure is a fundamental driving factor behind mass immigration. Excess population from high fertility overpopulated countries migrate to developed countries with low fertility rates. For example, African and Mideast migration into Europe.

While Western nations have achieved replacement level fertility (2.1 children per woman), African population is projected to explode to approximately 4.5 billion by 2100. See World Fertility - The World's Most Important Graph.

 

African versus European population growth

 

The following article makes the point that this immense population growth can't be ignored:

Why Western Elites Can’t Keep Ignoring Africa’s Overpopulation Problem, by Bradley Betters, New English Review, December, 2019:

In America today, talking about the problems of overpopulation is pretty much like placing oneself in the middle of two armies fighting. From the Left, you’re attacked as a Malthusian or, of course, a fascist. From the establishment Right, you’re accused of supporting Chinese totalitarianism or, as Bernie Sanders recently experienced, ‘killing brown babies in foreign countries.’

It’s not surprising then that the issue’s essentially untouchable for US presidents (as well as Western political leaders elsewhere)—Nixon was the last to explore it seriously and got nowhere....

Trump could be arguing (as French President Emmanuel Macron has actually done) that without addressing off-the-charts Third World fertility rates, immigration programs seen as de facto foreign aid, such as the diversity visa, temporary protected status, the refugee program, and low-skilled immigration in general, will do nothing to help these countries. In fact, he could argue they might actually be strangling them.

This is the thesis of Duke University professor Stephen Smith’s latest book, The Scramble for Europe. Focusing on sub-Saharan Africa in particular, Smith posits that much of the region’s failed or teetering-on-failed status is directly connected to its overpopulation problems...

According to UN projections, by 2050, twenty-eight sub-Saharan nations, including Nigeria, will double in size, while nine others, including Somalia and Uganda, are set to quintuple....

Allowing for mass outmigration from poor countries can present big problems for them on a long-term basis. As Latin America-analysts like Fredo Arias King and David Fitzgerald have noted, big population outflows work to relieve pressure on corrupt governments; [consider Mexico]...

Long-term, much of the time and money we spend on refugee/asylee admissions, or programs like the diversity visa, would be better deployed promoting population stability in migrant-source regions....

Finally, let’s stop driving so hard to dramatically increase population figures in the West through unnatural means, like mass immigration. The West’s relatively high senior-to-youth ratio is a sign of our health, longevity, and first-rate medical care. These are symbols of our success and they should be celebrated, not denigrated.    

Related

European Demographics and Migration, by Christopher Caldwell, February 4, 2019.
 
 
Book: The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam, by Douglas Murray, 2017. Highly recommended.