Without wading into the white-hot politics of immigration law, it is worth knowing two things.

Economic experts have said that one of America’s greatest advantages, when compared to western Europe, is the birth rate. The birth rate advantage, at least in statistical population terms, is due to immigration.

Health care experts who do medical manpower forecasts are clear that we need immigrant workers, from doctors to housekeeping, in hospitals and nursing homes.

Immigration is a complex issue and not the business of TPR. This story, however, pertains to who will care for us when we are sick or need institutional care at the end of life.

Bloomberg Business Week

“Population growth in far-flung U.S. suburbs pushed the largest metropolitan areas up 10.5 percent from 2000 through 2008, a study by the Washington-based Brookings Institution found.

“Communities along the edge of metropolitan areas grew the most, with their populations surging at a rate more than three times faster than their cities and inner suburbs.

“Immigrants and their children continue to fuel much of the metropolitan growth, with almost a quarter of U.S. children having at least one immigrant parent, the “State of Metropolitan America” report said. The U.S. population is one- third non-white, and people from those racial and ethnic groups accounted for 83 percent of overall population growth from 2000 through 2008.”

…”The 100 largest metropolitan areas grew at almost double the rate of the rest of the nation and were home to 66 percent of Americans, the report said.”

Source: Bloomberg Business News, May 9, 2010