The loss of highly educated and technically skilled persons urgently needed in developing nations reaches down to auto mechanics. nurses. health paraprofessionals and midlevel managers. Are sending countries sufficiently aware of this and other equally detrimental effects of unrestrained outmigration? Or do they view emigration solely as a social safety valve. removing excess population and providing relief from overcrowding and unemployment? Are they so eager for the hard currency remittances so many immigrants send home that they are willing to ignore the longterm debilitating effects on their own countries? This is something which the developing countries and the United States should consider seriously. Closer to home. however. is the issue of what virtually unhampered. unrestrained immigration means to our country. Immigrationand particularly illegal immigrationcomprises a great preponderance of U.S. population growth. This is illustrated clearly in the data. Our population presently stands at 234 million. U.S. population growth from natural increasethat is. with no net immigrationis projected to reach 259 million in the year 2000 and 276 million in 2025. In 2050. it would drop to 265 million. Therefore. with no net immigration at all. our population would peak in 2025 and then begin to decline. Suppose we allow our level of legal immigration to grow to 500.000 a year. and it is close to that now. We must account also for the 1.5 million illegal immigrants entering this country every year. When we do. the picture changes dramatically. In the year 2000. our population will be 299 million.
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