The massive costs of anti-immigration policies

Immigration has become the central fault line in contemporary politics.

- KENNETH ROGOFF

Nowhere is this more evident than in the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK), where the rhetoric is becoming increasingly absurd. The underlying economics, however, are remarkably straightforward. Most advanced economies are rapidly aging, and with demographic decline comes ashrinking workforce. While automation and artificial intelligence (AI) may ease some of these pressures, neither can meet the rapidly growing need for healthcare and eldercare workers or substitute for the educators, plumbers, and countless others whose jobs still depend on an irreplaceably human touch.By contrast, the developing world has an enormous labour supply but not enough good jobs to absorb it. In Africa alone, more than 600 million people are projected to join the working-age population in the next quarter-century. Globally, the figure is closer to one billion. The result is chronic youth unemployment that is all but certain to fuel political instability and civil conflict in many low-income countries. These strains are compounded by climate change, which is expected to hit developing economies the hardest and accelerate migration flows to richer countries.