Immigration is good news

Immigration - advantages to the country of origin and the country of eventual destination.

People in Western Europe are failing to reproduce fast enough to create a generation of youngsters who can look after them when they grow old. It is therefore in their own interest to let in more immigrants, argues a paper published by a major investment bank. The BBC's Rodney Smith explains.

One of the biggest issues facing Western Europe in the year ahead could be immigration.

It is an issue that could easily be mishandled politically.

The skills base is expanding in all areas of modern technology.

Western Europe is facing a future where people who are currently seen as unwanted visitors may in fact represent a form of economic salvation for ageing economies.

This is why:

The information, technology and biotechnology revolution have been accompanied by one of the fastest rises ever seen in global population, advancing at 1.5% a year, bettered only by 2% growth in the mid 1980s.

Most of it is happening in the developing world while the developed world, particularly Western Europe, faces the prospect of a rapidly ageing "baby-boom" generation, and an inadequate population growth rate.

This development has not surprised economists: Advances in technology and global economic booms tend to be accompanied by swift expansions in populations, according to Giles Keating at Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB).

Mr Keating has written a paper together with his colleagues Richard Hokenson and Amlan Roy as an introduction to CSFB's Demographics Database, set up to monitor and report on economic trends in global migration.

In their paper, Mr Keating and his colleagues proposes abolishing mandatory retirement.

This would enable the over-50s to continue to mix work and leisure, that is they could work as much or as little as they want.

This pattern could then trickle down the age curve, bringing many people more leisure - a dream many have had for years, but one that has not been realised, they argue.

The paper also proposes allowing family and working lives to be more closely integrated.

This, the authors argue, would help to increase the role and status of working women.

The paper also foresees boosting capital flows to emerging markets, thereby helping economic integration between developed and developing countries.

And the authors would like to see migration rules eased.

This would bring advantages both to the country of origin and to the country of eventual destination.

The former gains added income for its people, while the latter gains labour and expertise, the authors argue.

People who demonstrate the initiative to leave home, bearing loss of family and friends to better their lot, are likely to be of benefit when they arrive at the their destination, the authors believe.

The CSFB paper points out that active immigration is already an important driver of economic growth.

Western Europe, or the European Union, might find benefit in taking a lead from this and loosening its grip on tight immigration policy.

Governments anxious about the cost to their exchequers of increasing pressures on social programmes by immigrant communities could find it difficult to deal with the problem posed by an ageing indigenous population.

Politicians who are in the habit of using anti-immigration tactics as a vote winner could do well to adopt a more clear-headed, statesman-like attitude to a problem, and the self-solution that it presents, the authors argue.