Economic and immigration shifts

LA Times:

"The country's financial meltdown and post-Sept. 11 immigration enforcement have slowed the growth of minority groups here. If those conditions remain the norm, whites would make up the majority of the population until 2050, eight years later than previously projected."...

A falling immigration rate means a decreased vital workforce to replace the nation's baby boomers, said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution. "Young people bring new ideas, especially new people coming in from other countries," he said. "They're more globally aware of what's going on."...

The latest projections, said demographics researcher John Pitkin, show "the stakes of immigration reform."

Pitkin said that if immigration continues to slow, it would affect planning and education. It also would mean fewer workers paying into Social Security and Medicare.

"The flow of immigration makes it more difficult to finance Social Security," Pitkin said. "It does slow down the economy a bit."