The Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership’s “Road to One Million” may very well require immigrants.
Think about it: The lifetime fertility rate in Indiana is less than two children per woman and has been for several years, meaning the Hoosier population is shrinking. The figure required to maintain the population is 2.1.
The additional people are not necessarily available in other states. Nationwide, the fertility rate in 2013 was 1.86, compared to Indiana’s 1.92, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
So, despite recent reports of migrants from Latin America and from the Middle East that give the impression that the world is overrunning with people, many places could benefit from immigration, particularly if the individuals are skilled.
Gross domestic product is connected to the fertility rate, according to researchers. Global GDP growth has been trending lower for a decade, according to Ruchir Sharma, who heads emerging markets and global macro Morgan Stanley Investment Management. At the same time, the growth in the working-age population slowed from about 1.8 percent to 1 percent.
Much of the decline in the working age is related to women having fewer children as more and more families have both partners working outside the home. The threat to GDP is the imbalance of retirees to workers. This becomes difficult for a state or nation to support long term.
The government of Germany and and the city of Detroit recognize this and are in the process of welcoming immigrants from Syria.
As northeast Indiana’s leaders plan for economic growth and work toward growing an economy and attracting and retaining talent, they must consider that some of this talent will need to come from outside the state and, likely, the nation.
We appreciate our small towns and close-knit communities and their culture, but we need to be open and inviting to immigrants and the cultures they bring if we are to reach the goals outlined in the “Road to One Million.”