In many developed nations today, women are no longer dependent on men in terms of economic or social status. Being independent from men also changes women’s lifestyles. A straight woman can choose to remain single or get married only when a man would add value to her life. It seems that one consequence of women entering the labor force is that fertility rates decline over time.
Studies have shown that the reproduction rate needed to maintain a stable labor force and population in developed countries is 2.1 percent, but all of the developed nations expect the United States have a total fertility rate lower than 2.1 percent. According to the CIA World Factbook, the U.S. has a total fertility rate of 2.01 percent, with immigrants and Hispanic population leading the birth rate. Western European nations have total fertility rates far below 2.1 percent: Germany, 1.43, Netherlands, 1.78, Spain, 1.48, Italy, 1.42, and United Kingdom, 1.9. In many of these countries, especially in the Mediterranean European countries, the driving force of population growth is mainly the result of immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa.
In Spain, for example, the total fertility rate has fallen more than 50 percent, to 1.48 children per female, which is one of the world’s lowest birth rate. The low birth rate and the rapid aging of population threaten the labor force and the economy. Countries such as Spain have to open doors to welcome immigrants to offset the declining birth rate. According to Joel Kotkin, a contributor of Forbes, about 450,000 immigrants arrive in Spain annually. At the same time, more than 580,000 Spaniards are leaving the country.
In contrast to Germany, a country with a productive labor force and competitive manufacturing industry, Spain’s economic pillars are real estate and tourism, which only require low-skilled workers. When the housing bubble burst, Spain’s unemployment rate reached 25 percent, and its unemployment rate for those under the age of 25 topped 50 percent.
Even worse, these western European countries manage a giant welfare machine that depends on population growth to pay out pension liabilities. Nordic states are able to main a welfare state because they have highly skilled and productive labor force, along with policies that in favor of families. But the Mediterranean countries lack such a labor force and industry. Even when immigrants fill the gap of declining birth rate, they earn low wages but still receive a high standard of welfare. Therefore the welfare system would easily run out of funds given the steady low fertility rates.
Mark Steyn, the author of the book “America Alone: The end of the world as we know it,” prophesized that the demography is the most basic root of all problems happening in Europe.
“They [Muslims] open up a new front somewhere on the planet with nary a thought. Why? Because they’ve got the manpower,” Steyn writes. “Because in ‘70s and ‘80s, Muslims had children while Westerners took all those silly doomsday tomes about ‘overpopulation’ seriously.”
We still do this today. With fertility rates in the Muslim world greatly outperforming those in Europe, cultural conflicts and clashes are inevitable. What should be more worrisome is whether or not the change in demography would ultimately bring changes to the institutions and the universal values in the West. Rankings of Freedom House’s survey of personal liberty and democracy around the world show that five of eight countries with the lowest “freedom” score were Muslim. Of the 46 Muslim majority nations in the world, only three were free. All these about demographic changes in Europe could explain why journalists in Charlie Hebdo consistently ridicule Islam and that some radical right-wing political parties have gained momentum in elections in France, Spain and Germany.
Historian Aronld J.Toynbee may be correct in saying, “Civilizations die from suicide, not murder.”
