[maximus1983]

And then the immigrants stay and get old and there is increased strain on the strained social systems. Most immigration systems in Europe assumed that the immigrants would go home once they have made some money.

At some point it is going to implode anyway. The UK in the last 25 years has completely changed due to immigration and our health system is basically about to fall over, there are massive cultural tensions between natives and immigrant populations that are on the verge of exploding in poorer areas (North of England) on almost a daily basis. None of this gets covered in the news but there are plenty of videos on Facebook, Youtube etc of clashes.

I suggest you read the "Strange Death of Europe".

[themagician]

Healthcare requires young, relatively healthy, people. It’s another system where the young pay for the old. The immigrants aren’t the immediate problem, they are the immediate solution. They may crowd the system, but they are also the ones funding it. Kick all young, relatively healthy, immigrants out and see how quickly healthcare collapses as the older people on fixed income try to find a way to balance the healthcare budget.

[lmm]

Importing a bunch of young people works for one generation. But those young people grow old (and assimilate into a culture with a low birth rate), and what do you do then - import ever more young people to take care of the previous generation of immigrants? That doesn't seem sustainable.

[maximus1983]

You miss the point. The system is going to collapse anyway and long term thinking is needed

[vkou]

Immigration allows you to slowly deflate the demographic bubble over the next thirty years, instead of pop it, with much suffering over the next ten.