When a country’s fertility rate drops below 2.11 children per family, it can no longer sustain the present population, and it will shrink. That is, if 2 parents only have 1 child (which is almost the norm in many countries in the western world), the next generation is drastically smaller, and is statistically unlikely to recover. This means there are (and will be for decades to come) fewer laborers in that country’s economy.

Today, in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and even the UK, their shrinking workforce has attracted lots of immigration — primarily from Muslim countries. While this helps the workforce (but drains money out of the country), it also radically shifts the country’s social and religious situation. (Do you remember the head-scarf issue in France a year or two back? Or talk in Britain about accepting Sharia law?).

There are reports that in 2004, 18% of the children born in Germany had foreign-born mothers (that’s nearly 1/5th). And Germany’s government foresees that by 2050 it will be a Muslim state!

Here is one sobering video presentation on these statistics and their implications. I do not know its source, but its fundamental theories are appearing more and more in the news.

As Christians we should be concerned, but also prayerfully committed to:
(a) diligently raising our children in the Christian faith, preparing them for this changing world, and, (b) specifically evangelizing the 100,000+ immigrants who come to these Western countries — seizing this huge opportunity to reach them while away from their closed home countries.

May the Lord lead us in our thinking, planning and serving the cause of Christ, in this generation and the next…
pdb