Ecoscience

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Paul Ehrlich (Bing Professor of Population Studies and Professor of Biological Sciences, Stanford University) and Anne Ehrlich (Senior Research Associate, Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford) are familiar names to ecologists and environmentalists everywhere. As well they should be. Because it was Paul and Anne who—through their writing and research—gave special meaning to the words "population", "resources", and "environment" in the late 1960's. (They also coined the term coevolution, and did a lot to make ecology the household word it is today.) But while most folks are aware of the Ehrlichs' popular writing in the areas of ecology and overpopulation (most of us—for instance—have read Paul's book The Population Bomb)... far too few people have any idea of how deeply the Ehrlichs are involved in ecological research (research of the type that tends to be published only in technical journals and college textbooks). That's why it pleases us to be able to present—on a regular basis—the following semi-technical column by authors/ecologists/educators Anne and Paul Ehrlich.

THE "MIGRATION MENACE”

Over the past decade, the vast majority of Americans have become aware that population growth is no longer a blessing. In fact, most people seem to have accepted the conclusion—reached by the U.S. Commission on Population Growth and the American Future—that the nation has nothing to gain from an increase in the number of its inhabitants. One sign of the acceptance of this fact can be seen in the dramatic change in this nation's childbearing habits... as completed family size dropped—between 1960 and the early 1970's—from about three children per couple to approximately two children.

A great many citizens rightly view the modification of our national reproductive habits as an investment in the future, and see themselves as exchanging the pleasures of a larger family for the knowledge that the few children they do have will stand a better chance for a high-quality life. If the typical family's size remains close to what it is now, births and deaths will be balanced by around 2020... and natural population increase will end.

A NEW THREAT?

But population growth can also be caused by migration. Therefore, It's not surprising that—since the mid-1970's— there has been an increase in public concern about the pattern of immigration to the United States... and especially about the numbers of immigrants coming into this country from Mexico. People have begun to receive the impression (advanced by the media) that we're about to be swamped by a brown-skinned horde from south-of-the-border... that these illegal immigrants are taking jobs from Americans and worsening our employment problem... that illegals are draining our welfare system... that their children are filling up schools supported by taxpayers' money... and that Mexican workers are sending huge amounts of money back to their homeland, affecting America's balance of payments.

All of these notions can be traced in large part to the statements of General Leonard F. Chapman, Jr.—who served as Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) during the mid-70's—to the effect that there were some eight million Illegal immigrants already in the United States, and that thousands more were entering every day. According to a 1975 INS press release, "Studies done for the INS indicate illegal aliens cost taxpayers $13 billion or more annually...." Superficially—with over 800,000 illegals apprehended in 1975 alone (the vast majority of them from Mexico)—the concern seems justified, and people like Professor Garrett Hardin of the University of California, Santa Barbara—who realize that this country is already over-populated—see in this illegal flow the potential undoing of the good that's been accomplished by the dramatic plunge in the American birthrate.