Feeling squeezed? Blame immigration
Monday, August 12, 2002
By: Dan Stein

Dallas Morning News

Services, roads, water haven't kept pace with huge influx

Think Texas feels more crowded? It isn't your imagination. Between 1990 and 2000, Texas' population growth was second only to California's. The state grew at almost twice the national rate, bringing its population to nearly 21 million. During the 1990s, Texas became home to almost 4 million new residents that is like adding almost six cities the size of Austin.

As a result of that massive growth, Texans are experiencing many of the symptoms of congestion familiar to Americans in the nation's older population centers traffic jams, pollution, overcrowded schools, urban sprawl and a lack of affordable housing. Texas also faces another concern that isn't as critical in many other parts of the country: a shortage of water resources.

Texas' water supply, already precarious due to droughts, is increasingly challenged due to the growing population. The Texas Water Development Board estimates that by 2050 almost 900 cities in Texas will have to severely reduce water consumption or find new sources to maintain their supply during a drought.

There are many reasons to explain Texas' staggering growth, not only during the 1990s but during the past several decades. Like many other Sun Belt states, Texas simply became an attractive place to live, as postwar improvements in transportation, communications and air conditioning made the area more accessible and hospitable. In addition, much of Texas' explosive growth is a direct result of the rapid influx of immigrants.

The state's foreign-born population increased by 90 percent between 1990 and 2000, a net increase of more than 1,375,000 foreign-born people coming to reside in Texas. More than a third of the state's population increase during the 1990s was a direct result of the increase in the foreign-born population.

Immigration's impact on Texas' population growth becomes even more dramatic when factoring in children born to immigrants. In 2000, the Census Bureau reported that an additional 2,358,000 Texans have at least one foreign-born parent.

Demographers, politicians and social scientists are certain to have a field day analyzing and assessing the impact of Texas' recent growth and whether a continued increase of this sort is sustainable. But what never seems to be considered in such debates is whether explosive population growth in Texas, or nationally, is desirable.

The lack of meaningful limits and controls on immigration the 1990s saw the greatest number of immigrants settle in the United States in our nation's history has created a ripple effect across our nation. This purely discretionary growth has had an impact not only in areas with the highest concentration of immigrants but in cities like Austin, where former residents of other high-impact areas have sought refuge from rising costs and deteriorating services.

The irony, of course, is that this phenomenon becomes cyclical. As areas like Collin County experience rapid growth themselves, they begin to take on the characteristics of the places that some of their newcomers left behind.

Texas' population growth should level off eventually. The only question is whether the growth will abate because the conditions elsewhere in the country that are encouraging people to settle in the Lone Star State are ameliorated or because Texans tire of the increasing congestion and diminished affordable housing and begin to seek refuge elsewhere themselves.

The good news is that we do have a choice about which scenario ultimately will lead to a cessation of rapid population growth in Texas and nationally if we exercise it.

Population growth in the United States is nearly all a product of immigrants and of children with foreign-born parents. If we, as a nation, want to diminish the impact on our homeland from the ravages of endless population growth and sprawl, we can choose to do so. We don't need to shut the door on immigration to accomplish that; we simply need to return to a moderate level of newcomers.

If we don't make that choice, however, it is certain that sometime in the not-too-distant future, demographers and social scientists will find themselves analyzing why so many people are leaving Texas in search of a better life in some other part of the country.