8 Billion and Counting and Crossing Borders

8 BILLION AND COUNTING by Jennifer D. Sciubba is an examination of demographic trends and their policy implications, or, as the subtitle explains, a look at “How Sex, Death, and Migration Shape Our World.”  Sciubba is an associate professor of International Studies at Rhodes College and a former demographics consultant to the United States Department of Defense. In this new text she wades through a great deal of statistics and offers plenty of numbers for the data geeks in her audience.  Simultaneously, she also stretches her readers' imaginations regarding social and cultural shifts.  For example, she describes extremes, referencing the aging population in Japan and the growth in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly Nigeria whose population is projected to exceed that of the United States by 2050. In addition to discussing fertility rates and lifespans, Sciubba also turns to developing concerns like climate migration, a topic of interest in the past few years for our Junior Theme students. She devotes a chapter to “Warfare and Wombfare,” commenting “as the pace of demographic change accelerates – particularly ethnic, racial, and religious composition – we should expect identity conflicts to intensify.”  Another powerful chapter on economic impacts is titled “Marx versus Malthus.” Overall, Sciubba is very informative and encourages further probing; roughly thirty percent of the text is devoted to notes which will be invaluable for other researchers. Her surprisingly stimulating look at the future has also made me curious to investigate some of the related titles of interest to her readers such as The Human Tide, The Devil Never Sleeps, and The Agile College.

CROSSING BORDERS by Ali Noorani is subtitled “The Reconciliation of a Nation of Immigrants” and focuses more narrowly on the immigration experience for individuals and families. President and CEO of the advocacy group named National Immigration Forum, Noorani shares stories based on his travels and conversations with immigrants and the organizations who support them. He writes eloquently of changes since the 2008 financial collapse, concluding that “Skepticism about immigration has become fear of immigrants” and that “By weaponizing immigration, Trump mainstreamed hate.” Noorani details visits to cities and towns in Arizona, Texas, and Honduras to support his views on the need for immigration reform. He cites numerous other examples and political actions, although seems to struggle to summarize key points. Roughly a third of this text is filled with notes, a bibliography, and a useful index. A list of resources  and contact information for places like the Migration Policy Institute, RAICES (Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, in Texas) or even Pew Research Center would have been a valuable addition.