As German towns work to hide the emptiness, demographers say a similar fate awaits other European countries, with frightening implications for the economy.

Seth Dixon‘s insight:

I’ve be recently writing about declining populations on my Geography Education page; in the past I saw this as a demographic issue with primarily economic roots.  The more and more I read about this I see it as having profound cultural implications.  Countries such as Germany have shrinking fertility rates, but to continue to strengthen their economy and create jobs they have guest worker programs.  As the country becomes more multicultural, Germany has faced cultural difficulties as ethnic Germans and immigrants (and their descendents) rethink what it means to be German.  

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