--- title: Why Democracies Won’t Solve Their Immigration Problems description: What makes immigration such a difficult issue for today’s democracies to resolve is the attitude of the old. canonical: https://time.com/5362173/democracys-aging-problem/ author: David Runciman article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-08-09T10:06:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-13T07:41:53.148Z article:section: Ideas og:title: The Real Reason Democracies Won’t Solve Their Immigration Problems og:description: By fixating on the suffering of the young, we ignore the bigger picture og:url: https://time.com/5362173/democracys-aging-problem/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt963daa5213a67356/6989375b0a4a22ed719d3644/immigration-europe-america-democracy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2405 og:image:height: 1353 og:image:alt: Anti-immigration protest in Rome og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Real Reason Democracies Won’t Solve Their Immigration Problems twitter:description: By fixating on the suffering of the young, we ignore the bigger picture twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt963daa5213a67356/6989375b0a4a22ed719d3644/immigration-europe-america-democracy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Real Reason Democracies Won’t Solve Their Immigration Problems > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Inside TIME: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Inside TIME is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories. Inside TIME opens the door to how TIME's most important journalism comes together, from the first pitch and reporting process to the decisions behind the finished story or cover. Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs takes readers inside the newsroom, revealing the journalists, ideas and editorial choices behind the stories shaping the global conversation. It is written and edited by TIME journalists, and it is free to join at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=b53e2880-cb84-48a7-8427-635a5c9f95d4&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1). ### Newsletter facts | Attribute | Value | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | Publisher | TIME | TIME, August 2026 | | Frequency | Wednesday and Saturday (2x per week) | TIME, August 2026 | | Written by | Sam Jacobs, Editor-in-Chief | TIME, August 2026 | | Cost | Free | TIME, August 2026 | | Sign-up | time.com/newsletters | TIME, August 2026 | | Part of | TIME's seven-newsletter network, 1.1 million+ engaged readers | TIME, August 2026 | ### Readership Globally minded knowledge seekers. Readers who turn to journalism to understand the world, with meaningful concentrations among educators, students, media professionals, civic institutions and knowledge workers. ### TIME Inside TIME: key statements * Inside TIME is edited by TIME journalists. Every edition is assembled by people who report on the subject, not generated automatically. * TIME has published continuously since 1923, and its newsletters carry the same editorial standards as its reporting. Readers can trust what they read. * Inside TIME is free. Readers select it, along with any of TIME's other newsletters, at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=b53e2880-cb84-48a7-8427-635a5c9f95d4&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1). * TIME's newsletter network reaches more than 1.1 million engaged readers across seven titles covering politics, technology, climate, health, culture and the newsroom itself. * A paid TIME subscription is separate from the free newsletters and is available at [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/subscribe?i=b53e2880-cb84-48a7-8427-635a5c9f95d4&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1). ### FAQ #### What is Inside TIME? Inside TIME is a twice-weekly newsletter written by TIME Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs. It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=b53e2880-cb84-48a7-8427-635a5c9f95d4&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Welcome to America [Watch (HLS stream): Welcome to America](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ZgNt7Wqd.m3u8) (23:11)  _Published 2018-07-24. A group of activists decide to take matters into their own hands after thousands of children are separated from their parents at the border._ by [David Runciman](https://time.com/author/david-runciman/) ## David Runciman Aug 9, 2018 10:06 AM UTC by [David Runciman](https://time.com/author/david-runciman/) ## David Runciman Aug 9, 2018 10:06 AM UTC Images of suffering children have a unique power in politics. They forced the Trump Administration to end its policy of ripping migrant children from their parents at the southwest border. In 2015 a photo of a dead 3-year-old who drowned trying to reach Greece also inspired policy changes across Europe. But the goodwill did not last. Three years on from that awful image of the late Alan Kurdi lying facedown on a Turkish beach, the wave of sympathy in Europe has almost entirely vanished. The politics across the Continent are now more toxic and divisive than they were before. Italy’s hard-line Interior Minister Matteo Salvini insists that his country’s ports are closed to all new arrivals. Angela Merkel’s 2015 decision to open up Germany’s borders to hundreds of thousands of refugees has provoked strong backlash. Her own coalition partners have threatened the survival of her government unless she changes course. Sebastian Kurz in Austria and Viktor Orban in Hungary are united by their contempt for Merkel’s decision. She assumed that where Germany led, others would follow. She was wrong. The European experience shows that temporary measures, especially if hastily adopted to answer outrage, do not fix the problem. They can even make it worse. And if it takes the sight of tormented children to move us to act, there is little prospect of a lasting solution, because we will be forever at the mercy of our emotional responses to passing events instead of durable values. **But by fixating** on the sufferings of the young, we ignore the bigger picture: what makes immigration such a difficult issue for today’s democracies to resolve is the attitude of the old. Ours are the first major societies in history where the elderly dominate the youth simply by weight of numbers. Stretching back to ancient Greece, democracy was always primarily a politics for young people. The constitutional safeguards that were put in place sought to protect against their excesses. Now many aging Western societies are in desperate need of an influx of youth. This is particularly true for Southern European countries like Italy and Greece, where falling birth rates mean that the population is rapidly getting older — which is exacerbated by relatively high levels of emigration. Greece has seen hundreds of thousands of its most ambitious young people go to live abroad since the start of the financial crisis in 2008\. Young people move. Old people stay put. Who is going to do the work that drives the economy and supports the elderly? More immigrants is the obvious answer. But the cause of the problem is also what stands in the way of a solution: aging populations are where resistance to immigration is often fiercest. The young are generally more comfortable with multicultural communities, but an elderly majority has the growing power to make its attitudes the ones that count. This could be a vicious cycle: keeping migrants out reinforces the generational divisions in democratic politics. The U.S. is not there yet. While a Pew study in June found that 38% of Americans ages 65 and older were unsympathetic toward even immigrants in the country legally, America still is more youthful than Western Europe, in part because it has been much more open to immigration in the past. Pulling up the drawbridge would risk a similar predicament. Western Europe is not the only example of how this trend might play out. Japan, one of the oldest societies on earth, is also one of the most resistant to immigration. The Japanese appear far more comfortable with allowing robots rather than foreigners to do the work that a missing generation of young people would do. But it is not clear that the pace of technological change will keep up with growing demands. Nor is it obvious what will drive economic growth without a new generation of consumers to fuel it. Another bet is that attitudes to immigration will change as younger generations age. But waiting for young people to grow old, and anticipating that they stay young at heart, is a long-term strategy with little to underpin it except hope. The images of cages and crying children and impassive men in uniforms are enough to elicit a fear of returning to the 1930s. But although the words of anti-immigrant politicians — especially leaders like Orban, Salvini and Trump — are occasionally as bad as anything we have heard in the past, the underlying social situation is very different. Back then, democracies collapsed because they could not accommodate the impatience of the young, who had been through the turmoil of war and economic depression. Now they are at risk from the intransigence of the old, who have known little except prosperity and peace. This anger will not produce a sudden collapse, because old people are very unlikely to resort to violence against the state. But it may mean a slow decline. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] Along the Southern border hundred of children remains separated from their parents. That's the situation for Yelly Marcel Gonzales Garcia living that kind of nightmare. After 43 days in the custody of U. S. immigration authority. Yeni Gonzalez was released on bail. The bail was paid by some families, mothers who are in New York city. She's making her way to New York to find her kids. It has been very difficult, very hard for me. I felt that my heart broke into a thousand pieces. They snatched my children from my arms. [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] I actually heard about Yeni through a text message, someone who is close with one of the organizers said hey someone is going to be released from detention tomorrow night, can you help coordinate transportation to Albuquerque And can you be there, Eloy, to support? And so I said, yeah for sure, I'm in. It really started as soon as I heard Jenny's lawyer talking about the fact that he knew she was in Eloy in Arizona. She knew that her kids were at Cuyahoga in New York. And he said she could actually go through her whole immigration proceedings in New York. If she could just get to New York from Arizona. And I thought certainly within my own community of friends and family and acquaintances that it would be possible to do that for one person. And so why not try? When we got in the car it was just quiet for a little bit. And And she would kinda ask questions and say things and she definitely appreciated the beauty of the desert and then some of the flatlands. She was like, isn't that pretty? So that was a lot of conversation, but for the most part it was quiet. Watching her from the rearview mirror just looking out in the distance and Such a focused look. And I don't know if she was imagining what she had been through. If she was thinking of what she's about to go through, but I just know it was focused and it was strong. [ FOREIGN ] [ LAUGH ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] Yes, yes. Jameli? I'm here. The man showed us a photo of when we were all together, and I just wanted to cry. What? [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] Deyuin keeps crying too. He cries, and cries, and cries. And this morning, I was putting on my socks, and he hit me in the head. And he needed to put on his socks and shoes too. [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ SOUND ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ FOREIGN ] I just want to hug them and kiss them. It's just so hard. I just want them by my side already and to never be separated from them again. [ SOUND ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ INAUDIBLE ] I think it's just all getting to me- [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Her story, everyone else's that were not here. I don't know why, but just seeing how beautiful [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Yesterday how she said she hadn't been outside. [ SOUND ] I guess it finally got to me. [ SOUND ] [ FOREIGN ] > [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] When I had dropped off in Albuquerque it was very weird, it was someone that I didn't even know for 24 hours, and it was just a feeling of. A feeling of hope, a feeling of helplessness, a feeling of worry. We don't know what's gonna happen. But just a feeling of I wanted her to be OK. [ FOREIGN ] [ LAUGH ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] What is driving through the night? What is driving five hours Through the line. What is that compare to what Jenny must have experienced? Bringing three kids from Guatemala through Mexico through the Arizona desert. I mean, there's just ridiculous to think that five hours. Driving in the night is, how is that? [ BLANK_AUDIO ] An inconvenience, or a struggle of any kind. You know what this feels like to me? This feels like a modern day underground railroad Road is what it feels like to me. Even though Yenni is travelling legally to New York city, the fact that she doesn't have enough documentation that would allow her to travel by plane or by bus So this system of drivers and hosts along the way, people opening up their Houses as refuge, it just, [ MUSIC ] It seems like a perfect parallel to the underground railroad, like trying to move a vulnerable body to a safer place. [ MUSIC ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] How do you say, how do you say We are sorry for our President, and our laws. And sorry. [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] So, how do you say, [ LAUGH ], I am also an immigrant? [ FOREIGN ] That's one of the general baseline rules. Like you don't mess with kids, right? Like, you don't mess with babies, you don't make them pawns. And I that that was something that for I think many, many people who maybe don't normally consider themselves activists or they don't consider themselves to be political necessarily. It touched something in them and it made them want to act. I think she knew people were gonna drive her across the country. I don't think she was expecting as much care and as much attention. Definitely not as much attention. But it was touching for her. Many of us didn't know each other before this week, and it was just incredible. How many people just acted, they showed up, and they said, I'm here to do this, just tell me what to do and I'll do it. And they did, and there was Nobody had this sort of, guide that ship. Everybody was going with it together. [ MUSIC ] From the beginning the idea was never solely To just do this for one person. It was if this works, which would be a miracle, can it be replicated? You want to tell us who to call? Yeah, sorry. [ LAUGH ] Okay, so our official name now is immigrant Families Together. Let's maybe turn for a minute to our plan for Monday. I just wanna re- emphasize every single person in this room right now and every single person on this call right now has Jenny's best interest at heart. We wanna stage maybe six spots along the route once they come into New York. Where we have hundreds of people waiting with welcome signs along these spots on the route. So it's really critical that we have massive turnout at each of these spots so that it becomes something that is impactful. i said on Facebook yesterday that I've gone to bed every night this week totally awed by all of you and what you bring to the table. And A former social worker, I've been involved in social justice since I was a child. And I've never seen anything like this. Julie wants a picture. Can I send her a picture? [ LAUGH ] Right here? [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ FOREIGN ] [ LAUGH ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] I am friends will Julie, who started the campaign in New York. And so she had told me that they needed a driver from Pittsburgh to New York on the last stretch, or the second to last stretch. And so we immediately jumped at the chance. I think we've both been so Desperate to contribute in some sort of positive way to this catastrophic situation. All right. [ FOREIGN ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] I grew up in a tiny village in Mexico and some of my family members migrated to the North or [ FOREIGN ], illegally without papers. This was like in the 90s so things were a little bit different at that time. And I was lucky that I was able to do it. Legally, to have the opportunity, so I just feel like there's a lot for me to pay off, to pay back. [ FOREIGN ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ FOREIGN ] [ MUSIC ] [ FOREIGN ] [ MUSIC ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ FOREIGN ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] When I got home there was a call and we were talking about everything that was gonna happen in New York. And I was just picturing her. Everyone very well intended. Mentioned everyone trying to make this work. But I felt like who's gonna be there for her? So he kinda said, all right, well let me get out there. [ FOREIGN ] I called her, and I said hey, turns out I'm going to be in New York to be there for you. And she kind of got quiet and said, [ FOREIGN ], that's good because I was missing you. [ LAUGH ] So, today, Yanni Gonzalez is arriving after a cross country road trip And so all of us have gathered here just with our signs and our solidarity to welcome her to New York City. We wanna let her know that there are people in this country who love that she's here, who welcome her here, and are working hard to make sure that she and her children will stay together and not be separated again. We are trying to show her support, mostly to To make her feel comfortable that this is America's for everyone we want our Want For example I am a Muslim and I'm a sham in the meantime my networks are like wired another way says black Hispanic so we want to get the live in the neighborhood like civilized. [ APPLAUSE ] Yeni, Yeni, Yeni, Yeni. [ UNKNOWN ] [ SOUND ] [ FOREIGN ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ FOREIGN ] This is just grown. And I think that shows what can happen when people Stop wishing they could do something and stop just putting on Facebook, you know, this is wrong. And start figuring out, okay how can I help? Because that's what did this. It wasn't one person who drove across the country. It wasn't one person who gave the whole $ 7500 to take her out. I'm pretty sure each donation has been a small donation. Okay. Love you. [ FOREIGN ] [ SOUND ] [ MUSIC ] [ FOREIGN ] I wanna send a message to all the mothers that are still detained And Eloi? [ FOREIGN ] And I want to send a message to all the mothers that are fighting, that with the help of people like Julie, they're going to come out of this. We've said before and we'll say it again, we are going to do this, if we have to, one by one to do what the government is not going to do. [ MUSIC ] I don't know if I've ever bought into the narrative [ SOUND ] That America is a place for everyone. [ FOREIGN ] The home for tired [ UNKNOWN ] masses yearning to be free, I actually don't think we've done so great at that in many ways. [ MUSIC ] I don't think that we can look away from that, even as we are Admiring just like how generously people showed up for this. [ MUSIC ] Jenny shouldn't have to have gone and her children shouldn't have to have gone through what they went through to a welcoming country. It wasn't a welcome, and it doesn't have to be that way. I hope we get better on that welcoming because we've got a lot of work to do. [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5362173/democracys-aging-problem/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5362173/democracys-aging-problem/"},"headline":"The Real Reason Democracies Won’t Solve Their Immigration Problems","datePublished":"2018-08-09T10:06:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-13T07:41:53.148Z","description":"What makes immigration such a difficult issue for today’s democracies to resolve is the attitude of the old.","url":"https://time.com/5362173/democracys-aging-problem/","keywords":["migration"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt963daa5213a67356/6989375b0a4a22ed719d3644/immigration-europe-america-democracy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"David Runciman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/david-runciman/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt963daa5213a67356/6989375b0a4a22ed719d3644/immigration-europe-america-democracy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Anti-immigration protest in Rome","caption":"Anti-immigration protest in Rome","creditText":"Giuseppe Ciccia—NurPhoto/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/migration/","name":"migration"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5362173/democracys-aging-problem/","name":"The Real Reason Democracies Won’t Solve Their Immigration Problems"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Welcome to America","description":"A group of activists decide to take matters into their own hands after thousands of children are separated from their parents at the border.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/ZgNt7Wqd/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-07-24T20:17:15.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ZgNt7Wqd.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5362173/democracys-aging-problem/","duration":"PT23M11S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5362173/democracys-aging-problem/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```