New Atlantic column: the Alternative Asia Plan

I have a new column up at the Atlantic, about the benefits of large-scale immigration from Asia. Key excerpts:

For most of its history, America was the "Alternative Europe"..."Alternative Europe" was a winning strategy for us. But that strategy is mostly played out...The United States still needs people...But we're not going to get our new people from Europe... 

East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia together have over half the world's population, but Asians make up only 5% of the United States. If our ethnic makeup was a portfolio of stocks, we would be severely underweight Asia. 

Asia is important not just because it is huge, but because it is growing rapidly...Geopolitics, too, will be centered on Asia... 

Adding diversity to our melting pot will speed up America's inevitable and necessary transition from a "nation of all European races" to a "nation of all races." The sooner that happens - the sooner people realize that America's multi-racialization is a done deal - the quicker our political debate can shed its current ethnic overtones and go back to being about the issues... 

But we need to act now, because the window of opportunity for large-scale Asian immigration will not stay open for much longer...We probably have only two more decades in which to transplant large numbers of Asians to our shores. (This is in contrast to Africa, whose high fertility levels will make sure it remains a plentiful source of immigrants for at least another century.)... 

This, then, is the "Alternative Asia Plan." America began as a nation of Europeans and Africans; it is now a nation of Europeans, Africans, and Latin Americans. It must become a nation of Asians as well.

Basically, the reasons for immediate large-scale targeting of Asian immigration is three-fold:

1. Immigration from Europe and Latin america has trickled off, while immigration from Africa will be available essentially indefinitely; the window for Asian immigration is short, and is now.

2. Strong ties with Asia are important for geopolitics.

3. Asian immigration will make our cultural and racial mix more representative of the globe.

20 or 30 years from now, expect to see me writing about the "Alternate Africa Plan"...