It's understandable if people do not wish their culture and ethnicity to be replaced in their own country though.

Change may be a fact of life, but societies still have a choice in how they change.

This is a really good point.

But why are 'native' people not having enough children. This did not appear to be a problem 50 years ago or centuries before that. 

A few decades ago a blue colour worker could support his family, buy a house on one income (my father did). Not so anymore. As a middle class worker you're going to need a 2 household income to afford a house. Plus having children gotten more expensive. Result is that people delay having children, have fewer children or no children at all.

One could look at immigration to solve the child problem, or one could look at why does a 'middle class income' is not enough anymore. 

Yes, hence so stupid for the school to exclude British culture on culture day!

If you do not wish your culture to be replaced, then promote your culture and find common ground.

The local population will slowly disappear anyway, with birth rates as low as they are now. Immigrants, at least, can provide a workforce and pay taxes to fund pensions. The other option is to work until you die, since there will be no social security anymore. If that's what you want more power to you, I guess?

One stark example is South Korea, they are predicted to shrink by astonishing 85% in the next 100 years if they do not revert their birth rates

It was a huge problem when child mortality was high due to famine, war or illnesses. European and Chinese history are infamous for having periods where population was actually declining instead of growing

To answer the world current situation: Changes in cultural habits and efficient contraceptive methods are the reason. People are more individualistic and no longer see having kids as something they need to. And the ones who have kids are satisfied with only one, which is not enough for population replacement anyway 

Then the answer is to find ways to increase the birth rate.

To turn it around, why do developing countries have high birth rates. The answer is (in part), your children are your care takers when you get older. 

One of the unpopular answers is female education and empowerment. Women have careers as well nowadays as opposed to 75 years ago when they were expected to stay home and raise children. Also stimulated by religion. Career planning is difficult while having kids and getting pregnant is still a sure way not to get hired or passed by for promotions etc.

And why are 2 workers not enough nowadays, capitalism, consumerism and the rise of Oligarchy.

50 years ago you didn't need a car as much, you lived where you worked, you shopped where you lived. Now everyone has moved into suburbs and 'needs' multiple cars to get around. You didn't (still don't) need all the luxuries we're used to now. Take out your car payments/insurance, fuel costs, internet, phone, AC, holidays, you have a lot more money left over...

People also live longer today.
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/median-age-changes-since-1950/
So not only can you leave kids until later (I didn't have kids until age 35), living costs have also gone up simply because people stick around longer.


The big problem is, our societies are designed post WW2, during the baby boom, forever growth in mind.
And then we let capitalism divert all the wealth to the 1%...
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/07/opinion/leonhardt-income-inequality.html
Wages for the middle class have stagnated since the 80s. 

It's going to take a lot of change to fix all this. First the government needs to be reformed to be for the people again, not just for the 1%.

The birth rate decline shows people don't want to have kids either. At least not people with more secular background 

The fact this is widespread worldwide in almost every country strongly implies this is a pattern for every modern society, and the only way to break the pattern would be coming back to how things were in past i.e. no more social security (you need children to care of you), women no longer working (more time to raise children), etc

If a society has created the conditions where people don't want to procreate then that society needs to change. A large portion of a society not wanting to reproduce is not normal, healthy, or natural behaviour. 

I also need to address that immigration can only solve the workforce shortage for as long as there are poor countries with high birth rates and weak economies. It’s not an infinite solution eventually, even Africa will face declining birth rates

However, immigration can still be used to slow the fast inversion of the social pyramid. This way, we can maintain a healthy labor force to care for the elderly until Gen X and Millennials (AKA us) pass away in the next 50–70 years

The long-term solution will require a complete societal reform. It's clear that we can no longer be driven solely by economic growth. Countries will need to learn how to handle declining GDPs. Since social security, as we know it, will eventually cease to exist, economies will have to be based more on savings than spending.

Do I think any of these reforms will happen in my lifetime? Of course not! So I just want some immigrants to work for me before I die. The rest of Gen Alpha and Beta in the world can figure it out a solution when their time comes, lol