There is a tendency of a slowing productivity growth and increased progress in the

productivity growth between the leading developed countries. Sharma attributes this to the ease

at which production technology spreads across nations. However, he states that the trend of

change across productivity spans within the developed nations. Regardless of which two

countries compare, the pattern is constant. Therefore, the efforts of any state to regain

remunerative advantage by reviving productivity without increasing its population are infeasible.

Ruchir Sharma compares the economy of the United States and that of Japan and Europe

in which he notices that they all have grown at a rate of 0.6 per cent each year. However, he

states that the economy of the United States is higher than that of Europe and Japan. His

justification for this scenario is that the United States has embraced immigrants and had more

birth rates than its competitors. He further explains that if the population of the United States

were growing at a rate similar to that of Japan, its position in the world economy would scale at

15 per cent and not the 25 per cent that it currently holds (Sharma, pg.2).

Population growth is the foundation of increasing economic productivity. The writer of

the article emphasises this by comparing the economy of countries that embrace immigration

such as Canada to that of states that limit immigration such as Japan. In comparison, Canada is

experiencing faster economic growth than Japan. The policies drafted by president Trump aim at

reducing the immigrant's flow to the United States. The idea to cut on the immigrants’ flow will

handicap the global economic growth of the state. First of all, workers are the primary source of

financial strength implying that a restriction on immigration reduces the population of a nation.

A reduced population may fail to provide adequate labour power which will impact the economic

productivity of the state. While the United States is focusing on reducing the “net flow of
immigrants” (Sharma, pg.3), countries such as France are offering baby bonuses to help raise the

birth rate and consequently the economic productivity.

In the United States where policies are restricting immigration, the economy will change

from global to a domestic level. In the article, Sharma states that as much as the United States

limits migration, the more it will undermine its economic growth which will consequently make

its economic rivals outshine it in the global market.