Here's Your Chance for an Inexpensive Vacation Home in Italy

           Since I first read Goldman's Why Civilizations Die, I've related to my children that, due to the declining birth rate in Italy, Greece, and Spain, that property in those countries will become cheaper as whole villages become depopulated; and predicted that when they retire, they probably will be able to relocate to Europe. It seems this is coming to pass. The Daily Mail today reported on a village in Sardinia (Italy) that is selling homes for as little as 1 euro (with the catch that you have to refurbish the property) in order to attract new residents. The town, Ollolai, has seen its population halved over the past three decades, "with just 1,300 people – mostly middle-aged childless couples – left[.]"

            This is just a sign of a more serious problem. A group called Gefira recently released a population analysis for Italy that claimed that "[b]y 2080, Italians will be a minority in their own country." According to their report, this will be a consequence of low reproduction rates (a fertility rate of 1.34) combined with increased immigration. They also write:

If the official Eurostat forecast is correct, then within 60 years or, taking into consideration the current pace of migration even sooner, 50% of Italy’s inhabitants will be of African or Asian descent. The figures found by our demographic-research team are by far not unique and government statisticians have the same numbers. Not only are the Italian and European authorities fully aware of this, but they seem to be executing a re-population program on such a monumental scale that will dwarf the Swedish mass migration experiment.

(Bold in original). They contrast this with Japan, where the government has steadfastly refused to replace their declining population with aliens.