Both Mexico and the United States are experiencing plunging birth rates and this is a concern particularly when the United States will have a smaller pool of migrant labour to recruit from.

What kind of labor should we be concerned about?

I am concerned about health services and taking care of our elderly.

What kind of education and skill set might we need in order to take care of our parents?

More importantly, I am not a big fan on sticking our aging parents in nursing homes.  For the most part, I think  Mexican-Americans are big believers in taking care of our parents in our own homes.  No offense to the nursing homes, and I believe there is a need for them, but I also believe it is unreasonable to have all of our parents in nursing homes when they get older.  We value our parents and we do not want to see them stuck in a home wasting away.

How do we prepare for the aging population?  Do we have schools available that will provide the skill set in taking care of our own?

According to the The Economist:

FENCES, soldiers, infra-red cameras: the United States goes to great lengths to hold back the teeming masses across its southern border (see article). But the masses are teeming less. Mexico’s birth rate, once among the world’s highest, is in free-fall. In the 1960s Mexican mothers had nearly seven children each (whereas women in India then had fewer than six). The average now is just over two—almost the same as in the United States. The UN reckons that from 2040 the birth rate in Mexico will be the lower of the two.  …  Today’s falling fertility rate will curb the flow. But the main motors of migration will still be economic boom or bust—on both sides of the border.

In 2011, the birth rate in America fell to the lowest level in recorded history.  According to Business TIME:

As our largest generation moves toward full-on retirement we are minting what promises to be our smallest generation, a group that from the very beginning of its working years will face the impossible task of supporting millions of entitled old fogeys. Something will have to give.

Indeed something will have to give, and the United States ought to prepare and have proactive solutions that will curb the influx of retirees and new challenges.