Using the correct relative pronoun

[ametisto]

Further to my previous post "Introduction to Demography" (http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/ed...proofread.html) I would like to get some more detailed information about the correct relative pronoun in the following sentence:

My suggestion:
... and even the high number of immigrants, the best part of who belong to the above age group, doesn’t manage to bring this decline to a halt.

In the above mentioned thread, both Ron and Soup said that which does not work in this context, since "the subject of the phrase 'the higher number of immigrants' is not the word 'immigrants=who', but rather the quantifier 'number-=which'". I understand that we would have to use which if the relative clause was referring to the subject of the main clause (number). In this case, however, I believe that the relative clause refers to the object of the main clause (immigrants), rather than to the subject. Thus the correct relative pronoun would be who or whom. Am I totally wrong?

What about the following version:
...and even the high number of immigrants, most of whom belong to the above age group, doesn’t manage to bring this decline to a halt.

I am still quite confused and would really appreciate elucidation in this matter.

Cheers,

Daniel

[David L.]

"...the high number of immigrants, the best part of who belong to the above..."

I would regard 'high number of' as a modifier, in the same way one could have said, 'the many immigrants, the best part of whom...'

and so, the personal pronoun, 'who' and in the objective case after 'of',- 'whom'.