Demography

Birth rates

Fertility rate:

2001 - 1.63

2014 - 1.83

Reasons for the decline in birth rate

1. Change in women's position; legal equality, access to divorce, education, contraception.

2. Decline in the Infant Mortality Rate*; improved nutrition of the mother, sanitation, hygiene knowledge, immunisation.

3. Children are an economic liability; child labour laws and increased cost of bringing up children.

4. Child centeredness; focusing on one child and caring for that child the best possible.

*Infant mortality rate/IMR = number of infants who die before the age of 5 per 1000 live births.*

Impacts

The family - decline in family size, increase in women working.

The dependency radio* - fewer children lessens the burden of dependency.

Public services - fewer schools, fewer maternity/child health services.

*Dependency ratio = working population : dependents, dependents include the under 16s, the unemployed and pensioners*

✗ Whilst a decrease in children lessens the burden on one group, the aging population of the UK contradicts this.

Deaths

Reasons for the decline in death rates

1. Improved nutrition; McKeown - this accounts for over 1/2 of the decline.

2. Medical improvements; 1949 introduction of the NHS, advances in anti-biotics and immunisation.

3. Smoking and diet; Harper - a decline in people smoking has contributed to the decline in death rates, however, obesity has replaced smoking as the lifestyle epidemic. 1/4 of the population is obese.

4. Public health measures; improvements in housing, purer drinking water, improved sewage disposal.

5. Other social changes; decline in dangerous manual work, smaller families reduced rate of disease/virus transmission, higher incomes.

Life expectancy

Class, regional and gender differences:

Women live longer than men.

N/S divide, people living in the north have a lower life expectancy.

Walker - those who live in the poorest of areas often live up to 7 years less.

Aging population

Average age of the population: 1971 - 34y/o, 2013 - 40y/o.

Causes:

Increase in life expectancy

Decrease in infant mortality rate

Decrease in fertility rates*

*fertility rates = number of babies per woman of the population*

Impacts

Public services; older people consume more services e.g. health provisions and transport.

One - pensioner households; accounts for 12.5% of all households. This prevents young families from moving to a larger property. These OPH are usually males over 65.

The dependency ratio; increase in the number of old people worsens the burden of dependency.

✗ Not all elderly are financially dependent, private pensions give the elderly more financial freedom.

Agism, modernity and post-modernity

The elderly are forced into dependency through the government policies. The legal retirement age forces the elderly into unemployment when many would wish to continue working. This is structured dependency.

They therfore feel a status frustration as they are denied their work status and made to be considered to be burdens rather than productive members of society.

✓ Philipson agrees, he claims that the elderly are given the bare minimum because they are considered to be not useful to capitalism.

Postmodern and old age

The fixed life stages of childhood and old age are breaking down and becoming blurred.

In a Postmodern society, consumption rather than production is the key to creating our identity. With the greater choices in life that Postmodernism brings, it is easier to define ourselves based on the choices we make.

The media portrays the elderly in a positive light, where old age becomes a feature of consumption with large profit to be made from anti-aging products like creams and hair colorants. Visual features and looks become important in shaping our identity.

Inequalities among the old - Pilcher

Class; M/C have a better occupational pension and therefore live in higher luxury.

Gender; women earn less and have smaller pensions, women face greater inequity, less focus for men on construing their identities due to sexism.

Migration

Immigration

History:

1939-45: Eastern and central European Jews

1950s: black Immigration from colonial nations

1960/70s: south Asian migration

2004: eastern European - EU nationals

Emigration

Push factors - economic ressession + unemployment

Pull factors - higher wages + better housing

Impact on the population structure

Mirages are often young and decrease average age of the population.

Migrants often have higher fertility rates and so increase the birth rates.

Most migrants are of working age and have high fertility rates impacting the dependency ratio. Fertility rates don't remain high, once migrants become accustomed to British culture, their fertility rates decline.

Globalisation - blurring of global boundaries

Acceleration

Speeding up of the rate of migration especially since 2004 due to important features like the internet and transport.

Differentiation

Types of migrants:

Settlers Asylum seekers Workers Spouse Students Super diversity - Vertovec - wide range of migrants from across the globe within a single ethnic group community.

Class differences - Cohen

Citizens - legal residents with citizenship rights.

Denizens - welcomed by the state, privileged e.g CEOs and oligarchs.

Helots - illegal trafficked workers and legal workers such as domestic servants.

Feminising migration - Hochschild

Care work, sex work and domestic work is increasingly done by migrants, this is a result of western women working and men being reluctant to to do domestic work, inadequate childcare provisions and care for the elderly by the state.

Migrant identities

Hybrid identity - migrants identifying by multiple nationalities e.g. British, Pakistani, Muslim.

Eade - Bengali Muslims in Britain created a hierarchy of identities in order of importance: Muslim, Bengali, British.

Transnational identities - Eriksen

With the blurring of boundaries migrants are less likely to identify as British because they can keep in contact with their home and family through mediums like Skype.

The politicisation of migration

Assimilation - aligning with mainstream culture, this can often feel forced.

Multiculturalism - Eriksen - this is when migrant culture adds to a collective. Although this can be shallow - picking and choosing what is acceptable, without a deep or whole acceptance.

✗ Demanding assimilation leads to backlash of radicalism.

✗ Castles - assimilation alienates migrants as they don't want to lose their culture.