FAMILIES TOPIC 4 - DEMOGRAPHY Flashcards
(14 cards)
Trends in birth rate and the total fertility rate
The birth rate: The number of live births per thousand of the population per year
The has been a long term decline in the number of births.
The total fertility rate: The average number of children a woman will have during fertile years.
More women are remaining childless than in the past
Women are postponing having children: the average age for giving birth is now 30.7 and fertility rates for women in their 40s are increasing
Reasons for trends in birth rate
Changes to women’s position - legal equality, educational opportunity, changes to attitudes, easier access to divorce, paid employment. According to harper, educational opportunity is the most important reason.
Decline in the infant mortality rate - parents dont need to have more children to replace the ones that have been died
Children are now an economic liability - laws banning child labour, introducing compulsory education, changing norms about what children should expect from their parents materially
Child centredness - parents are favouring quality over quantity
Effects of changes in fertility
The family - smaller families mean that more women are free to go to work, creating a dual earner couple typical of many professional families.
Dependency ratio - the earnings, savings and taxes of the working population must support the dependent population and therefore, a fall in the number of children reduces the burden of dependency on the working population
Vanishing children - childhood becomes a lonielier experience as fewer children will have siblings and more childless adults may mean fewer voices speaking up in support of children’s interests.
Public services - fewer schools, maternity and child health services will be needed.
Trends in death rate
The death rate - the number of deaths per 1000 of the population per year
The death rate has been declining rapidly
Reasons for trends in death rate
Tranter - over ¾ of the decline in the death rate from 1850 to 1970 was due to a fall in the number of deaths from infectious diseases. It was most common in the young and.
By the 1950s, the diseases of the affluent such as heart disease and cancers had replaced infectious diseases as the main cause of death.
Social factors had a large impact on the decline of infectious diseases was due to:
Improved nutrition - mckeown - accounted for up to half the reduction in death rates from TB
Medical improvements
Smoking and diet - harper argues that this is the most important, however obesity has taken over as the new lifestyle epidemic in the 21st century
Public health measures
Trends in life expectancy
How long on average a person can expect to live depending on the year they were born.
Life expectancy has increased alongside the decrease in death rates
If the trend to greater longevity continues, harper predicts that we will soon achieve radical longevity
Trends in ageing population
The average age of the uk population is rising - there are fewer young people and more old people.
Caused by three factors
Increasing life expectancy
Declining infant mortality
Declining fertility
Effects of trends in ageing population
Public services - older people consume a larger proportion of services such as health and social care than other age groups. Particularly true of the ‘old old’
One person pensioner households - now take up 15% of all households
The dependency ratio - the non-working old are an economically dependent group and therefore the increase in the elderly population puts a strain on the working population
Policy implications of ageing population
Hirsch - a number of important social policies will need to change in order to tackle the new problems posed by an ageing population.
How to finance a longer period of old age - paying more from our savings and taxes while we are working, working for longer, or both
Housing policy may need to change in order to encourage older people to trade down into smaller accommodation releasing wealth to improve the standard of living and free up housing for younger people
Require a cultural change in our attitudes towards old people
Trends in migration
Immigration
1900 to 1939 - largest immigrant group was the irish for economic reasons, followed by eastern and central european jews fleeing persecution
During the 1950s - black immigrants from carribean arived in the Uk
1960s - 70s - south asian immigrants from india, pakistan, and sri lanka
Emigration
The uk has always been a net exporter of people
Effects of migration
Population size increasing
Age structure - immigration lowers the average age of the population
The dependency ratio
Immigrants more likely to be of working age helping to lower dependency ratio
Immigrants have more children increasing the ratio
The longer a group is settled in the country, the closer their fertility rate comes to the national average
Trends in globalisation and migration
Acceleration - speeding up of the net of migration.
Differentiation - globalisation has led to what vertovec calls ‘super-diversity’. Migrants now come from a wider range of countries. Cohen distinguishes between three types of migrant:
Citizens - full citizenship rights. Since the 1970s, the UK has made it harder for immigrants to require these rights
Denizens - privileged foreign nationals welcomed by the state
Helots - most exploited group. States and employers use them as disposable units of labour power.
The feminisation of migration - almost ½ of all migrants are female. Ehrenreich and hochschild observe that care work, domestic work, and sex work in western countries like the UK and USA is increasingly performed by women from poorer countries because of 4 reasons:
The expansion of service occupations in western countries leading to demand in female labour
Western women join labour force and are less willing to perform domestic labour
Western men remain unwilling to perform domestic labour
Failure of the state to provide adequate childcare
Migrant identities
Eade - 2nd generation bangladeshi muslims in britain created hierarchical identities - they saw themselves as muslim first, then bengali, then british.
Transnational identities - according to Eriksen, migrants are less likely to see themselves as belonging completely to one culture or country
Politicisation of migration
Assimilationism - aimed to encourage immigrants to adopt the language, values and customs. Erikson argues that assimilationist policies face the problem that transnational migrants with hybrid identities may not be willing to completely abandon their culture
Castles and kosack - they benefit capitalism byt creating a racially divided working class where blame is placed on migrants for social problems to prevent united action in defence of their interests.
Multiculturalism - maccepts that migrants may wish to retain a separate cultural identity
Shallow diversity - regarding tikka masala as britain’s national dish
Deep diversity - arranged marriages or the veiling of women being acceptable to the state.
