G2 case studies continued

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Retirement migration

UK to Spain emigrants tend to be older, 60% over 45. Most

popular EU country with a high British

permanent population is Spain, many choose purpose built villa developments, or

urbanisacion La Marina near Alicante with 8,000 of the 10,000 residents being

foreign and more than half of them being British. People move there for the

gorgeous climate, cheaper house prices, more idyllic life, and there’s still

easier access to getting home (cheap airlines, skype etc). The costa del sol is

home to around 600,000 British residents, who have a mix of permanent and

holiday homes, this market is dominated by the British and the Germans, a

significant number are retirees, but its becoming more popular for the 30-40

year age group moving across and staring their own business of developing

property. Issues include expensive healthcare, retirement homes being isolated

so the British don’t mix with the Spaniards as well. This relieves pressure to

build these facilities more in the UK but it also means the grey pound is being

spent elsewhere, loss of potential childminders and family breakup and loss of

an experienced work force if they retire

early. However, the grey pound is being sent in spain which benefits the

economy and more jobs are created in construction and retail etc. when

prescription charges where introduced,

this both deterred people from moving and caused some to move back. It’s the

young and skilled that boost an economy, UK treasury says migrants contribute

to 10% of taxes and 9% of government spending and of the 700,000 eastern

Europeans who arrived between 2004-2007 only 5000 claimed benefits.

Ageing population

16% of the UK population is 65 or over, we now

have a declining population aged under 16 and a growing 65+ population. Since the 1990s migration into the UK has been a big

contributor to population growth, over all the UK has an ageing population. The

percentage of under 16% fell from 25% in 1971 to 19% un 2004 yet over the same

time the over 65 population increased from 13% to 16%. This could be down to

increased life expectancy, in 1901 boys could expect to live to 45 and girls to

49 yet in 2004 boys could expect to live to 77 and girls to 81. There is a

worry about the dependency ratio, the latest available figures on volunteering

though show that 35% of people aged 75+ regularly volunteer and give up their

time. They’re also a big help to families by looking after children, they have

the grey pound in disposable income to spend. Many people of this age have pad

their mortgage off and won’t be paying taxes. With the very young and very old

population being larger than the middle aged working population it makes us

question how we can afford this, elderly

people can be given the opportunity to work longer, companies such as B and Q

give good opportunities for part time work to the elderly hence they have the

opportunity to contribute more to the economy as well as some seeing this as an

extra activity and a small source of extra income. There will also be more

businesses geared towards the elderly like over 60s insurance and small holiday

groups etc. Solutions to this potential crisis could be rising retirement age,

the UK has already raised retirement age for women to 65 form 2018, to 66 for all

by 2020 and eventually 68 by 2044. In 2010 retirement age for private pensions

rose from 50 to 55. We could use expansionist policies like making abortion

illegal in Chile, providing more support for working mothers like they did in

France, for example maternity leave in France covers the month before the due

date and 2 months after (3 if breast feeding) and full pay so mothers have less

to worry about In regards of losing money, they also work fewer hours as a typical full time week consists of 35 hours

and in general 5 weeks holiday a year. Free

schooling starts from age 3, with childcare before that being heavily subsidised

and are also provided with nutritious meals by the school every day. The UK

also improved health care whist Ireland restricted the availability of

contraception. Or we could use control policies such as promotion of birth

control in Singapore, health education in Schools (big emphasis in Netherlands)

permit abortion, there’s around 2.7 million a year in Russia or encourage

sterilisation for incentives eg cars and TVs for men in India.

Chinas 1 child policy

Their population is currently 20% of that of the world, china owns 7% of the world’s

arable land and supplies 8% of world water. Laws from 1979

1980s parents in rural area may have 2 children if

first is a girl

1990’s parents in urban areas may buy a permit to have

another child, a years wages

Punishment for not doing this is forced abortion,

mothers held in detention centres, sterilisation, eviction from homes and

fines.

In the 50’s government wanted a big population because they thought

it equated to a larger and stronger population. From 1959-61 20 million including

a lot of children died in Famine during

the 60’s there was a population boom ad it increased by 55 million in the

decade. They asked families to only have

1 child in the 70’s that didn’t work, above policies put in place from the 80’s,

women heavily encouraged to take the pill and “Granny police” set up to make

sure women were taking the pill, If suspected they were pregnant without

permission these people would report them t authorities and above measures

would be put in place. Since the 2000’s the policy has been relaxed but you’re

still fined heavily if you have more than one child.

Benefits for those with 1 child:

Free education for your one child

A months extra salary each year until your child is 14

A house normally reserved for a family of 4

Pension benefits

For those with more than 1 child the above don’t

apply, you have no free education and face demotion at work maybe even

unemployment. Women must be 20 before they marry and men 22, they need

permission to marry and have 1 child, family planning is available at work and hospitals.

This seems to be working in cities, the Shaanxi province sees 145 males born

for every 100 females as boys are higher regarded, inherit fathers riches and land,

if a girl then her husband gets these benefits. This leads to female infanticide

leaving a larger population of men who can’t marry/ don’t

have partners. They also have a greying

population form baby boom.

HIV/AIDS in Botswana

Has been one of Africa’s fastest growing economies,

big producer of diamonds. In 2006 it had the second highest rate of HIV and

AIDS in the world with almost 300,000 people in the population infected with

the virus, 24% of the population. In 2010 the land locked semi-arid country had

a population of 1.9 million and a infant mortality rate of 190 per 100,000 live

births. Infant mortality rate was 48/1000 and 40 doctors for every 100,000

inhabitants. Young population with 33% being under 15, life expectancy only 55

due to threat of death from HIV/AID. HIV prevalent among 18.9% of men ad 28.9%

women. Estimated 170,000 orphans under the age of 17. Stage 1 came in the 80’s,

stop it being passed through blood transfusion, then 89-97 came stage 2 of

education to raise awareness of the disease but no behavioural response was

observed (low literacy rates, could they read this?) stage 3 1997- now more education

and prevent measures, Antiretroviral treatment given to sufferers. Aim is to

prevent mother to child transmission, high risk adult populations are sex

workers and diamond miners, high levels of poverty and promiscuous husbands put

many wives and women at risk. PMTCT programme now one of the most effective n

developing world and treats around 90% of all pregnant women. Around a third of

babies born to HIV positive mothers will contract HIV during development in

womb or breast feeding, these numbers can be reduced dramatically through

treatment and there were 700 infections in new-borns in 2009 and only 500 in

2011. AIDs reduces life expectancy so less economic development as people die

young, leave orphans which cost money to look after, have to finish work

because they’re too ill and hence live in poverty. Antiretroviral drugs expensive

to supply 53% of AIDs costs on the economy will come from sick leave from work.

Hospital bed occupancy for AIDs patients is currently 60%, government has had

to allocate a further $6 million to home care. The economy is expected to

decline with population, growth can’t continue the way it did.

France pronatalist policies

Issues include socioeconomic impacts of ageing population,

loss of labour force, long term prospect of population decline and demise. There

was a ban on contraceptives until 1967, payment of up to £1064 to couples

having third child, generous maternity grants, maternity pay ranges from 20

weeks for first child to 40 weeks around third child, 30% fare reduction for 3

child families, pension schemes for mothers/housewives. France had more babies

in 2006 than it did in the past quarter century, the policies are neutral as

far as the law goes and are more feministic than family based as women aren’t

encouraged to give up work nor do they need to be married, in 1992 the

fertility rate was 1.73 but in 2007 it’s

up to 1.98.