Demography

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Key terms and theorists

Key theorists:

Vertovec

Hochschild

Castles and Kosack

Shutes

Eates

Eriksen

Castles

Cohen

Key terms:

Acceleration - migration has increased by a third over the last 100 years

Assimilation - first state policy regarding immigration; encouraging migrants to adopt the language, values and customs of host culture

Birth rate - number of live births per 1000 women per year

Citizen - person with full citizenship rights e.g. the right to vote and access to state benefits

Death rate - number of deaths per 1000 people per year

Deep diversity - accepting all parts of foreign culture such as religion and cultural norms

Demography - the study of population change

Denizens - privileged foreign nationals welcomed by the state e.g. billionaire 'oligarchs' or highly paid professionals of transnational companies

Differentiation - refers to the different types of migrants e.g. permanent settlers, asylum seekers

Emigration - refers to the movement of people out of a society

Feminisation of migration - more women than men have been migrating

Globalisation - theory that barriers between societies are disappearing and people are becoming more connected

Helots - slaves and exploitees; 'disposable units of labour power, working in unskilled professions, with the inclusion of illegal trafficking

Immigration - refers to movement of people into a society

Infant mortality rate - number of children who die under the age of one per 1000 live births per year

Migrant identities - ethnicity and nationality of the home and migration countries forms a hybrid identity e.g. identifying as British and Asian simultaneously

Multiculturalism - second state policy regarding immigration; acceptance that migrants may wish to retain a separate cultural identity

Net migration - the difference between the numbers of emigrants and the number of immigrants, expressed as a net increase or net decrease

Politicisation of migration - migration has become a political issue in that the state is forced to have policies to control migration, absorb migrants into society and deal with increased ethnic and cultural diversity

Shallow diversity - accepting 'shallow' parts of foreign culture, such as eating curry and wearing saris

Social change - changes that occur in the structure or operation of society

Super-diversity - migrants now come from a wide range of countries, and within a given ethnic group there are divisions e.g. legal status, religious practices

Trans-national identities - migrants do not feel a part of completely their country of origin or of settlement

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Introduction to Demography and the Birth Rate

The Death Rate

The Ageing Population

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Migration

The Impact of Migration

On population size:

The UK's population is increasing as a result of immigration.

Net migration is high (260,000 in the UK).

47% of immigrants were non-EU citizens, and 14% were British citizens returning to the UK.

There is also a natural increase, as the number of births exceed the number of deaths.

Births to UK mothers remain low. 25% of all births are to non-UK mothers. Even so, the births are below the replacement level of 2.1 (the number of births needed to keep the population from shrinking).

Without migration, the UK's population would be shrinking.

On the age structure:

Overall, migration reduces the average age of the population.

Directly, immigrants are generally younger. In 2011, the average age of a UK passport holder was 41, whereas the holders of non-UK passports living in Britain was 31.

On the dependency ratio:

Immigrants are more likely to be of a working age and this helps to lower the dependency ratio. Many older immigrants return to their own country to retire.

Because immigrants are younger, they are more likely to have children, therefore increasing the ratio. However, over time, these children will join the labour force and help lower the dependency ratio again.

The longer a group is settled in a country, the closer their fertility rate comes to the national average, reducing the overall impact on the dependency ratio.

There has been an acceleration in the rate of migration. According to the UN (2013), between 2000 and 2013, international migration has increased by 33%.

Cohen defined three types of immigrants:

Denizens are privileged foreign nationals welcomed by the state. This can include billionaires or highly paid employees working for transnational companies. The state welcome these immigrants to encourage their affluence to be fed to the country's economy.

Citizens are people who have full rights of legal citizens. In the UK, this can include the right to vote and access to benefits. Since the 1970's, the UK Government have made it harder for immigrants to acquire these rights.

Helots are slave workers who are exploited by employers. They are regarded as 'disposable units of labour power,' and are found in unskilled, poorly paid work. Helots include illegally trafficked workers and those legally tied to particular employers, such as domestic servants.

Migration

Before the 1990's, immigration to the UK came from a fairly narrow range of British colonies. Most of these migrants had the right to settle and become citizens, however migrants now come from a wider range of countries, and it is harder to get citizen status.

The Feminisation of Migration

In the past, most migrants were men, however, today almost half of all global migrants are female. This reflects the placement of women into patriarchal stereotypes about women's role as carers or providers of sexual services. Ehrenreich and Hochschild (2003) observed that care work, domestic work and sex work in the UK and the USA is normally done by women from poorer countries. This is a result of the following trends:

the expansion of service companies (which traditionally employ women) had led to an increasing demand for female labour

Western women have been less willing or less able to perform domestic labour

Western men remain unwilling to perform domestic labour

the state has failed to provide adequate childcare

Isabel Shutes (2011) reports that 40% of adult care nurses are migrants, most being female.

There is also a global transfer of women's emotional labour. Migrant nannies provide care and affection for their employer's children, at the expense of their own children being left behind in their home country.

Migrant women also enter Western countries as 'mail order' brides. This reflects gender and racial stereotypes, such as Asian women being subservient. Female migrants may also enter the UK as illegally trafficked sex workers, who are kept in conditions amounting to slavery.

Migrant identities

Being a migrant may influence a person's identity, as it provides a sense of belonging. Migrants may face prejudice in that they may feel they don't fit in, but they may feel they belong in their home country. Migrants may also develop hybrid identities from two or more sources. John Eade found in 1994 that second generation Bangladeshi Muslims in Britain created hierarchical identities; they saw themselves as Muslims first, then Bengali, then British.

Eriksen (2007) claimed that globalisation created more diverse migration patterns, where migrants feel they do not need to belong completely to either their home country or their country of settlement. Therefore, some migrants develop 'transnational identities', where they have ties with their home country and their country of settlement.

Policies regarding immigration

State policies are now in place to control immigration, absorb migrants into society and deal with more ethnic and cultural diversity. Some policies favour assimilation, where immigrants are encouraged to adopt the same language, values and customs of the host culture. Other state policies advocate multiculturalism, which accepts that migrants may wish to retain a separate cultural identity.

Multicultural education policies have been criticised because they celebrate shallow diversity (superficial cultural differences, such as cuisine and dress) and fail to address deeper problems children from migrant backgrounds face, such as racism.

Castles (2000) argues that assimilationist policies are counter-productive, because they mark minority groups as culturally backward. This can lead to minority groups emphasising their differences. This increases the host's suspicion of them as 'the enemy within,' and may promote anti-terrorism policies that target them.

Assimilationist ideas may also encourage workers to blame migrants for social problems such as unemployment, resulting in racist scapegoating. Castles and Kosack (1973) say this benefits capitalism by creating a racially divided working class and preventing united action in defence of their interest.