Suchergebnisse

The demographic challenges of the Mediterranean are not well known. Indeed, major societal changes are taking place in the region: young people's expectations, women's desire for greater autonomy, male-female and intergenerational relations, and the forms and size of families. These transformations have consequences on Mediterranean demographics: progress in women's education, decline in fertility indicators, reduction in intergenerational cohabitation, rural exodus, and an increase in single-parenthood and single households. Several risks may arise from this new demographic landscape: political instability, social movements, pressures on the labour market or the depopulation of territories. At the same time, the changing demographic panorama of the region may lead to socio-economic and societal opportunities: the silver economy, improvement in the health of the population, progress in education and the demographic dividend.

O Japão está sentado em uma bomba-relógio demográfica. A taxa de natalidade em declínio, por causa de fatores sociais e econômicos graças às rápidas transformações que impactam as prioridades na vida humana, e acentuada por uma população em rápido envelhecimento representa um novo desafio para os que decidem e executam políticas. As respostas governamentais têm sido inadequadas e devem ser seriamente abordadas em função dos interesses do país e de seu futuro. Outros países asiáticos, no caminho da modernização e crescimento econômico rápido, também estão caindo em tal armadilha. Como o Japão foi o líder no desenvolvimento econômico, que levou ao crescimento mais rápido em outros países asiáticos, o Japão deveria emergir como o novo líder na abordagem deste desafio demográfico para que outros países asiáticos possam emular o exemplo do Japão ; Japan is sitting on a demographic time bomb. The declining birth rate because of changing societal and economic factors impacting on priorities in human lives, and accentuated by a rapidly growing population poses a new challenge to policy makers. The governmental responses have been inadequate and need to be seriously addressed in the interests of the future of the country. Other Asian countries in the path of modernisation and fast economic growth are also falling into such trap. Like in the economic development Japan was the leader that led to the faster growth in other Asian countries, Japan ought to emerge as the new leader in addressing this demographic challenge so that other Asian countries could emulate Japan's example.

Improving EU and US Immigration Systems' Capacity for Responding to Global Challenges: Learning from experiences ; Demography challenges Europe in three ways: 1) Europe's size: while the population of Europe will decrease or stabilise, depending upon migration scenarios, most other regions will continue to increase so that the relative weight of Europe in world population terms will dwindle, thereby endangering Europe's weight in world affairs and the institutions of global governance; 2) Europe's wealth: the European workforce is about to enter a period of fast decline that might hamper Europe's ambitious economic goals; 3) Europe's social contract: the unprecedented rise of an elderly population combined with shrinking numbers of working-age natives alters the generational contract and will put Europe's welfare systems at risk. In order to curb negative population trends, Europe can have recourse to various strategies, each of them having though only a partial potential impact on the above challenges: 1) Geographic enlargement: including new countries in the European Union (EU) brings at once additional populations to the Union; 2) Pro-natalist policies: if successful, they would foster a higher birth rate which translates 20 years later into a corresponding increase in the working-age population; 3) Immigration policies: calling in immigrants would affect both the size and the structure of the population; 4) Retirement policies: changing the age limit between economic activity and retirement is a way to address problems brought about by demographic numbers without changing the numbers themselves; 5) Other policies, notably those on education and labour, can also contribute to addressing, albeit indirectly, some of the problems generated by a decreasing workforce.

"Our perspective will first of all examine the differences in terms of demographic paths existing in the 22 countries that make up the Arab world, as well as any convergence occurring at different levels. While the notion that there is a unique and unchanging demographic pattern that is specifically Arab - one of universally high fertility that does not decline - is no longer tenable, the countries in the region are sufficiently similar to each other and distinct from their neighbors to be meaningfully discussed together. This is not to lose sight of the fact that modernity, cultural openness, the relations between men and women, the effects of economic crisis and of development all vary from one sub-population to another, in North Africa and the Middle East, as elsewhere in the world. ... For this purpose, the region has been divided into four major sub-groups: Arab Least Developed Countries (LDCs), member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), North African countries and Eastern Mediterranean countries in the broad sense including Jordan and Iraq (the Mashreg)". -- p.1-2