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Population Policies in Developed Countries

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World Population Policies

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Abstract

Developed countries have completed their demographic transition process, and many of these countries must now deal with post-transitional imbalances. They are facing three main issues: sub-replacement fertility, population aging, and immigration. The proposed remedies have taken the shape of policies addressing each of these issues specifically. First, some countries have designed and implemented policies to raise fertility. These policies have occasionally obtained modest results, but generally have failed to change fertility levels significantly. Second, countries have tried to address population aging by taking some programmed initiatives, for instance through the provision of specific care for the elderly. However, interventions in this area have been less well defined and, so far, not very conclusive either. Finally, several countries have attracted immigrants whilst others have tried to curb immigration flows. Immigration policies have been shaped by the specific economic and political context of receiving countries.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In 2010, industrialized countries taken together represented 17.9% of the world population, against 32.1% in 1950, according to the UN Population Division.

  2. 2.

    These countries are located in Eastern Africa (Mauritius), Northern America (United States and Canada), Central America (Costa Rica), Caribbean (Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Cuba, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Puerto Rico, Saint Lucia, St. Kitts-Nevis, and Trinidad and Tobago), South America (Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay), Western Asia (Armenia, Bahrain, Cyprus, Georgia, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates), South Central Asia (Iran), Southeast Asia (Brunei, Singapore, and Thailand), East Asia (China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan), Europe (all countries except Iceland, Ireland, and Kosovo), and Oceania (Australia and Palau).

  3. 3.

    Because of prolonged low levels of fertility in the past, the potential future parents are just not there.

  4. 4.

    South Korea joined the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) in 1996.

  5. 5.

    The 2007 award-winning movie 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days provides a harrowing account of the horror of black market abortions in Romania before the fall of Communism in 1989.

  6. 6.

    See footnotes 15 in Chap. 2 and 10 in Chap. 9.

  7. 7.

    Health expenditures (e.g., diagnosis and test costs) have increased dramatically in developed countries.

  8. 8.

    In most developed countries, life expectancy has risen faster than planned increases of the pensionable age.

  9. 9.

    At this stage, however, population aging appears to be more threatening than population decline or depopulation.

  10. 10.

    See http://www.wallonie-en-ligne.net/1996_Societe-wallonne-depuis-Liberation/dossier/E1.HTM, accessed on March 13, 2010.

  11. 11.

    In 2010, German Chancellor Angela Merkel admitted publicly that multiculturalism has failed in Germany and advocated integration instead; see http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2010/1018/Merkel-on-failed-German-multiculturalism-Other-countries-should-listen-up, accessed on January 27, 2011. Germany also wants to regulate its medersas (Islamic schools) and has requested that their teachers should be German citizens, teach in German, and stay permanently on the job (many medersas’ teachers usually come from Muslim countries on fixed-term contracts) (Carl Haub, January 20, 2011, personal communication).

  12. 12.

    After the influx of refugees from Northern Africa into Western Europe in 2011, several European countries have been reluctant to fully comply with Schengen’s rules.

  13. 13.

    The polity is a particular form or system of government or a structure that is the institutional expression of the state; see McNicoll (2001): 135.

  14. 14.

    Gunnar Myrdal was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1974 for his “pioneering work on the interdependence of economic, social and institutional phenomena”.

  15. 15.

    Alva Reimer Myrdal was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1982, in acknowledgement of her activities for disarmament.

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    John F. May

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May, J.F. (2012). Population Policies in Developed Countries. In: World Population Policies. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2837-0_7

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