GAWP Phase-2 Day-5 Synopsis

Q.1) Critically examine the concept of optimum population. (10 marks)

Answer

“Given the natural resources, stock of capital and the state of technical knowledge, there will be a definite size of population with the per capita income. The population which has the highest per capita income is known as optimum population”.

The optimum theory of population was propounded by Edwin Cannan in his book Wealth published in 1924 and popularized by Robbins, Dalton and Carr-Saunders. Unlike the Malthusian theory, the optimum theory does not establish relationship between population growth and food supply.

Rather, it is concerned with the relation between the size of population and production of wealth. The Malthusian theory is a general theory which studies the population problem of a country in keeping with its economic conditions. Thus the optimum theory is more realistic than the Malthusian theory of population.

A country is said to have optimum population when number of people is in balance with the available resources. Optimum condition can only be maintained if the exploitation of new resources or the development of other forms of employment keeps pace with the increase in population.

If the population becomes too large the law of diminishing returns starts to operate. As more people become dependent on the same resource base each individual will become poorer.

Q.2) Citing examples from Asia and Europe, comment upon the contexts within which pronatalist population policies are advanced. What could be the implications of these policies on women’s workforce participation? (15 marks)

Answer

Pronatalist policies are those that are aimed at increasing the levels of fertility of the population. They are a response to the decreasing levels of population in the working age group, which eventually is expected to pull down their levels of productivity and economic growth in the future.

The demographic situation in Europe and Asia In modern times, Europe was the first region in the world to embark on the demographic transition where European populations have reached a “post-transitional” stage. Europe is characterized by low mortality levels. These translate into high life expectancies at birth,

which are estimated for both sexes at 78 and 81 years for Europe. In addition, European populations have low and sometimes very low fertility levels. As a result, Europe is faced with significant population aging. Europe also experiences a unique migratory trend.

Although Europe sends migrants overseas, it receives more international immigrants and refugees, mostly from the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.

Today, four of Asia’s most prosperous economies – Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan – now have among the lowest birth rates in the world. The question demographers and policymakers are now facing is whether government policies and programs that are attempting to raise fertility can be effective in helping them have the children they say they want.

Several factors can probably explain the low European and Asian fertility levels. These are the contexts within which prenatal policies are advanced:

First, societal values, economic patterns, and life cycles have changed fundamentally and reshaped traditional gender roles. These trends have probably been exacerbated by consumerist attitudes. European women pursue longer studies and are often employed (in many cases, they are more educated than their male partners). The uncertainty concerning the future (e.g., unemployment) and the lack of comprehensive child care in some countries (e.g., Germany) may also lead European women to postpone pregnancies.

Second, family structures have undergone important changes, including challenges to the traditional authority of the “father figure”. Since women are empowered to take reproductive decisions, they have their first child later. Women probably make the final decisions about the total number of children they want.

Third, the proximate determinants of fertility are also being affected. Since many women have postponed their first birth for many years, some may have become infertile before having the opportunity to conceive.

Over the past fifty years, economic and social modernization in Asia has been accompanied by a remarkable drop in birth rates. Gains in education, employment and living standards, combined with dramatic breakthroughs in health and family-planning technology, have led to lower fertility in every country of the region.

Implication of pro natal policies on women workforce participation

Positive impact on the women workforce participation: This is mainly on account of the incentives that were adopted, such as adjustments in working conditions for women including longer maternity leave and the opportunity for young mothers to have extended leave.

Alternate opportunities for women to work in formal sector, including ‘work from home’ opportunities also are a part of this encouraging trend in pronatalism.

There are also cases of firms being actively choosing not to hire women on account of the increasing benefits (in the form of paid leaves, creche facilities, other medical contributions etc.) that are to be offered to them on account of the pronatalist policies of the governments.

The women workforce in the informal sectors of the economy will be least affected by the pronatalist policies, since the governments have least control and firms have lower incentives- unless they are specifically targeted to by these policies.

Some of the pro-natalist policies such as preventing abortions have, in some nations, strengthened the conservative orthodox elements which are against the women from participating in the job sector. But, their influence is negligible with the female labour force participation rate showing an upward trajectory.

Even after the pronatalist policies of the government, the influence of ‘Social Capillarity’ and the fear of slipping back to poverty has acted as a hurdle for families to choose increasing numbers. Thus, the pronatalist policies to the extend envisaged by the governments have largely been unsuccessful in European nations forcing them to ease visa norms to attract more working population.

Q.3) Examine the changing pattern of world migration and the emerging migration issues. (20 marks)

Reference

Answer

In 2015, there were an estimated 244 million international migrants globally (3.3% of the world’s population) — an increase from an estimated 155 million people in 2000 (2.8% of the world’s population). Internal migration is even more prevalent, with the most recent global estimate indicating that more than 740 million people had migrated within their own country of birth.

Europe and Asia hosted around 75 million migrants each in 2015 – 62 per cent of the total global international migrant stock combined. These regions were followed by North America, with 54 million international migrants in 2015 or 22 per cent of the global migrant stock, Africa at 9 per cent, Latin America and the Caribbean at 4 per cent, and Oceania at 3 per cent.

The United States of America has been the main country of destination for international migrants since 1970. Since then, the number of foreign-born people residing in the country has almost quadrupled — from less than 12 million in 1970, to 46.6 million in 2015.

Germany has been the second top country of destination per UN DESA estimates since as early as 2005, with over 12 million international migrants residing in the country in 2015. Prior to 2005, the Russian Federation had been the second largest host country of international migrants for roughly 15 years, since the fall of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1991.

Nearly half of all international migrants worldwide in 2015 were born in Asia,11 primarily originating from India (the largest country of origin), China, and other South Asian countries such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Mexico was the second largest country of origin, followed by a number of European countries that have sizable numbers of emigrants.

In recent years we have also seen a significant increase in displacement, both internal and across borders, which has largely stemmed from civil and transnational conflict, including acts of violent extremism outside actual war zones. Current data indicate that in 2016 there were 40.3 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) worldwide and 22.5 million refugees.

Complex and emerging migration issues including

• the development of global governance frameworks for international migration;
• the relationship between migration and rapidly changing levels and types of transnational connectivities;
• migrants’ perspectives on migration journeys;
• media reporting on migration and migrants;
• the relationships between migration and violent extremism; and
• migrants and cities.

Q.4) Critically examine the theories of population migration. (15 marks)

Answer

Ravenstein’s Laws of Migration:

The first attempt to spell out the ‘laws of migration’ was made by E.G. Ravenstein as early as in 1885. Ravenstein identified a set of generalizations, which he called as ‘laws of migration’ concerning inter-county migration in Britain in the nineteenth century. Most of these generalizations hold good even today.

(a) There is an inverse relation between distance and volume of migration.

(b) Migration proceeds step by step.

(c) Every migration current produces a counter-current.

(d) The native of the rural areas are more mobile than their counterpart in the urban areas, and the major direction of migration is from agricultural areas to the centres of industry and commerce.

(e) Females are more mobile than male in the country of birth, but male more frequently venture beyond.

(f) Migration is highly age selective where adults in the working age groups display a greater propensity to migrate.

(g) Volume of migration increases with the process of diversifi­cation of the economy, and improvement in transport facilities.

(h) Migration occurs mainly due to economic reasons.

However, doubts have been raised concerning some of the other generaliza­tions. That migration occurs in different steps is rather difficult to be established. Similarly, though rural population in the less developed parts of the world is more mobile than its counterpart in the urban areas, migration in the economically developed countries is more likely to be urban to rural than in the opposite direction.

Gravity Model:

One of the most important contributions of geography in the field of migration analysis is with respect to the relationship between distance and migration. A clear and persistent inverse relationship between the two has been established in several studies.

Migration is directly proportional to the product of their population size and inversely proportional to the square of the distance separating them.

Gravity model later attracted severe criticism. Doubts have been raised regarding the validity of population size as a potential force for attraction. Use of simple linear distance, rather than distance measured in terms of transport routes and facilities, frequency of movement and cost of transport, is another weak point of the model. Further, the model treats all the migrants as one homogeneous group and fails to explain the age and sex selec­tivity of migration.

Lee’s Theory:

Everett Lee proposed another comprehensive theory of migration in 1966. He begins his formulations with factors, which lead to spatial mobility of population in any area.

These factors are:

(i) Factors associated with the place of origin,

(ii) Factors associated with the place of destination,

(iii) Intervening obstacles,

According to Lee, each place possesses a set of positive and negative factors. While positive factors are the circumstances that act to hold people within it, or attract people from other areas, negative factors tend to repel them (Lee, 1975:191). In addition to these, there are factors, which remain neutral, and to which people are essentially indifferent. While some of these factors affect most of the people in the area, others tend to have differential effects. Migration in any area is the net result of the interplay between these factors.

Q.5) Define the quality of life and explain its parameters with adequate examples. (15 marks)

Answer

The concept of quality of life broadly encompasses how an individual measure the ‘goodness’ of multiple aspects of their life. These evaluations include one’s emotional reactions to life occurrences, disposition, sense of life fulfilment and satisfaction, and satisfaction with work and personal relationships. In the literature, the term ‘quality of life’ is also often referred to as ‘well-being’.

Parameters of quality of life

Material living conditions – material living standards are determined on the basis of three sub-dimensions: income, consumption and material conditions.

Productive or main activity – Productive or main activity dimension is determined through three sub-dimensions: quantity of employment, quality of employment and other main activity (inactive population and unpaid work).

Health – Health is an essential part of the quality of life of citizens and it can also be considered as a form of human capital. Poor health can affect the general progress of society. Physical and/or mental problems also have a very detrimental effect on subjective well-being.

Education – In our knowledge-based economies, education plays a pivotal role in the lives of citizens and is an important factor in determining how far they progress in life. Levels of education can determine the job an individual will have. Individuals with limited skills and competences are usually excluded from a wide range of jobs and sometimes even miss out on opportunities to achieve valued goals within society.

Leisure and social interactions – The power of networks and social connections should not be underestimated when trying to measure the well-being of an individual, as they directly influence life satisfaction.

Economic and physical safety – Security is a crucial aspect of citizens’ lives. Being able to plan ahead and overcome any sudden deterioration in their economic and wider environment has an impact on their quality of life.

Governance and basic rights – The right to get involved in public debates and influence the shaping of public policies is an important aspect of quality of life. There are 3 sub-dimensions covered in the governance and basic rights dimension: trust in institutions and public services; discrimination and equal opportunities and active citizenship.

Natural and living environment – Exposure to air, water and noise pollution can have a direct impact on the health of individuals and the economic prosperity of societies.

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