Which Case Study? Rivers and Population Resource

So, a common error in the exam, particularly with essay questions, seems to be accidentally using the wrong case study and ending up not really answering the question properly. Understandable, since the pressure of being in an exam could make you panic and write about the first case study you can remember.

You don't want to end up like I did in my first year at university and go into the exam hoping the question on 'sea ice' would come up. After frantically scanning the question options for the words 'sea' and 'ice' and not seeing them anywhere, I resigned myself to answering a question on climate change using nothing but what I could remember from 'An Inconvenient Truth'. I still passed, but only just, which did not do justice to my weeks of hard work and revision.

The point is, upon leaving the exam I bumped into a friend who expressed her great relief that the sea ice question had come up. 'What?!' I exclaimed with a look of horror, 'are you talking about?!'.

...read the rest

POLAND AND THE UK

                 CAUSES AND IMPACTS OF MIGRATION

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

·        Poland was admitted to the EU on 1^st April 2004 and with this came the right for any citizen of Poland to move and work freely in other EU countries.

·        Polish people are now the 3^rd largest minority in the UK.

PUSH FACTORS

·        High levels of unemployment – in 2005, 18.5% of those at working age were unemployed in Poland compared to 5.1% in the UK. Annual GDP was £13k in Poland compared to £30k in the UK.

·        Low income for the available jobs, deprived living conditions, poor public services and amenities

PULL FACTORS

·        A typical Polish worker could earn 5 times the sum they could in the UK compared to what they could earn in Poland

·        Plenty of obtainable jobs in the UK due to a skills deficiency

·        The UK was one of only three countries who didn’t put a limit on the number of migrants from A8 countries who could enter the country. (A8 countries are Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia)

·        English is the second language in Poland and so there wasn’t a huge language barrier to overcome

·        Migration to the UK was easy due to cheap flights and travel links

IMPACTS OF EMIGRATION ON POLAND

·        ‘Brain drain’ of skilled workers and loss of entrepreneurial spirit may impact on economic development

·        Some regions may suffer a spiral of deterioration that is difficult to get out of

·        Shortage of workers for typically male jobs such as plumbers and firefighters and builders.

·        Marriage rates fall and family structures break down as the population structure becomes imbalanced

·        However, women have found it easier to find employment with less competition from men.

·        Remittances more than doubled from 2004 to 2008

·        There is less pressure on resources and eturning migrants from the UK bring new skills

·        Despite the labour shortages Poland is the only member of the European Union that has not fallen into a recession and that has continued to grow economically. 

IMPACTS OF IMMIGRATION ON THE UK

·        £2.54bn contributed annually to the UK economy by Eastern Europeans

·        80% of migrants are work-age off-setting the problems of an ageing population

·        Migrant workers helped to prevent inflation and an increase in mortgage costs

·        Migrants are stereotypically hard working, skilled and flexible and take up less desirable jobs or fill gaps in the skilled work-force.

·        Creation of a multicultural society increases tolerance; new local services and good/clothes/music

·        However, much of the money made is sent back home as remittances

·        Increased number of people put pressures on resources such as schools and healthcare

·        Large-scale migration to areas that have not experienced it before have led to tensions and misunderstandings e.g. anti-Polish graffiti and isolated incidents of attacks, especially in N.Ireland.

Discussion point: Do the benefits of migrants to the UK’s ageing economy outweigh the problems?

Australia: a Population Policy in a Developed Country

UPDATE - 20/09/2015

Russell Brand seems to be quite popular among students (either because they love or hate him, either way it provokes discussion!) so I've decided to use this video as an introduction to the population issue in Australia: (warning - contains explicit language).

Here are the revision notes that I give to my students;


WHY HAVE POPULATION POLICIES BEEN INTRODUCED?

·       After WW2 the first minister for immigration, Arthur Calwell, wanted to increase the population to improve defence and aid development. He believed Australia was underpopulated as there was a desperate shortage of labour, especially after many people had been killed in the war.

·       Today, Australia has an ageing population and thus an increasing dependency ratio, with 13.7% over 65 (but this is increasing) and birth and fertility rates not high enough to offset this because women are marrying later (at least 29) and having children later (at least 30).

·       Australia also loses around 60 000 well-qualified young workers every year as they emigrate overseas and these need to be replaced or Australia will face labour shortages, especially in its vineyard and mineral extraction industries which are key drivers behind its economic prosperity.

·       The government takes Boserup's view that immigration drives economic growth, supplies young skilled workers to offset and support the ageing population, increases size of markets.

WHAT POLICIES HAVE BEEN INTRODUCED?

·       The first immigration policy was introduced in 1945 with the slogan 'populate or perish' and included the 'Ten Pound Poms' scheme in which families (mainly from UK) could migrate to Australia for only £10.

·       The government also reached an agreement with the International Refugee Organisation to take in 12 000 refugees per year from camps in Europe after WW2.

·       Since the 1970s skills-based immigration has been encouraged by introducing a points-based skills test. Prospective immigrants usually have university degrees and speak English, they fill specific job areas where there are shortages and they are under 30.

·       More recently they have introduced paid parental leave and baby grants ($5000 per baby in 2009) to increase the fertility rate through natural change.

  

WHAT ARE THE OUTCOMES OF THESE POLICIES?

·       Although fertility rate is increasing it is still well below replacement level (1.78)

·       However, population growth rate is 1.3% per year, meaning the population could double in 40 years. This is high for a HIC (e.g. 0.28% for the UK). About half of this is down to immigration.

·       Australia's population has increased from 7 million in the 1940s to nearly 22 million today; this shows that the policy has been very successful in increasing absolute numbers.

·       However, even though Australia has a very low population density (only 2.9 people per km2 compared to 256 in the UK) its natural environment is fragile, many people such as the Sustainable Population Party think it is becoming overpopulated and causing economic, social and environmental problems. They say population growth is a 'lazy way for big businesses to make more profit' and that it will reduce the per capita value of their mineral reserves. They don't think it will significantly offset the ageing population but instead create unemployment and overload the healthcare system.

·       Water supply is a major issue: rainfall is unreliable, evaporation rates are very high (94% of rainfall evaporates), groundwater is limited and ancient stores are being used up rapidly.

·       Rural areas have suffered prolonged droughts, which has been tackled with the Snowy Mountains Scheme: a series of dams and reservoirs in New South Wales and Victoria which provides irrigation for 60% of Australia. This, like any hard engineering scheme has negative implications for the local environment.

Discussion point: Do you think Australia should aim for 40milion or stop at 26?

Sources:

http://www.immi.gov.au/media/fact-sheets/04fifty.htm

http://www.immi.gov.au/media/fact-sheets/02key.htm

http://www.populationparty.org.au/Population-Party-Policies

http://www.populationparty.org.au/Questions-Answers

The UK - An Ageing Population

IMPLICATIONS FOR THE BALANCE BETWEEN POPULATION AND RESOURCES

POPULATION STRUCTURE OF THE UK

·       UK GDP per capita is $38,500 (2012) and population growth rate is 0.8%

·      Stage 4 (low fluctuating) of the DTM as both death rates and birth rates remain low and fluctuate, giving a steady population; typical of many well developed countries.

·      The number of people >65 is increasing (16% in 2011) while 0-14 is decreasing (18% 2011)

·      This is due to the ageing of the 1960s baby boomers combined with improving healthcare.

·      The latest projections are for 5½ million more elderly people in 20 years’ time and the number will have nearly doubled to around 19 million by 2050.

·       The ratio of people of working age to people over 65 could fall from 3.7:1 to 2.1:1 in 2014

IMPACTS OF THIS POPULATION STRUCTURE

·       The Office for Budget Responsibility said that spending on the state pension, social care and healthcare will rise from 14 per cent of Britain's GDP to almost a fifth.

·       Those in work may have to pay higher taxes. This could create lack of encouragement to work and disincentives for firms to invest; therefore there could be a fall in productivity and growth.

·       An ageing population could lead to a shortage of workers and therefore pushing up wages causing wage inflation.

·       Health experts believe the number of people suffering from severe long-term conditions such as cancer and heart disease will grow and could mean a rising demand for nursing care.

·       Although life expectancy is increasing, healthy life expectancy is not increasing as fast, meaning people are ill for longer periods at the end of their life and putting greater strain on healthcare.

·       Statins (cholesterol lowering drugs) have become the single biggest component of the NHS prescribing budget and their cost is likely to increase further. Also the added costs of other drugs, diagnostic tests and surgical procedures are also likely to place pressure on the health service.

·       The ‘grey pound’ and the ‘grey vote’ mean that new businesses can develop (e.g. Saga holidays) and political parties need to pay particular attention to the needs of older people (e.g. David Cameron’s recent pledge to extend the ‘triple lock pension protection’ until 2020 if the Tories are win the 2015 election). This could lead to policies being introduced that benefit older people but perhaps aren’t so good for younger citizens.

·       Older people tend to me more flexible, mature and experienced and they often have a strong work ethic. Nationwide Building Society employs 16% of its workforce over 50 and say customers often prefer to speak to someone more mature and younger members of staff can learn from their older colleagues.

·       Free childcare provided by grandparents is said to be saving families over £7.3billion per year.

STRATEGIES TO BALANCE THE POPULATION STRUCTURE

·       Increased immigration of working age population; A report by the Office for Budget Responsibility found that allowing more than 140,000 immigrants into Britain a year, equivalent to 6million people, would help increase the overall number of people who are in work and improve public finances.

·       An increase in retirement age (the age to gain state pensions) will reduce costs. It was initially planned for the state pension age to rise to 68 for men and women in 2046. However George Osborne recently announced that this would be brought forward to the mid-2030s.

·       Pro natal strategies to be introduced.

·       Businesses can provide jobs more suited to older people to encourage them to retire later and make use of their experiences and expertise.

Discussion point: Can the benefits of an ageing population outweigh the negatives?

Don't Panic!

The Facts about Population - with my fave professor Hans Rosling! I didn't realise this was on or I'd have shown some in class to my A-level geographers, but I hope you all make sometime to watch it at home, you can count it towards your revision for the exams, not long to go now...! Never too soon to start revising...

You can watch the whole documentary here:

http://www.gapminder.org/videos/dont-panic-the-facts-about-population/

Immigration - Threat or Opportunity?

Radio programme today about immigration to the UK - great for Population Change at AS and Conflicts (Multicultural Societies) at A2. You can listen here:

Call You and Yours Tuesday 3rd September 2013

Youthful and Ageing Populations

I found these two very comprehensive videos on youtube on the UK (focusing on Devon) and The Gambia. We'll study Uganda in class but the underlying theory is the same and there are many similarities between Uganda and The Gambia in terms of the balance between population and resources.

Baby BOOOMMMM!!

Normally when you hear 'UK' and 'Baby Boom' in the same sentence you assume I'm explaining the bumps on our population pyramid and referring to the one that happened after the last world war, but turns out from 2011-12 'one' became 'one and a half' born every minute.

You can see more details in this link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23618487

Great if the UK is one of your population policy case studies as this will give you something to say in those tricky 'assess the success' questions...

And here was me thinking that there'd always been loads of babies everywhere and I was only recently noticing it after having one myself, but perhaps I have become an unwitting victim of the very policies I've been teaching about!

MISSING: 60 Million Girls

Someone posted this link on Facebook today. Mention gender imbalance and most people think of China, but according to this article in some places in India there are only 3 girls to every 10 boys. In total it is estimated that there would be an extra 60 million women in India (the entire population of the UK) if it were not for sex-selective abortions, female infanticide, sex selective neglect or even murder.


Seems hard for us to comprehend how such attitudes of ignorance still prevail in some places of the world, so strong are people's beliefs they are willing to kill over them. We really are lucky to live in a largely tolerant and peaceful society. I really hope that one day people all over the world will get to enjoy the freedom and security that we do.

http://m.aljazeera.com/story/201372814110570679