Demography

How has birth rates changed over the years

More women are remaining childless than in the past or postponing having children

What are the four reasons for a decline in birth rates

1. Changes in women’s position e.g. education, voting rights, employment

2. Decline in the infant mortality rate, less infants dying so less people need to replace them e.g. better sanitation, better healthcare

3. Children are now an economic liability e.g. no more child labour, children have material expectations from their parents

4. Child centredness, quality over quantity

What are the 3 effects of changes in fertility

1. The family - smaller families mean women can work so dual income

2. The dependency ratio - children are apart of the dependent part of the population, less dependency = less burden. But vanishing children - lonelier childhoods

3. Public services and policies - less schools, childcare etc. the average age rises

4 reasons for the decline in death rate

1. Improves nutrition

2. Medical improvements

3. Less smokers

4. Public health measures (laws)

What are the class, gender and religion all differences

Women typically live longer than men

Southerners live longer than the northerners (UK)

What are the 3 effects of an ageing population

1. Public services - older people consume a larger proportion of public services like health and social care

2. One-person pensioner households

3. Dependency ratio - the non-working old are an economically dependent group, increases the burden on the working population

Modern society and old age

Ageism can come about because its a result of ‘structured dependency as they are excluded from paid work so become dependent on their family or the state

What do Marxists believe about old age and capitalism

Capitalism has no use for elders as they no longer productive, so the state is unwilling to support them

Postmodern society and old age

Postmodernist sociologists argue that life stages have broken down and identity is shaped by choice and consumption

What are the inequalities among the old

1. Class - better occupational pensions and greater savings, poorer old people have lower life expectancy

2. Gender - women’s lower earnings and career breaks mean lower pensions, also stereotyping ‘old hags’

What is the difference between immigration and emigration

Immigration refers to movement into a society, emigration refers to movement out of a society

What are the two main economic reasons for emigration

• ‘push factors’ - like economic recession and unemployment

• ‘Pull factors’ - higher wages or better opportunities abroad

What’s the impact of migration on UK population structure

• population size is growing due to immigration

• Age structure, younger immigrants (also produce more babies)

• The dependency ratio, young immigrants are workers

What is globalisation

The world becomes more interconnected and interdependent, barriers between societies are disappearing

What are the three types of migrants

1. Citizens with full citizenship rights

2. Denizens, priveledged foreign nationals welcomed by the state

3. Helots, the most exploited group that are a reserve army of labour

What is the feminisation of migration

Care work, domestic work and sex work in the UK and USA is increasingly done by women from poorer countries

Migration identities

Some migrants develop hybrid identities which causes others to state that they don’t ‘fit in’ or they’re not ‘one of us’

What is assimilation

the process by which a minority group adopts the culture, values, and norms of the dominant society. This is a state policy

What’s multiculturalism

The idea that different cultures can coexist within society, it accepts that migrants may wish to retain separate cultural identity

What’s the difference between deep and shallow diversity

Shallow diversity, such as regarding chicken tikka masala as a British dish, and is accepted by the state. Deep diversity, such as arranged marriages, is not accepted by the state

What is the divided working class

Assimilationist ideas may also encourage workers to blame migrants for social problems like unemployment, resulting in racist scapegoating.