Chapter 4 | Family, Topic 4

Birth rate

number of live births per 1,000 people in a year

Fertility rate

the average number of children per woman

Infant mortality rate

The number of infant deaths (in their first year of life) per 1,000 births.

TFR decreased from ___ to ____ children per women in _____, being one of the .....

TFR decreased from 1.76 to 1.70 children per women in 2018, being one of the lowest rates.

Changes in fertility and birth rates show us:

- more women are remaining childless than in the past

- women postpone having children: average age of giving birth is now 30, and fertility rates for women in their 30s and 40s are increasing.

Reasons for the decline in birth rate

- changes in women's position

- decline in the infant mortality rate

- children are now an economic liability

- child centredness

Changes in women's position

Legal equality with men - right to vote.

Increased educational opportunities - girls do better at school than boys.

More women in paid employment & laws outlawing unequal pay & sex discrimination.

Changes in attitudes to family life & women's role.

Easier access to divorce.

Access to abortion & reliable contraception = control over fertility.

Sarah Harper 2012

Education of women is the most important reason for the long-term fall in birth and fertility rates.

Reasons for decline in the infant mortality rate

- improved housing and better sanitation - reduces infectious disease, asthma

- better nutrition

- hygiene

- better maternity leave

- improved services for mothers and children, antenatal and postnatal

UK IMR in 1900 as a figure and percentage

154 / 15% of babies died

Why does decline in the IMR cause less births?

If many infants die, parents are more likely to replace those children. However, if they survive, parents will have fewer children

UK IMR in 1950 and 2012

1950 - 30

2012 - 4

Child centredness

Emphasis on quality not quantity, give a child a good childhood rather than having many children

Reason for increase in births since 2001

Increase in immigration - mothers from outside of the UK tend to have a higher fertility rate. Babies born from immigrant mothers accounted for 25% of all births in 2011.

Effect of changes in fertility

The family - the dependency ratio - public services and policies

How does changes in fertility affect the family?

Smaller families = women more likely to work = dual earner couple becomes a norm

How does changes in fertility affect the dependency ratio?

because of the decrease of fertility levels there are less children therefore an imbalance between old people, as there far too many of them and the youth

Vanishing children

Falling fertility rates mean fewer children, meaning childhood has become lonelier

How does changes in fertility affect public services and policies?

Fewer schools, maternity&child health services needed

Affects the cost of maternity&paternity leave and the types of housing needed

An ageing population

Death rate in 1900

19/1000

Death rate in 2012

more than halved to 8.9/1000

When did the death rate begin to decline?

the 1950s

Tranter (1996)

Over 3/4 of the decline in death rate from 1850-1970 was due to a fall in the number of deaths from infectious disease

Reasons for the decline in death rate

-Improved nutrition

-Medical improvements

-Smoking and diet

-Public health measures

-Other social changes

Improved nutrition

Thomas McKeown (1972) argues that improved nutrition reduces death rates by half as it increases resistance to infection and increases survival chances

However he does not have an explanation for why women outlive men despite them receiving a smaller share of family food supply. Fails to explain why some infectious disease cause death even with improved nutrition

Other social changes causing decline in death rate

- decline of dangerous jobs eg mining

- smaller families reducing rate of transmission of infection

- greater public knowledge of illness causes

- lifestyle changes, eg number of smokers

- higher incomes allowing healthier lifestyles

Over the past two centuries, life expectancy...

has increased by about two years per decade

Walker 2011

those living in the poorest areas of England die on average 7 years earlier than those in the richest areas

the average difference in a disability-free life expectancy is 17 years

The ageing of the population is caused by 3 factors:

increasing life expectancy

declining infant mortality

declining fertility

Effects of an ageing population

public services (more healthcare for the old, changes in transport and other services...)

one-person pensioner households

emigration (people leaving)

UK's population size is...

currently increasing, partly as a result of immigration + more births than deaths

Donald Hirsch (2005)

The traditional age 'pyramid' is disappearing and being replaced by more or less equal 'blocks' representing each age group. In 2041 there will be as many 78 year olds as there will be 5 year olds.

EFFECTS OF AN AGEING POPULATION | Public Services

older people consume a larger proportion of services eg health and social care than other age groups. therefore, changes to increased expenditure on healthcare, policies & changes to provision of housing, transport or other services

EFFECTS OF AN AGEING POPULATION | One-person pensioner households

the number of pensioners living alone has increased and one-person pensioner households now account for roughly 12.5% or 1 in 8 of all households. Mostly female as women live longer.

Feminisation of later life

Among the over-75s, there are twice as many women as men. -- because women generally live longer than men and are usually younger than their husbands

EFFECTS OF AN AGEING POPULATION | Dependency Ratio

- the non-working old are an economically dependent group.

- however, it is unfair and wrong to assume that 'old' means 'economically dependent'

Dependency ratio in an ageing population is cancelled out by a declining number of dependent children (less children being had = less children who are economically dependent)

Ageism

Discrimination based on age

Ageism, modernity and postmodernity

A consequence of the ageing population in modern society is the growth of ageism.

AGEISM, MODERNITY AND POSTMODERNITY | Modern society and old age

Many sociologists argue that ageism is the result of 'structured dependency' - the old are largely excluded from paid work leaving them economically dependent on their family or the state

Phillipson (1982)

Phillipson argues that the old are of no use to capitalism because they are no longer productive. State thus unwilling to support them and so the family (females) must care for them.

Overall, which features of postmodern society undermine stigmatisation of old age?

- Society allows us to build our own identity

- Old age allows for a new market to rebuild your body

- Centrality of the media

- Emphasis on surface features

AGEISM, MODERNITY AND POSTMODERNITY | Postmodern society and old age

Postmodernist sociologists argue that in today's postmodern society, the fixed, orderly stages of life have broken down.

EG: Children dressing in adult styles, later marriage, early retirement.

This gives individuals a greater choice of lifestyle, whatever their age. We can thus become the key to our identities.

Hunt (2005)

Hunt argues that (as in a postmodern society we are key to our identities), we can choose a lifestyle and identity regardless of our age. Age no longer determines who we are or how we live

'Body maintenance' or 'rejuvenation' market

The old become a market for these. This market involves cosmetic surgery, exercise equipment, gym memberships, anti-ageing products. This allows ageist stereotypes to be broken down.

Two other features of postmodern society undermining old age:

The centrality of the media

The emphasis on surface features

The centrality of the media

Media images now portray positive aspects of the lifestyles of the elderly.

The emphasis on surface features

The body becomes a surface on which we can write identities. Anti-ageing products enable the old to write different identities for themselves.

Pilcher (1995)

AO3 of Postmodernity

- While the orderly stages of the life courses may have broken down, Pilcher (1995) argues that Postmodernists understate the importance of inequalities eg CLASS and GENDER as they relate to the person's previous job.

Pilcher - CLASS

The MC have better occupational pensions and greater savings from higher salaries. Poorer old people have a shorter life expectancy and suffer more infirmity (making it more difficult to maintain a youthful self-identity)

Pilcher - GENDER

Women's lower earnings and career breaks as carers = lower pension. Also subject to sexist & ageist stereotyping.

Age Concern (2004)

Older people face discrimination that limits their choices. More people (29%) reported suffering age discrimination than any other form

Hirsch (2005)- policy implications

Old age is a social construct

-policy changes necessary to tackle the new problems that come with an ageing population

- gov will have to deal with financing for a longer period of old age, do they have to take from taxes?

-also require cultural change in attitudes to old age. his belief that it is a social construct = do we change retirement age?

Immigration

a movement into a society

Emigration

movement out

Net migration

difference between numbers of immigrants and numbers of emigrants

by 2011, ethnic minority groups account for..

14% of population

Main reasons for emigration:

Always economic.

- Push factors, such as economic recession or unemployment in home country

- Pull factors, such as higher wages or better opportunities abroad

The impact of migration on UK population structure

Population size

-is increasing

Age structure

-lowers the average age

-direct impact is that immigrants are usually young

-indirect impact is that younger immigrants are more fertile therefore more babies.

Dependency ratio

-immigrants are more likely to be of working age so this lowers the dependency ratio

-having more children due to higher fertility increases the ratio, but this is lowered when these children join the workforce

-ratio lowered again as once immigrants settle, their fertility rate meets the national average

Population size key statistics:

47% of immigrants were non-EU citizens in 2014.

25% of all births are from non-UK born mothers, higher than UK born mothers.

Birth replacement in the UK

Non-UK born mothers help the birth rates as they have more babies than UK-born mothers. However, the birth rate is still below the replacement level of 2.1 per woman. Regardless, net migration is helping the UK's population from shrinking.

Globalisation

the idea that barriers between societies are disappearing and people are becoming connected across countries.

List the trends in global migration (3)

- acceleration

- differentiation

- the feminisation of migration

Acceleration

Rate of migration has been speeding up.

United Nations (2013) on Acceleration

From 2000-2013, international migration increased by 33%.

In 2013, 862,000 people either entered or left the UK.

Differentiation

There are many types of migrants eg permanent settlers, temporary workers, spouses, etc.

Before the 90s, immigration came from British colonies. Most of these migrants had the RIGHT to settle and become citizens, forming small communities.

Steven Vertovec (2007)

Super-diversity - since the 90s, globalisation has led to 'super-diversity'.

Migrants now come from a much wider range of countries instead of just British ex-colonies.

Robin Cohen (2006)

There are class differences among migrants. There are three different types of migrants:

Citizens

Denizens

Helons

Citizens

Citizens with full citizenship rights (voting rights, access to benefits etc).

Since the 1970s, the UK state has made it harder for immigrants to acquire these rights.

Denizens

Privileged foreign nationals welcomed by the state, eg billionaire 'oligarchs' or highly paid employees of multinational companies

Helots

Literally translates to "slaves" - the most exploited group. States and employers regard them as 'disposable units of labour power' , a reserve army of labour.

Found in unskilled, poorly paid labour. May be illegally trafficked workers

The feminisation of migration

• Half of all migrants are now female compared to the past which was mostly men.

•

Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Hochschild (2003)

Ehrenreich and Hochschild (2003) found that care work, domestic work and sex work in western countries is usually done by women from poor countries. This is a result of several trends:

○ Expansion of service occupations led to an increase demand of female labour.

○ Western women have joined the labour force and less willing/able to perform domestic labour.

○ Western men remain unwilling to perform domestic labour.

○ The failure of the state to provide adequate childcare.

- Women from poor countries fill in this role instead.

Shutes (2011) + additional info

40% of adult care nurses in the UK are migrants - most are female

++ There is a global transfer of women's emotional labour, eg migrant nannies. They leave their own children behind to care for their employers' children in western countries.

++ They may also enter western countries as mail order brides which reflects gendered and racialised stereotypes.

Migrant identities

Migrants may develop hybrid identities made up of two or more different sources.

John Eade (1994)

Second generation Bangladeshi Muslims in Britain created hierarchical identities. Saw themselves as Muslim first, then Bengali, then British.

Thomas Hylland Eriksen (2007) + Chinese migrants

Globalisation has created more diverse migration patterns with back-and-forth movements of people rather than permanently settling.

Consequently, migrants see themselves as less likely of belonging to one culture. Thus they develop transnational 'neither/nor' identities. Modern technology helps with this, as you can maintain global ties without needing to travel.

Chinese migrants living in Rome found speaking Mandarin more useful for everyday life than Italian simply to keep their global ties.

The politicisation of migration

- States seek to control immigration.

- Immigration policies have become linked to national security and anti-terrorism policies:

○ Assimilationism

○ Multiculturalism

Assimilationism as a state policy

- first state policy approach to immigration.

- Aimed to encourage immigrants to adopt the language, values and customs of the host culture to make them 'like us'

AO3 of assimilation

Transnational migrants with hybrid identities may not be willing to abandon their culture or see themselves as belonging to just one-nation state.

Multiculturalism as a state policy

- accepts that migrants want to keep their cultural identity

- however, Eriksen notes this may be limited to more superficial aspects of cultural diversity (shallow & deep)

Shallow diversity

Regarding chicken tikka masala as Britain's national dish is acceptable to the state.

Deep diversity

Such as arranged marriages or the veiling of women, is not acceptable to the state.

AO3 on multiculturalist policies

Multicultural education policies celebrate shallow diversity such as just focusing on "samosas, saris and steel bands" while failing to address deeper problems for children in education such as racism

Movement towards multiculturalism halted after 9/11 attack as some politicians reverted to advocating for assimilation

> An example of this is France banning the veiling of the face in 2010

Castles (2010)

Assimilationist policies are counter-productive because they mark out minority groups as culturally backward or 'Other'.

Leads to minorities emphasising their differences such as Islamic fundamentalism. Leads to more racism. Further marginalisation is thus bred, destroying goal of assimilation.

Castles and Kosack (1973)

assimilationist ideas encourage workers to blame migrants for social problems (unemployment) resulting in racist scapegoating which benefits capitalism by creating a racially divided working-class and preventing united action