Assignment
Answer each of the following questions on the promise and peril of population and demographic trends. Your answer to each item should be an essay of 350 to 800 words. (With a typical font and spacing, this comes to between 1½ and 3 pages.) It is recommended that you refer to outside sources as you consider these issues. Be sure to document your sources correctly.
1. What difficulties-from retiring baby boomers in the United States to a graying China, to the massive overhang of Europe's elderly-can private corporations, governments, and other sectors expect as the aging revolution unfolds across the globe? How will changing demographics affect workforce composition? Retirement age? Pension outlays? Taxation? Immigration? Economic growth? How can governments, corporations, and nongovernmental organizations work together to address these issues?
2. Migration involves movement from one area to another. Sometimes migration involves movement to a completely different country and at other times it involves migration from rural to urban areas.
a. Why do people leave some countries and migrate to other countries around the world? What kinds of issues, both positive and negative, result from such movements? For example, why do governments place restrictions on immigration? Discuss examples of disputes about immigration (more or fewer restrictions, refugee resettlement) that have occurred in recent years.
b. Summarize trends in urbanization. What are some important issues for people newly arrived in urban areas?