Demographic Change, the Labour Force and Work-family Conflicts: The Challenge of Public Policy Adaptation

Les changements démographiques (vieillissement, faible natalité et leurs conséquences) ainsi que l’évolution de la main d’oeuvre (féminisation, secteur service, phénomène 24/7) apportent des nouveaux conflits travail-famille. Dans un monde où on cherche à maximiser la participation à la main d’oeuvre et à assurer la reproduction de la population, ces conflits portent divers défis d’adaptation des politiques publiques. Nous considérons les changements dans les modèles de couples et les intérêts variés par rapport aux types de support de la société. Nous considerons les politques par rapport à divers types de familles

Effect of Immigration on the Canadian Population: Replacement Migration?

Immigration has a substantial influence on the size and growth of the population and the labour force, and also considerable influence on the socio-cultural composition, as seen through ethnicity, language and visible minority status. Given the uneven distribution of immigrants over regions, and their subsequent re-migration patterns, immigration accentuates the growth of the largest cities. Immigration enhances the educational profile of the population, but controlling for age, immigrants now have lower proportions in the labour force, lower average income and higher proportions with low income status. Replacement migration can be defined in various ways. An immigration of about 225,000 would prevent population decline in the foreseeable future, and with slightly higher participation would prevent decline of the labour force. It is impossible to use immigration to prevent an increase in the population aged 65 and over as a ratio to the population aged 20-64. Immigration can somewhat be seen as replacing the socioeconomic distribution of the population, though to a lesser extent over time as the Canadianborn have various advantages. But immigration cannot be seen to be replacing the existing geographic distribution of the population, nor its socio-cultural composition

Demographics and the Changing Canadian Family

This paper starts with a synthesis of changes in families, work (paid and unpaid), reproduction, and the situation of children and youth. Alternate models of family policy are then elaborated, along with a discussion of policies in given domains associated with earning and caring, the division of labour, children and lone parents. Taking seriously the interest to arrive at a model that would increase the overlap in the earning and caring activities of men and women, the paper ends with a suggestion based on shared parental leave and part-time work, followed by the early entry of children to nursery schools and kindergartens. For low income families, it is important to increase the child tax benefit, and for lone parents, joint custody and advance maintenance payments. These provisions would help establish parents as co-providers and co-parents. State support for child benefits, for other basic social benefits, for parental leaves and education as of age three, would undermine gender differences in families, and consequently in the broader society. In particular, this would undermine the potential for exploitation of one spouse by another, based on inequality in their earning capacities that are generated by their family responsibilities

Canada’s Demographic Future: Some Reflections on Projection Assumptions

Projections since the start of the Canada Pension Plan have been reasonably accurate with regard to population size, but they have under-projected population aging, and thus the ratio of beneficiaries to contributors. A case is made for long terms assumptions including fertility of 1.6 births per woman, life expectancy of 85, and net immigration of 0.47 per 100 population. By 2026, there will be fewer than three persons aged 20-64 per person aged 65 and over, compared to over six when the program was started. According to medium projections, the proportion 20-64 to 65+ will change from 4.9 in 2000 to 2.2 in 2100. This will also be in the context of a slower growing and aging labour force. Population policies are considered that would seek to avoid population decline and reduce the pace of aging

Effect of Immigration on Demographic Structure

Immigration has a substantial influence on the size and growth of the population and the labour force, with also considerable influence on the socio-cultural composition, as seen through ethnicity, language and visible minority status. Given the uneven distribution of immigrants over regions, and their subsequent re-migration patterns, immigration accentuates the growth of the largest cities. Immigration enhances the educational profile of the population, but controlling for age, immigrants now have lower proportions in the labour force, lower average income and higher proportions with low income status

Earning and Caring: Demographic Change and Policy Implications

Seeking to define families as groups of people who share earning and caring activities, we contrast theoretical orientations that see advantages to a division of labour or complementary roles, in comparison to orientations that see less risk and greater companionship in a collaborative model based on sharing paid and unpaid work, or co-providing and co-parenting. It is important to look both inside and outside of families, or at the changing gendered links between earning and caring, to understand change both in families and in the work world. It is proposed that equal opportunity by gender has advanced further in the public sphere associated with education and work, than in the private family sphere associated with everyday life. Time use data indicate that, on average, men carry their weight in terms of total productive time (paid plus unpaid work), but that women make much more of the accommodations between family and work. Fertility is likely to be lowest in societies that offer women equal opportunity in the public sphere but where families remain traditional in terms of the division of work. Policies are discussed that would reduce the dependency between spouses, and encourage a greater common ground between men and women in earning and caring

Projecting the Future of Canada’s Population: Assumptions, Implications, and Policy

Abstract not availabl

Welcome and Opening Remarks

Roderic Beaujot is Professor of Sociology at the University of Western Ontario, Academic Director of the UWO Research Data Centre, and leader the SSHRC Strategic Knowledge Cluster on Population Change and Lifecourse. He holds a PhD from University of Alberta (1975). For 1974-76 he was employed with the Demography Division at Statistics Canada, and has been at University of Western Ontario since 1976. His most noteworthy publications are Population Change in Canada (Oxford University Press, 2004, second edition with Don Kerr) and Earning and Caring in Canadian Families (Broadview, 2000). Most recently, he was the lead author of “Population change in Canada to 2017 and beyond: The challenges of policy adaptation” published in Horizons (December 2007) and he presented “Low fertility lite in Canada: The Nordic model in Quebec and the U.S. model in Alberta” at the 2009 meetings of the Population Association of America