In The News

Protesters Turn Back Busloads of Immigrants in California

Ricardo Cano July 2, 2014
An ugly welcome was waiting for detained immigrants as about 100 protesters, waving US flags, blocked three buses from entering a California processing center, reports Ricardo Cano for the Desert Sun. The United States confronts a humanitarian and immigration crisis as thousands of unaccompanied children from Central America cross the border, crowding detention centers and straining government...

Europe Divided Over Immigration, Work Ethics

Pallavi Aiyar June 5, 2014
Immigration, transfer of new technologies and evolving work ethics have put entire industries in flux. This has stirred anti-immigration fervor in some communities as demonstrated by big gains of far-right parties in the European Parliament elections. Author Pallavi Aiyar analyzes the forces of globalization transforming the diamond-cutting industry in Antwerp. Once dominated by Jewish merchants...

Paying for the Gray

April 9, 2014
China’s average age for retirement is 53, unchanged since the 1950s. But China’s economy has flourished and the nation’s average life expectancy is 75: “With the number of pensioners set to soar, and the number of young workers able to support them unable to keep up, China has been making long-overdue changes at both ends of the demographic spectrum,” reports the Economist. “Allowing people to...

World Population Trends Signal Dangers Ahead

Barry Mirkin April 3, 2014
Demographers are often called upon to predict the future by extrapolating from population statistics and trends. The United Nations has revised population projections upward, and demographer Barry Mirkin suggests the warning signs are clear: The globe can anticipate a billion more people in a decade and another 2 billion by the end of the century for a total of 10.9 billion. People live longer,...

Women More Educated Than Men But Still Paid Less

Joseph Chamie March 6, 2014
Women now outnumber men in global university attendance and graduation rates. Most gains are in developed nations; in some countries, as many as two thirds of graduates are women, though discrimination still lingers. Globally, the ratio is 93 men to 100 women; men tend to concentrate in engineering and the sciences while women gravitate toward less lucrative degrees in humanities and arts. Women...

Easing One-Child Policy May Be Too Late

Joseph Chamie January 7, 2014
A Chinese policy that generally limited families to one child has been revised: Couples can have two children if either spouse is an only child. But China may discover that increasing family size is tougher than reduction, warns demographer Joseph Chamie. “This mid-course correction in population policy will have marginal effect as China is aging at a much faster pace than occurred in other...

Nairobi Foreshadows Tomorrow’s Urban Conflicts

David Kilcullen October 1, 2013
The globe is more urban than ever with more than 65 percent of all people living in cities compared with 2 percent in 1800. Urbanization, the bulk of it near coasts, is a global megatrend challenging world leaders and planners along with climate change and population growth. The patterns expose vulnerabilities and encourage inequality: “The unprecedented pace and scale of urban growth will strain...