European Populations

The changing demographic landscape which Europe is facing today and in the next decades reflects the past. These changes constitute important challenges to European populations and societies. Shifts in fertility and family formation, in health, morbidity and mortality, in internal and international migration as well as changes in age structures, in households, in labour forces, and in population growth and decline, will influence the living conditions and well-being of Europe's population directly or indirectly. The demographic challenge also concerns the environment, local, regional and national developments, education, production and consumption patterns, economic competitiveness, social security, housing, employment and transport, and health and social care provisions. These issues, their mechanisms, determinants and consequences also challenge the scientific study of population. As a major forum and 'market place' for scientific demographic debate, the 1999 European Population Conference (EPC99) was organized to take up this challenge. On the threshold of the third millennium, European populations are united in diversity and face major demographic issues.

Contenu

1. Europe and its population: the long view.- 1.1. The flawed goddess.- 1.2. Time and scale: the long past.- 1.2.1. Ice and fire.- 1.2.2. Greeks and Romans.- 1.2.3. Christ and the devil.- 1.2.4. Toil and turmoil.- 1.2.5. Numbers and might.- 1.2.6. Growth and conflict.- 1.2.7. Growth and expansion.- 1.3. Europe: concepts and limits.- 1.4. Time, space, and population: the long future.- 1.4.1. From first to second transition: a model.- 1.4.2. From modern to bourgeois postmodern: an explanation.- 1.4.3. From short-term to long-term: an interpretation.- 1.4.4. From expectations to projections: scenarios.- 1.4.5. Action or acceptance: the management of decline.- 1.4.6. Unity and Diversity: a new heterogeneity.- 1.5. From the pantheon.- 2. Les nouveaux modes de planification de la famille en Europe.- 2.1. Les changements les plus significatifs.- 2.1.1. Le développement de la sexualité hors mariage.- 2.1.2. Il n'est plus nécessaire d'être marié pour avoir des enfants.- 2.1.3. Il est possible de décider de ne pas avoir d'enfant.- 2.1.4. Il est possible de divorcer (a fortiori de rompre une union consensuelle), même avec des enfants.- 2.1.5. Une femme enceinte contre son gré n'est pas contrainte de garder son enfant.- 2.1.6. Les femmes n'ont plus à choisir entre activité professionelle et maternité.- 2.1.7. Malgré les obstacles, les jeunes générations souhaitent toujours avoir des enfants.- 2.1.8. Il est possible du surmonter certaines stérilités.- 2.2. Les perspectives.- 3. Who is working in Europe?.- 3.1. From work to non-work: an introduction.- 3.1.1. The values of work.- 3.1.2. Less work for the richest?.- 3.1.3. Work in a non-working status.- 3.2. General frame of reference.- 3.2.1. Too many idle people: unemployed, retired and non-active.- 3.2.2. How long do Europeans work?.- 3.3. Differentiating jobs and workers.- 3.3.1. The changing shape of the labour force.- 3.3.2. The changing shape of work.- 3.4. Individual and household features in relation to the labour market.- 3.4.1. More women in the labour market.- 3.4.2. Labour force participation during the course of people's lives.- 3.4.3. Work, marriage and children.- 3.4.4. Households and labour.- 3.4.5. Education and human capital.- 3.4.6. Foreign labour.- 3.5. The changing pattern of the labour life cycle.- 3.6. Future trends and foreseeable problems.- 3.6.1. More elderly, more idle people?.- 3.6.2. Fewer young people, less unemployment?.- 3.6.3. Less work, more disparities?.- 3.7. A brief conclusion.- 4. Migration pressures on Europe.- 4.1. Comment on a definition which cannot be avoided.- 4.2. Objectives and contents.- 4.3. Basic trends: the global context.- 4.4. Basic trends in the old continent: can we really speak of migration pressures on Europe?.- 4.4.1. Introduction.- 4.4.2. Globalisation and European migration.- 4.4.3. Regionalisation vis-à-vis migrant flows within the European Union.- 4.4.4. 'Fortress Europe': are the doors shut or only half-open?.- 4.4.5. European migration after the end of history.- 4.4.6. Europe - a Mecca for exiles, displaced persons and refugees.- 4.4.7. European migration of 'privileged' ethnic minorities.- 4.4.8. Towards summing up: has Pandora's box really been opened up?.- 4.5. Issues of the late 1990s: a review of challenges faced by Europe.- 4.5.1. 'Melting pot Europe' vis-à-vis new great migrant communities: the patterns and puzzles of integration.- 4.5.2. Transnationalism: towards a supranational/ postnational identity of migrants.- 4.5.3. Incomplete migration: a phenomenon of transnational marginalization.- 4.5.4. Migration business and its undesirable consequences.- 4.5.5. Probable effects of EU enlargement.- 4.6. Conclusions: does Europe still need migrants?.- List of authors.