Population
Economic Development
One reason birth rates and net migration differ so much between countries is that governments deliberately try to influence them. A country worried that its birth rate has fallen too low uses very different measures from one whose population is growing faster than its resources, and immigration rules decide how easily people can move in at all.
Pro-natal policies: encourage births
Pro-natal policies aim to raise the in countries where it has fallen too low.
Common tools:
- Family allowances and child benefits paid to parents.
- Generous parental leave (maternity, paternity, shared).
- Free or subsidised childcare.
- Tax breaks for families with children.
- Pro-family advertising and information campaigns.
Examples: France, Sweden, Japan, South Korea have all run pro-natal programmes (with mixed success).
Anti-natal policies: limit births
Anti-natal policies aim to lower the birth rate in countries with rapid population growth straining resources.
Common tools:
- Family planning education and free contraception access.
- Tax penalties or reduced state benefits for additional children.
- Compulsory limits on family size (rare and controversial).
Examples: China's former one-child policy (1980–2015) is the most famous. India and Bangladesh have run extensive family-planning programmes. Most countries today rely on education and family planning rather than coercion.
Immigration policy
Used to add to or limit population growth via international flows.
- Pro-immigration policy. Open visa rules, points-based skilled-worker systems, refugee programmes. Used by countries with ageing populations (Canada, Australia, Germany) to grow the workforce.
- Anti-immigration policy. Tight visa rules, deportation policy, restrictive border controls. Used when domestic political pressure favours lower migration or when housing/public-service capacity is strained.
Common exam question
Whether migration benefits an economy
Question: Discuss whether employing migrant workers, or migration within a country, benefits an economy, or analyse the gains when some of a country's people work abroad (6–8 marks).
Asked in 3 of the 11 structured papers. Migrant workers raise the supply of labour, cutting wage costs and adding to productive capacity; they may be skilled, take jobs local people do not want, and their spending creates jobs. Against: they may take local jobs or accept lower pay, pulling wages down, and housing and infrastructure may not stretch to them. Moving within a country can shift workers to more productive areas, but the areas they leave can decline and destinations grow congested.
For the country people leave, tie every point to its people working abroad, as general benefits of emigration score nothing. Money sent home raises living standards and brings in foreign currency as secondary income; returning workers bring skills and ideas or start firms; unemployment at home may fall.
Immigration policy is usually the fastest influence on a country's population: changing visa rules can shift inflows within a year, where a change in the birth rate takes a generation to reach the workforce. This is why two countries with almost identical birth and death rates can still have very different rates of population growth.