Year 10 Geographers week....

We looked at how countries have to manage their populations.

We looked first at China and its one child policy.

China has an ANTI-NATAL population policy- it's a STICK policy- that punishes citizens who do not adhere.

Why did China need a one child policy?

They had a population explosion, after the previous president ordered Chinese people to have many babies to build up a large population to rival the USA.
In the late 70's the new government realised there were just too many people, so they decided on a policy of limiting all native urban Chinese couples to one child only. (rural people could have 2 and foreigners were exempt

 

The above video shows some of the impacts of the one child policy, like 'little emperor' syndrome, female infanticide, lonely children, small families.
But it also highlights that it has prevented an estimated 400 million extra Chinese people being born, easing the strain on the countries resources.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/china-business/10221730/China-to-ditch-its-one-child-policy-as-ageing-crisis-looms.html

This is the latest take on the policy- you see 30 years of limiting most of the population to only one child has left China with a problem- ageing people and fewer workers to look after them

dependency ratio is negative- as China has increased wealth and invested in medical care, keeping people alive longer- those reaching pension age now are numerous as born before policy, so there are many of them.  Due to the one child policy, there are fewer 30 year olds to work and support the larger numbers of retirement age people.

We then looked at countries that have PRO-NATAL population policies (encouraging baby births), these policies are found in countries at stage 5 of the DTM, who have a declining population and need more children to be born to support the increasing number of ageing people.

Russia has this problem and to try and solve it the government used a carrot (soft approach), by introducing a 'sex day'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/6990802.stm 
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/skip-work-have-sex-russians-celebrate-day-of-conception-as-sporting-community-continues-to-criticise-putins-antigay-legislation-8812840.html

In one Russian province, Ulyanovsk- the governor has offered cash incentives (to spend on education/ health or housing)  for people having a baby on Russia's national day, 12th June- so on September 12th couples try to make a baby to attempt to get a cash reward.

We also looked at France and their approach to encouraging their citizens to have 3 babies

http://geogaroundtheworld.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/france.html

There is a PowerPoint on the above link that highlights the French policy and the reasons for the policy.

We then looked at how 2 different countries have to manage migration-
Bangladesh- an OVERPOPULATED COUNTRY- where they may need to ban immigration in the future and Russia an UNDERPOPULATED COUNTRY, where they need to encourage immigration as their population is in decline.