Word: kroehnert
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...ability of European societies to pay for pensions for their elderly after they stop working. Today, there are three working-age Europeans for every one over 65. By 2060, that number will have fallen to one in two. "This is a big problem and countermeasures must be taken," Steffen Kroehnert, a demographic expert at the Berlin Institute for Population and Development says. His institute published similar projections earlier this month...
...bearing children might make a difference, he says. The lifting of restrictions on immigration for able workers could also help. "Countries like England, Ireland and Sweden, which are seeing population increases, have a relatively open labor market while Germany still makes it difficult for people to immigrate," says Kroehnert. In Britain, however, the projections have triggered calls for tighter immigration controls...
...population declines are expected in eastern Europe, where countries such as Bulgaria and Poland could lose up to one quarter of their populations, according to the study. These losses are the result of "a combination of economic differences and relative freedom of movement," as well as reduced fertility, says Kroehnert. He noted that women in eastern Europe under communism were accustomed to working and continued to do so after the fall of the Berlin Wall. But with weakened social support networks for raising children, many began putting off child bearing until later years or gave it up altogether. The sharpest...
Eurostat researchers caution that their projections are a "what if" scenario and do not take into account future changes in immigration policy or fertility rates that could alter the outcome. But Kroehnert says that in the case of declining birth rates, it will be difficult to make up for them simply by adjusting policy. In many cases the decline has its roots in developments over several decades, he says. Making up for a decline in number of babies by, say, 300,000 by admitting 300,000 more immigrants "who have to be integrated" isn't realistic, he says...
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