Open AccessInternational migration, fertility, lifestyles, and social structure
Author(s) -
Jan Hjarnø
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
finnish yearbook of population research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1796-6191
pISSN - 1796-6183
DOI - 10.23979/fypr.44899
Subject(s) - fertility , ethnic group , sociology , presentation (obstetrics) , immigration , danish , population , set (abstract data type) , exploit , subject (documents) , political science , demography , law , medicine , linguistics , philosophy , anthropology , computer security , library science , computer science , radiology , programming language
This paper has two aims. First, it calls attention to the neoracists, who exploit the results of demographic research for their evil propaganda. Second, it raises the question whether the subject matter of demography, is the appropriate category to work with if demographers really want to make a substantial contribution to an understanding of social development. The presentation starts with neoracism and presents an example of how one Danish demographer has published strange research most pleasing to the neoracist way of thinking. Then a model for structural lifestyle analysis is presented. This model, which is still in the developmental stage, may enable demographers to study groups of real people according to their social identities/lifestyles. Finally, the model for structural lifestyle analysis will be applied to a set of empirical data on three groups of immigrants to demonstrate how we may gain new insight into the importance of certain lifestyles in economic development. In addition, we will see how specific lifestyles and rates of fertility may be related and cause the high rates of fertility in some of the new ethnic minorities, rates which the neoracists view as something very threatening, but which may be very positive for the future development of our society.