Demography at the Edge

Addressing the methodological and topical challenges facing demographers working in remote regions, this book compares and contrasts the research, methods and models, and policy applications from peripheral regions in developed nations. With the emphasis on human populations as dynamic, adaptive, evolving systems, it explores how populations respond in different ways to changing environmental, cultural and economic conditions and how effectively they manage these change processes. Theoretical understandings and policy issues arising from demographic modelling are tackled including: competition for skilled workers; urbanisation and ruralisation; population ageing; the impacts of climate change; the life outcomes of Indigenous peoples; globalisation and international migration. Based on a strong theoretical framework around issues of heterogeneity, generational change, temporariness and the relative strength of internal and external ties, Demography at the Edge provides a common set of approaches and issues that benefit both researchers and practitioners. I: Methods, Models and Data; 1: Perspectives on ‘Demography at the Edge'; 2: The Challenge of Enumeration and Population Estimation in Remote Areas; 3: The Forecasting of Remote Area Populations: Numbers Aren't Everything; 4: International Immigration Trends and Data; 5: Indigenous Vitals: Trends and Measurement; II: The Dynamics of Populations at the Edge; 6: Bubbles and Craters: Analysing Ageing Patterns of Remote Area Populations; 7: Transnational Links at the Edge; 8: Indigenous Demography: Convergence, Divergence, or Something Else?; 9: The ‘Problem' of Indigenous Migration in the Globalised State; 10: Labour Migration: ‘What goes around comes around'; 11: Fly-in/Fly-out Resource Developments: Implications for Community and Regional Development; 12: Why the Other Half Leave: Gender Aspects of Northern Sparsely Populated Areas; 13: Education, Remoteness and Population Dynamics; 14: Tourist Populations and Local Capital; 15: The Challenge of Housing in Remote Areas; 16: Weather Hazards, Place and Resilience in the Remote Norths; 17: Population Policies at the Edge: The Demographic Ambitions of Frontiers