Busting myths around ageing

CPC-CG member Professor Jakub Bijak has written two myth-buster articles for the FutuRes project, explaining how ageing affects us all, and how migration isn't the answer to the issues of an ageing society.

In the FutuRes project, Professor Bijak is responsible for Work Package 4 on Migration, working together with Dr Emily Barker, also a CPC member working at the University of Southampton.

The articles, the first and fourth in a series of FutuRes myth-busting statements, lay out the facts in opposition to the myths: 'Ageing? Only older people need to think about that!', and "An increase in migration will solve Europe's challenge with its ageing population". Professor Bijak comments:

"When asked to point at someone who is ageing, many people will intuitively look around for a person over 60. Yet, of course, everyone is ageing.

"We often think of different generations almost as different species. This narrative is amplified by media who popularise ever-present labels, like “boomers”, generations X, Y, Z, and so on. This view amplifies differences between younger and older people, when of course individuals differ, for example, in their distinct needs, priorities and political preferences. This “generational view” also exacerbates the idea that older and younger people are in inherent conflict and cannot understand each other.

"To talk about ageing, demographers use the expression “life course perspective” [1]. The life course perspective looks at younger and older people as the same people, only at different stages of their lives, and with their different needs, priorities, and capabilities which change and develop over time. Rather than “us vs them” generations, it is more useful to think of “us at different moments in our lives”. The World Health Organization notes: “Adopting a life-course approach involves taking action early [and] appropriately during life’s transitions.” [2]

"The life course perspective still recognises that access to resources varies throughout people’s lives. Young people may not have much money nor assets, whereas middle-aged people may have more money and assets, but lack time, and those at pension-age might have more time and assets, but their health and finances may be worse. As we all age, we also all move between these different stages.

"The main challenge for policy is not how to support one age group at the expense of another, but rather how to make key resources – time, money and assets – more equitably distributed across the life course. This is a challenge both for state policies and for the private sector, and may require re-thinking how credit and insurance currently work in our societies, among other aspects. Regardless, levelling the field requires thinking in the long-term - and recognising that the policies which impact us today also have impacts on how we live tomorrow."

On migration, Professor Bijak says:

"While migration can relieve short-term labour market pressures and keep the population from declining, it can never be a sustainable long-term approach to managing population ageing. Indeed, migrants who move for work are typically young and economically active, so they are indeed able to fill labour market gaps. It is therefore tempting to think that migration can solve many challenges of tomorrow’s societies: that it will counter population ageing, reverse labour force decline, and make social security systems more resilient.

"However, policies based on this simple assumption would be short-sighted. Migrants who are young and able to work now will also age and might need support later in life. Demographic projections strongly suggest that this would generate an ever-increasing demand for more migration.

"This fact was acknowledged as early as 2000 in a UN report [3]: Even high-scale migration events are not expected to alter these long-term trends [4].

"So, what to do instead? Migration alone cannot change the nature of population dynamics. At least not without any changes to the current trends of falling birth rates. Yet designing effective policies to raise birth rates is notoriously difficult, and results have been shown to be limited [5].

"It is instead vital to understand that the challenges of demographic ageing cannot be solved simply by looking at population processes. By coupling demographic projections with insights from other areas, research has already identified promising, more durable solutions: increasing labour force participation, raising productivity through automation, and adjusting retirement age to match gains in longevity, to name just a few [6].

"In sum, resilient strategies to manage the effects of populations that are getting older need to include a whole range of social, environmental and economic tools - ideally based on a broad political consensus."

FutuRes aims to establish a transdisciplinary policy lab, a platform where decision-makers from research, politics, business and civil society engage with the project and work closely together to elaborate evidence-informed solutions based on project results. The project brings together a team of Europe's crisis resilience experts to identify policies of resilience for ageing societies. It is part of the HorizonEurope research programme.

(1) See the “Handbook on Demographic Change and the Lifecourse” for the newest scientific perspectives on Ageing.

(2) The WHO’s Life Course approach.

(3) The mentioned UN report from 2000 is archived here

(4) Try the QuantMig Project’s “Migration Scenarios Explorer”

(5) See this extensive study of the impact of family policies on fertility in industrialised countries

(6) Read about simulated effects of labour market policies here

Posted 23/11/2023 10:43