The Centre for Migration and Ageing Populations – the MAP Centre - is responsible for overseeing the demography programme under the direction of the Centre Director, Dr. George Leeson. The MAP Centre addresses the main demographic drivers - fertility, mortality and migration.

Demographers play key roles in various stages of planning and development, and there has been an increasing demand in many countries for demographers with high quality multi-disciplinary backgrounds. The mission of the OIA is thus to promote world class teaching, research and training as well as consultation in population studies.

The demography research group at the Institute is comprised of a number of experts from a wide range of academic disciplines interested in social statistics, gerontology, historical demography, medical demography and economic demography. There are also very close links between demographers of OIA and others at Oxford University who have similar interests.

The MAP Centre  addresses a wide range of global ageing issues particularly focusing on: The dynamics of global ageing, Intergenerational support networks, Fertility and family planning, Migration and development.

  Research on Ageing and Migration:

::  Migration as a Driver of Demographic Change: the Impact of Female-Driven Migration on
    Fertility in eastern Europe
    PI George Leeson and researcher Christian Heidl
    Funded by The John Fell Fund, Oxford University Press

Researchers at the MAP centre have initiated research to investigate the relationship over time since the regime changes of 1989 between age specific and total fertility and the emigration of females in the reproductive age range 15-49 years in Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland and Slovenia.

Since the mid 1980s, fertility levels have remained low or increased only moderately in Northern and Western Europe; they have declined to extremely low levels in Southern Europe. In Central and Eastern Europe, levels have declined dramatically since the regime change in 1989 and as a consequence populations have aged dramatically.

These fertility declines in Central and Eastern Europe are the result of profound social changes, including changing values and attitudes as well as behaviour to family formation and childbearing. In addition, the impact of female-driven migration from the region as a result of large-scale migration of females to Western and Southern Europe to work in the eldercare sector could plausibly contribute to the decline in fertility in their home countries, so that migration has become a driver of demographic change rather than the opposite, as is most usually assumed.

Understanding the dynamics of this fertility decline since 1989 in the context of the increase in female-driven migration is important for a number of reasons. Firstly, there is the impact of declining fertility and female emigration on the economically productive population and dependency ratios in these transition economies as populations age dramatically; secondly, there is the impact of female migration on the sustainability of care of older people in families in these economies; and thirdly, there is the impact of „migrated fertility“ on the levels of fertility in host countries.

Ultimately, this research at the MAP centre will be extended to cover more countries in Central and Eastern Europe and also to cover other demographics, where migration is a driver of change, for example fertility levels in the host countries, population growth and ageing.

 
::   Migrant Labour in the Eldercare Sectors
     PI George Leeson
     Funded by NORFACE

This study involved a series of seminars undertaken between 2007-2008 with the primary objective to bring together some of the leading experts in this field from all across Europe in order to:

• to develop a research proposal investigating the growing importance of legal and illegal migrant care workers in the informal and formal care industries in Europe, in the context of population ageing and a varying societal care mix determined by different cultural and historical-political traditions; and

• to inform representatives of the care industry, government, voluntary care providers, and campaigning NGOs about these developments to provide an evidence base for policy-making, the care industry, and future research.

NORFACE is a European collaboration which investigates the growing importance of legal and illegal migrant care workers in the informal and formal care industries in Europe, in the context of population ageing and a varying societal care mix determined by different cultural and historical-political traditions.
 

::  The Reconciliation of Employment and Care for Older Family Members in Europe
     PI Andreas Hoff
     Funded by The John Fell Fund

The objectives of this research implemented through a series of workshops was to focus on a vulnerable group of family carers who combine the conflicting demands of employment and family by addressing issues around conflict between employment and care; patterns of intergenerational conflict; factors surrounding the well-being of family carers particularly in Central and Eastern Europe; and gender aspects of family care and policies or technologies required to support family carers.  Due to the fact that this project was pan-European and shared common issues with the Migrant Care Study, selected participants engaged in this research project also participated in the one funded by NORFACE.
 

::  Consequences of female migration on their families
    PI Sarah Harper

This study has received both EU and Clore Foundation money to explore migration and the family.   It explores the consequences of female health care workers,  within the formal and informal health care sector,  who migrate either long term or transitionally for work.  The project comprises two elements An examination of the care arrangements and kin impact for  multi-generational family members left behind in Africa when Nigerian nurses migrate to the UK, and the impact on Bulgarian families when female members move to Greece to work in the informal care sector.
 

::  Migrant Health Care workers
    PI George Leeson

This work has recieved funding from a number of sources, including the Japanese Government, and investigates the recruitment of foreign health workers into the health care system.

    Publications:

• Leeson, GW & Harper, S. Foreign Workers in the Health and Social Care Sector in the United Kingdom, Japanese Committee of the International Council of Social Welfare (74 pp plus appendices), Tokyo, 2004.
• Cangiano, A., Shutes, I., Spencer,S.  & Leeson, GW. Migrant Care Workers in
  Ageing Societies: Research Findings in the United Kingdom, ESRC Centre on
  Migration, Policy and Society, Oxford, 2009.
   

::  Foresight Global Migration Programme
    Migration, Ageing and the Environment
    PI Sarah Harper

This project, commissioned commissioned as part of the UK Government’s Foresight Project, Migration and Global Environmental Change, considers the issues of human migration and global environmental change over the next 50 years. The final report, 'Migration and Global Environmental Change: Future Challenges and Opportunities' examines potential migration patterns and the possible challenges and opportunities this will present in the future. The report identifies a wide range of issues including the management of ‘trapped’ populations who are unable to move; and the implications of people being as likely to move towards areas of environmental risk as they are to move away from such areas. However, it concludes that migration may not be just part of the ‘problem’ but can also be part of the solution to managing global environmental change, representing a form of adaptation and contributing to long-term resilience.

Publications:

Harper, S. Environment, Migration and the Demographic Deficit, Review commissioned as part of the UK Government’s Foresight Project, Migration and Global Environmental Change, PD7, October 2011 [ pdf ]

Foresight Review 'Migration and Global Environmental Change: Future Challenges and Opportunities'
 

  People:

• Dr. George W. Leeson, Director
  Research interest: Demography in Europe, Migration.
• Professor Sarah Harper
  Research interest: Global Ageing, Intergenerational support networks and Family.
• Dr. Philip Kreager
  Research interest: Demography in Asia, Intergenerational support networks
• Dr. Hafiz T.A. Khan
  Research interest: Demography in Asia, Fertility and Health.
• Dr. Andreas Hoff
  Research interests: Migrant workers and family change

  MAP Centre Publications:

• Leeson, G.W. The Importance of Demography, Journal of Population Ageing, Vol. 4, Nos. 1-2. pp. 1-4, 2011.
• Leeson, GW. Prepared or Not, Latin America faces the Challenge of Aging,
  Current History, Journal of Contemporary World Affairs, Vol. 110, No. 733,
  pp. 75-80, 2011.
• Leeson, GW. Demography, politics and policy in Europe, in Setting EU Priorities 2009 (ed. Ludlow, P), pp.102-124, The European Strategy Forum, Ponte de Lima, Portugal, 2009.
• Harper, S. Aboderin. I and Ruchieva, I. The Impact of the Outmigration of Female Care Workers on Informal Family Care in Nigeria and Bulgaria in The Inernational Migration of Health Workers Ed. Connell, J. ,  Routledge,  2008.
• Leeson, GW & Khan, H. The Demography of Aging in Bangladesh: A Scenario Analysis of the Consequences, Hallym International Journal of Aging, Vol. 8 (1), pp. 1-21, 2008.
• Leeson, GW. Migration and Migrants in the European Union, Oxford Institute of Ageing/Age Concern England, Oxford, 2005.
• Leeson, GW. Replacement Migration: Coping with Population Change in the Nordic Countries, Working Paper 2004, Nordic Centre for Spatial Development, Stockholm, 2004.

  Research and Graduate opportunities:

The Centre oversees the MILES (Migrant Health and Social Care Workers) collaboration which combines several projects designed to examine the potential for migrant labour to assist older people in the EU to continue to live independently.

   DPhil Opportunities:

OIA currently offers DPhil opportunities in demography. Students interested in enrolling in the programme should contact Dr. George Leeson.