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"Is the United States falling behind in the global race for scientific and engineering talent? Are U.S. employers facing shortages of the skilled workers that they need to compete in a globalized world? Such claims from some employers and educators have been widely embraced by mainstream media and political leaders, and have figured prominently in recent policy debates about education, federal expenditures, tax policy, and immigration. Falling Behind? offers careful examinations of the existing evidence and of its use by those involved in these debates. These concerns are by no means a recent phenomenon. Examining historical precedent, Michael Teitelbaum highlights five episodes of alarm about "falling behind" that go back nearly seventy years to the end of World War II. In each of these episodes the political system responded by rapidly expanding the supply of scientists and engineers, but only a few years later political enthusiasm or economic demand waned. Booms turned to busts, leaving many of those who had been encouraged to pursue science and engineering careers facing disheartening career prospects. Their experiences deterred younger and equally talented students from following in their footsteps--thereby sowing the seeds of the next cycle of alarm, boom, and bust. Falling Behind? examines these repeated cycles up to the present, shedding new light on the adequacy of the science and engineering workforce for the current and future needs of the United States"--

The Fear of Population Decline provides an elaborated discussion on the concept of population decline. The book is comprised of seven chapters that show the extent to which demographic developments form a part of a much longer continuum of discussion and behavior. In the opening chapter, the book discusses the nature of population decline, and then proceeds to demonstrate the complex ways in which fears of population decline emerged in the period 1870-1945. Chapter 4 details the advancement in the period 1945-1965, while Chapters 5 and 6 discuss the phenomenon of baby bust and policy responses

The interconnections between politics and the dramatic demographic changes underway around the world have been under-attended by the two research disciplines that could contribute most to their understanding: demography and political science. Instead this area of "political demography" has largely been ceded to political activists, pundits and journalists, leading to often exaggerated or garbled interpretation. The terrain includes issues that now rank among the most politically sensitive and contested in many parts of the world, engaging high-level attention including that of numerous presidents and premiers: alleged demographically-determined shifts in the international balance of power; low fertility, population aging, and the sustainability of public pension and other age-related systems; international migration; national identity; compositional shifts in politically sensitive social categories (ethnic/religious/racial/linguistic/national origin); and human rights. Moreover it now is apparent that many governments (and nongovernmental actors too) have actively been pursuing varieties of "strategic demography", in which one or more of the three key demographic drivers (fertility, mortality, migration) have been deployed—consciously if not always explicitly—as instruments of their domestic or international strategies. The prospects for the coming decades seem to be for more of the same, and it would well behoove political scientists and demographers to employ their considerable knowledge and analytic techniques in ways that could improve public understanding and moderate the excessive claims and fears that prevail.

Quatre thèmes sont développés dans cet article, à savoir : que le débat sur la dépopulation est dominé par la confusion au niveau des sens du mot et au niveau des causes, conséquences et mesures à prendre; que la question de la dépopulation est étroitement liée aux idéologies politiques et aux valeurs culturelles; que les données et les méthodes démographiques, ainsi que certains démographes éminents, ont joué un rôle considérable dans ce débat; que l'avenir de la fécondité est plus impénétrable que jamais, de sorte que la pertinence des inquiétudes sur la dépopulation n'est pas évidente.

Argues that the current debate over immigration & refugee policy in the US is a contest of "right" versus "right" in which all sides espouse human rights & justice while rejecting persecution & injustice. Ways in which contemporary international migration differs from past migrations are pointed out with an emphasis in the uniqueness of the US situation from both a world & US history perspective. A review of available data on the costs & benefits of large-scale immigration emphasizes the limits & ambiguities of current knowledge. It is contended that disagreements about large-scale immigration & refugee flows go beyond economic cost/benefit analyses to encompass issues about the distribution of political power & the character of the American populace. The political implications of immigration/refugee policy for foreign relations are explored, along with the choices available to US policymakers, including doing nothing, effectively enforcing existing law, or revising present law & practice. The basic requirements for any humane & realistic immigration policy are pointed out & alternative policy approaches are suggested. J. Lindroth

Argues that the current debate over immigration & refugee policy in the US is a contest of "right" versus "right" in which all sides espouse human rights & justice while rejecting persecution & injustice. Ways in which contemporary international migration differs from past migrations are pointed out with an emphasis in the uniqueness of the US situation from both a world & US history perspective. A review of available data on the costs & benefits of large-scale immigration emphasizes the limits & ambiguities of current knowledge. It is contended that disagreements about large-scale immigration & refugee flows go beyond economic cost/benefit analyses to encompass issues about the distribution of political power & the character of the American populace. The political implications of immigration/refugee policy for foreign relations are explored, along with the choices available to US policymakers, including doing nothing, effectively enforcing existing law, or revising present law & practice. The basic requirements for any humane & realistic immigration policy are pointed out & alternative policy approaches are suggested. J. Lindroth

Differences in cultural norms and incentives provide a powerful marketplace for garbled demography in the mass media. Journalists are attracted to expectation of dramatic shifts in politically and socially controversial domains that can result from long‐term population projections. Demographers routinely caution against interpreting such projections as forecasts, and emphasize the complexities and uncertainties of demographic analyses. Yet such caveats are often lost in the sequence of translations from demographic study, to press release, to journalistic treatment. In addition, advocacy groups often interpret such stories to serve their own interests, while headlines and article titles designed for general readerships are another source of miscommunication about demographic studies. Two recent cases offer object lessons of how careful demographic analyses addressing politically controversial trends can suffer from such confusions: media coverage of the 1997 National Research Council report entitled The New Americans, and the 2000 report by the United Nations Population Division entitled Replacement Migration: Is It a Solution to Declining and Ageing Populations? The essay suggests procedural changes that might moderate the level of garbled reporting and commentary that commonly characterize coverage of such studies in the mass media.