[The Latin American immigrant population in Germany: some socio-demographic characteristics]. / La poblacion latinoamericana inmigrante en Alemania: algunas caracteristicas socio-demograficas.

"Initially the migrants from Latin America in the former West Germany [represented] 1% of the total migrant population; currently, their annual rate of growth is 5%. This population is mainly represented by Brazilians, Chileans, Peruvians and Argentines. However, since 1984, Chileans and Argentines have begun a [return] movement to their countries....[The] high volume of female migrants...is directly related to a high demand in the [service] sector...." (SUMMARY IN ENG)

The international occurrence of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.

Through December 1984, 9932 cases of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome have been reported, mainly from North and South America and Europe; 85% of these cases occurred in the United States. Haiti and the United States have the highest incidence rates, 59 and 36 per million population, respectively. Rates in the United States range from 0.3 (beginning of 1981) to 10.4 (end of 1984). Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Switzerland, France, West Germany, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands show a slower increase. Homosexual men and intravenous drug users are still the main risk groups in the United States and Europe. The disease is prevalent in heterosexual Haitians and Africans whether they live in their own countries or abroad. Cases of the syndrome have been identified in Zaire, Rwanda, Zambia, and Uganda, but its full extent is not yet known. Consistent with the general history of epidemics, the appearance of geographically separated sites of incidence of the syndrome could be linked to population migrations; however no evidence has been found to identify an index location.

Reproductive rights: an international sample.

PIP: This discussion considers the issue of reporductive rights in the countries of Mexico, Nigeria, Iraq, India, Germany, China, Colombia, Poland, Italy, Egypt, and Ireland. In Mexico abortion is illegal, but an estimated 3 million illegal abortions are performed yearly. Complications from these abortions send 600,000 women to Mexican hospitals each year. The Mexican government, concerned about overpopulation, appears to be moving toward a liberalization of its abortion policy. Birth control is available, often without a prescription, in pharmacies, public health agencies, and some hotels. In Nigeria if a pregnant women goes abroad she must take a medical test upon returning to prove she has remained pregnant during the trip. Underground abortionists cater especially to unmarried teenagers. Women in Nigeria obtain birth control with the written permission of their husbands. Elective abortion is illegal in Iraq. Theoretically, contraception is available to all without a doctor's prescription, but in actuality, only married women buy contraceptives which are often simply not in stock in pharmacies and stores. Elective abortion is legal in India where the government has launched an agressive family planning compaign. India's family planners have had to work against religious prohibitions against abortion. Germany has zero population growth and the lowest birthrate in the world. Birth control is available to all, both by prescription and over the counter. Abortion became legal in 1978. In China "one couple one child" is the favorite slogan and the eventual goal of an aggressive family planning campaign inaugurated in 1979. The Chinese hope this policy will reduce population growth to 5% by 1985 and allow the country to achieve zero population growth by the end of the century. To this end, the Chinese government has launched a massive public education program encouraging late marriages and the use of contraception. Abortions, sterilizations, and contraceptive devices are available free at pharmacies or the workplace. In Colombia abortion is illegal; contraceptives are available to married women by prescription. Since 1960 Polish women have had the right to abortion once they have made an "oral declaration" establishing the need for one. Birth control is freely available. Abortion is legal in Italy during the 1st trimester for women 18 or older and for women under 18 with parental permission for medical, economic, social, family, or psychological reasons. Nontherapeutic abortion is illegal in Egypt, but birth control is available to all without a prescription and is increasingly used among urban, educated Egyptians. In Ireland birth control is available only by prescription and only to married women. A constitutuional amendment bans abortion.^ieng

U.S. immigration policy: the guestworker option revisited.

PIP: In guestworker programs foreign nationals are admitted into another country on a nonmigrant status with severely curtailed social and limited labor market rights. The duration of stay is always finite and compliance with the terms of the contract are entered through a network of legal arrangements which allow officials in the receiving country a substantial amount of administrative discretion. Pro-guestworker arguments say that the borders cannot be closed, that guestworkers can be substituted for illegal aliens, that guestworkers are better than illegal aliens, and that additional labor benefits the US economy. Those against guestworker programs stress longterm socioeconomic issues rather than short-term economic advantages, saying that guestworker programs are no quick answer for illegal immigration, for domestic labor shortages, or for the US poor population. Guestworker programs, its opponents say, provide short-run economic benefits to a few employers and individuals at the expense of more widespread and longterm socioeconomic costs. They oppose: 1) the concept of admitting foreign workers with restricted rights, 2) the concentration of any negative labor market impacts on already disadvantaged domestic groups, 3) the proliferation of "jobs which Americans won't take," 4) many temporary guests ending up permanent residents, and 5) that exporting workers is as likely to impede as accelerate job-creating economic development in immigration countries. Most economists believe that diminishing marginal productivity produces downward-sloping short-run demand for labor schedules. The European experience with these programs has been different than those in the US since foreign workers in Europe were initially recruited in response to actual labor shortages and have always had legal status, but both Europe and the US have experienced large contingents of workers who remain in the countries and are at a pronounced power disadvantage regarding the society's institutions. Studies of guestworker programs have shown that worker flows eventually become impervious to the receiver's actual labor needs as employers disaggregate jobs into components which match the low skills of migrants and create additional foreign worker jobs which are then shunned by native labor, thus perpetuating a need for such labor. If the US opts for a large-scale guestworker program this will only replace 1 set of problems with another and it is not at all certain that large-scale guestworker admissions will proportionately reduce illegal migration inflows.^ieng

A reassessment of world population trends.

This reassessment is limited to observations concerning trends in mortality and fertility and concerning longrun prospects for population growth. Recorded changes in mortality are compared with 3 projections made many years ago. Projections of European mortality made in 1941-42 understated by a wide margin the actual increase in expectation of life because of unforeseen technological changes in the prevention and cure of fatal disease. On the other hand, a projection made in 1955 for India, foreseeing a rapid rise in the 1950s and slower progress later on because of the exhaustion of the easier gains, appears to have been accurate and also to depict the prospects in other populations of relatively high mortality and low income. A different projection of life expectancy in Mexico was also quite close to actual changes in Mexican mortality; it was based on a universal curve constructed to represent how life expectancy rises, increasing ever more slowly as it approaches an upper limit. This curve (1 for each sex), constructed for projection of Mexican mortality, is employed as a standard of comparison for mortality changes in many countries. A number have followed the standard for females very closely for more than 3 decades; in developed countries, male life expectancy has generally fallen short of the standard. The almost universal low fertility in developed countries contrasts with the great diversity of levels and trends of fertility in developing countries, some of which retain undiminished high fertility and others of which have recently attained rates of childbearing as low as in the developed areas. Instances of surprisingly little change and surprisingly rapid change in fertility are described. In the future, growth of populations of developed countries will probably be slight; the future rate of increase in the developing areas depends on the unpredictable timing and pace of childbearing reduction in populations where fertility remains high. In the long run, world population growth may resume its typical pattern of moderate growth interrupted by catastrophic setbacks.

[Recent fertility levels]. / Niveles recientes de fecundidad.

PIP: The author has studied the evolution of 2 fecundity measures, the gross rate of natality and the gross rate of reproduction. The 1st measure decreased 44.8% in the last year of the study (1978) and represented 95,826 less births. It is pointed out how this indicator has decreased in all provinces of the country which usually have high rates of fecundity. In order to establish comparisons among countries, the gross reproduction rate is used, and its evolution in 7 countries is observed during the 1970-78 period. The lower figures are registered in the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic (GDR). First, all figures of the period below 1 and with the steady decrease are reported, while the GDR shows a certain trend to the recovery of birth rate since 1976. Hungary has the most irregular behavior although the total birth rate again falls since 1976. Graphs from Cuba show a constant fall in fecundity levels which was interrupted only in 1971, until the decrease below 1 came in 1978. Cuba is the country that has the most sensible reduction of fecundity and has shown the most remarkable difference (0.89) between the initial and final rates during the period of analysis. (author's)^ieng

News, views, trends: a world-wide survey of recent developments, fresh ideas and production plans.

PIP: Recent developments in the tobacco industry in several countries are described: 1) in the USSR the policy is not to encourage smoking but to produce pleasant cigarettes which are as harmless as possible; 2) in the US, a survey shows that in 1975 not more than 12.4% of men over age 21 smoked a pipe; 3) in Britain a new cigarette tax structure will cripple the cigarette industry's coupon scheme of which manufacturers make great use to secure brand loyalty; 4) in the Philippines a proposal to print a health warning on cigarette packets and in advertisements might affect cigarette and tobacco taxes, which contribute 47% of government income; 5) in the Netherlands health warnings will be printed on cigarette packs, 6) in Austria there has been an increase of 4.2% in cigarette smoking since late 1975; 7) in Poland anti-smoking officials have proposed that the name of the popular "Sport" cigarette be changed; 8) in Indonesia there has been a recovery in kretek sales; 9) in Denmark cigarette consumption increased 6% from 1974; and 10) in western Europe it has been shown that up to 99% of grocery stores in Ireland sell tobacco products, 91% in Britain, 30% in Austria, 17% in Spain, and 7% in Italy.^ieng

A hypothetical study of populations under constant mortality and fertility.

PIP: 28 countries with different characteristics have been selected in order to observe the amount of time it takes for these different countries to reach stable age distributions. The individual populations by sex and age were projected for 150 years in 5-year intervals with the present constant mortality and fertility schedules by component method. Observations have been made by considering the following characteristics of population when it has acquired stability: age distribution; the rate of growth, birthrate, and mortality rate; the population change; the intrinsic rate of growth, birthrate and mortality rate; and approximate time taken to stabilize the population. The initial age distribution has a significant part in the amount of time it takes for a population to acquire stability, and its intrinsic rate of growth is mostly dependent upon the existing age distribution of that population. The time taken for a country's population to become stable depends upon the age distribution, fertility and mortality schedules at the beginning. It has been observed that countries having a higher intrinsic rate of growth take comparatively less time in acquiring stability than the countries having a lower intrinsic rate of growth. The mortality and fertility schedules of a country is another important phenomenon. The populations of the different countries at the point of stability were growing according to their rates of growth. No specific trend of population growth could be found among the groups of countries. Time taken for stabilizing the population is completely based upon age distributions, fertility and mortality schedules a particular country was having at the beginning. The range of time taken for different countries to acquire stability generally ranged from 100 to 135 years. Among the different countries the relationship for the time it takes to acquire stability has not been established. This is a hypothetical approach in order to obtain some idea as to how a population with different characteristics acts in the long run when some of its characteristics are assumed to be constant.^ieng

Pills easier to obtain as nations start to relax rules.

PIP: In both developing and developed nations it has become easier to obtain oral contraception (OC). Generally, this means that the OC becomes available without a doctor's prescription and/or sources from outside a pharmacy. Sometimes there is no charge for the OC. In the People's Republic of China barefoot doctors distribute OC free of charge. Fiji, Israel, Korea and Pakistan have removed the prescription requirement. In India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and Turkey private family planning clinics distribute the OC on prescription but free of charge. Specially trained and registered midwives distribute OCs in Chile and Antigua has also recently lifted the prescription requirement. Free OC is available to low income women in Jamaica, Costa Rica and Peru. In Egypt family planning centers distribute the OC free and without prescription. The United Kingdom is making OCs available free-of-charge through the National Health Service. OCs are free in France. In the U.S. government agencies have provided free OCs to low-income women in government health centers and have subsidized free pills for distribution in private family planning clinics. In Canada and in the Democratic Republic of Germany, OCs are distributed free, on prescription, to low-income women.^ieng

[Family planning. A survey of United Nations around the world]. / Le planning familial. Une enquete des Nations Unies a travers le monde.

PIP: Responses to the second worldwide survey of 80 nations on their population policy can be divided into 3 categories. First are countries with large official programs of family planning in existence: Egypt, Kenya, Tunisia, Barbados, Colombia, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, China, India, Iran, Japan, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Republic of Viet-nam, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkey, Denmark, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Yugoslavia, Canada, and Fiji. Madagascar and New Zealand are starting programs. The second category is countries that encourage private family planning programs: Tanzania, Mexico, Israel, Cambodia, Bahrain, Jordan, Laos, Syria, Austria, France, West Germany, Finland, and Norway. Third are listed countries that do not officially support, or that forbid contraception: Gabon, Malawi, Zambia, Greece, Italy, and Spain. Thus Asia and North Africa have the most ambitious programs, but Europe and North America practice contraception universally.^ieng

Steroids.

PIP: The structure, sources, synthesis, economics, and the present and future marketing of male and female sex steroids and corticoids are summarized. Physiologically, and historically in industry, steroids were made from cholesterol. Now most steroids are produced from diosgenin, an akaloid from the Mexican Dioscorea plant. Other sources are stigmasterol from soybeans, hecogenin from sissal waste, bile acids, and total synthesis. Unlike prices of corticoids which have been low for lack of patent protection, prices of sex steroids, especially oral contraceptives, have fallen only 50%, although doses have decreased 90%. There are 735 million women of fertile age, so prices could fall to an unlikely $1 per year without hurting sales. The major companies and subsidiaries, patent holders, and licencees of steroids in South America, U.S., Europe, Iron Curtain countries, Asia, and Africa were listed with their products. In the future oral contraceptives will be joined with minipills, injectables, once monthly pills, and steroid treatment of menopause. Postcoital pills and pills taken for delayed menses may be developed, but used clandestinely because of government and moral barriers. Corticoids are now used an analogs, with a growing market for topical ointments. Steroids will find uses in domestic animal estrus control, rat control, and insect hormones isolated from plant sources for insect control.^ieng

The pill in figures and facts.

PIP: A review of the use of oral contraceptives from 1956-1966 is presented for the U.S. and several European and Latin American countries. In 1969 an estimated 9,600,000 to 10,700,000 women in the world were pill users. Estimates for the number in 1985 vary from 20,000,000 to 40,000,000. However estimates are difficult because of the improvements in fertility control that are likely to occur in the future.^ieng