Senior employment is one response to the reduction of productive workers between ages 18 and 65 in the world's most developed countries (MDCs). Retired or working seniors in North America, Europe, and Japan are living longer and healthier lives than ever before. Those with few economic alternatives will settle for McJobs but others choose jobs that provide pleasure as well as income.

In your own family, can you identify a senior (age 65 or older) who has postponed retirement or reentered the workforce? Please discuss the individual and the circumstances.

Another response to fewer workers in more developed countries is increased migration of productive workers from less developed countries (LDCs) to areas providing opportunities for work. While chain migration leads to the development of guest worker enclaves in host countries, circular migration facilitates the movement of workers and wages back to their home countries. Remittances of money earned abroad is also vital to the health of impoverished economies, and this money helps lift communities out of poverty.

Yet crossing international borders can be dangerous, and there is a growing trend in MDCs to keep foreign workers out of their countries or unable to claim citizenship at a later date. While there are job shortages in many highly developed countries, anti-immigration groups argue that foreigners take local jobs, especially from unemployed workers already suffering from the geography of discrimination. More pervasive is the fear that guest workers bring cultural practices with them that are undesirable in the host community. European right-wing politicians speak of defending traditional values while condemning increased immigration. National governments use a variety of work definitions and visas as well as immigration policies to help limit the number and kind of people legally allowed into a country. They can also create new agreements between countries regarding workers who cross international borders to fulfill employment requests.

U.S. RepresentativeTom Tancredo (R-Colorado) has compiled a list of immigration impacts on the United States. Do you agree that it is better to restrict foreign workers than to allow them into a country that could use their labor?

In MDCs, more workers are choosing to be child-free. As a result, population growth is slowing in these areas while population growth in LDCs remains high.

With the human population of the world at 6.4 billion, is it socially responsible for national governments, such as Sweden and Singapore, which is offering economic incentives for their citizens to have more children to offset the future need for foreign-born workers, to encourage larger families?