Demographic Developments and “Complementarities”: Ageing, Labor and Migration

Abstract

Abstract Studying demographic data, this contribution highlights the fallacies surrounding the complementarity issue: The idea of a demographic “complementarity” between a “young” Turkey and an “older” Europe is the product either of wishful thinking or of an irrational fear of a massive and uncontrollable immigration and of its effects on labor market and unemployment. Young immigrants required to prevent ageing would have to make up an unrealistically large flow, while the immigrant population itself would be ageing in the host country. On the other hand, the study uses basic demographic data to show that migration management will soon have to become a European priority—rather than an attempt at migration prevention—as the current EU policy amounts to.