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Two Dimensions of a National Crisis: Population Growth and Refugees in Pakistan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Tom Rogers
Tom Rogers
Affiliation:
Academy for Educational Development, Washington D.C.
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Extract

Pakistan is today moving toward a population crisis with two dimensions. The source of this crisis is both internal and external. Internally the country is experiencing one of the greatest population growths in the world, externally the conflict in Afghanistan has resulted in the world's greatest refugee migration. Together these two dimensions of population pressure have generated a potentially explosive condition.

Type
Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 26 , Issue 4 , October 1992 , pp. 735 - 761
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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References

1 Asia averages 1.9% growth, South Asia 2.3% and South East Asia 2.3%. These figures are from the Population Reference Bureau's World Population Data Sheet, 1986 (Washington D.C., 04 1987).Google Scholar

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5 One of the reasons for the slow decline of mortality rates in Pakistan compared to other countries could be the phenomenon of repeated pregnancies and births which are closely associated with the health and mortality of infants, children and mothers.

6 John Stover of the Futures Group has used these figures in a study commissioned by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in conjunction with Pakistan's National Institute of Population Studies (NIPS), 1989.Google Scholar

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12 Other countres include India with 35 deaths per thousand, 26 in Sri Lanka, 34 in Indonesia, 31 in Malaysia, 33 in the Philippines, 28 in Thailand, 18 in China, 37 in Egypt, 33 in Tunisia and 35 in Turkey.

13 Some have argued that modernization has increased fertility in developing countries by decreasing breast-feeding, the decline in polygamous marriages, improved health services and nutrition, and advances in marriage ages. On the other hand, others feel that the almost universal breast-feeding of babies has been a major factor in moderating fertility and infant mortality by lengthening the post-partum amenorrhea which widens the birth interval.

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28 These figures are according to the United States Committee for Refugees, 1984.Google Scholar

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37 A similar impact of refugees on local food supplies was evident in the Eastern Province of Zambia in 1965. In this case the influx of Mozambiquan refugees coincided with the ‘hungry season’ of the rains before harvest. Zambians, who shared their food with refugees, were themselves vulnerable to shortages and relied on refugee assistance to stave off starvation. The resulting shortages caused food prices to rise which benefited prosperous farmers but undermined subsistence farmers and landless laborers who were forced to buy goods. The same phenomenon occurred from 1961 to 1967 in Zaire with the influx of Angolan refugees.Google Scholar

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39 Other refugee crises have resulted in similar problems. At Wad el Hiliewn in the Sudan in 1975, the Eritrean refugee crisis depressed the daily wage rate by 30%. For the Suki settlement, also in the Sudan (1979), wages for refugees were even less and reached as little as 50% of the normal daily wage. In 1975 at the Katumba settlement in Tanzania the wage rate was reported to have been driven down by nearly 45% due to the influx of refugees.Google Scholar

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