NGO Forum on Ageing 5-9 April 2002

GLOBALISATION AND AGEING

MPDL
NGO Forum on Ageing, April 7, 2002

A predictable problem

It was one of the first round tables of the day and the interest of the speakers (the ex-Minister of Labor, José Antonio Griñán, was among them), filled the room. The topic was globalization and in general, the world demography. One of the conclusions reached was the disappointment that the Summit of Monterrey was not successful. NGOs tried to get the governments to understand the need of re-direct the globalization towards the demographic equilibrium between the developed and underdeveloped countries. The other decision of the speakers was the necessity of changing the policy of the migratory process along with the economic and demographic equilibrium. It is necessary the population movements to be in close touch with the development programs.

According to Alberto Hidalgo, member of MPDL, “globalization raises such important issues as the new technologies and the influence of these on the elderly people, and also raises a factual reality: most of the elderly people of the future will be immigrants. This situation will generate a problem with no adequate policies.”