Demographic Change in Southeast Asia – Recent Histories and Future Directions

During the last half century, Southeast Asia has undergone tremendous social, political, and economic change. This volume chronicles the extensive demographic transformations that have accompanied those changes, documenting how public health and other policy interventions contributed to rapid population growth and how new patterns of settlement and migration ensued. More recently, changing opportunities for young adults have revolutionized marriage and fertility choices and raised concerns about population aging.

The authors consider the recent demographic histories of the region alongside government policies intended to manage population growth rates; improve access to education, employment, and health services; influence levels of internal and international migration; and address environmental concerns. This groundbreaking study of postcolonial Southeast Asia addresses many of the contemporary demographic challenges facing the citizens and governments of the increasingly mobile and globalized region of Southeast Asia.

Contributors: Sabrina Bonaparte, University of Washington-Seattle; Sara Curran, University of Washington-Seattle; Noah Derman, deputy director at Development in Gardening (Atlanta, GA ); Hongyun Fu, Population Services International (China); Bina Gubhaju, National University of Singapore; Charles Hirschman, University of Washington-Seattle; Graeme Hugo, University of Adelaide; Terence Hull, Australian National University; Gavin Jones, Australian National University and National University of Singapore; Ghazy Mujahid, York Centre for Asian Research (Canada) and former UN population policy advisor; and Mark J. Vanlandingham, Tulane University

"Southeast Asia is a region on the rise: eleven countries of varied scales and endowments acting increasingly in unison on the international stage. This book adds enormously to our understanding of the populations involved and how they are changing. To borrow from the motto of Southeast Asia's largest country, there is here a 'unity in diversity? that accounts for much of the region?s expanding vitality and charm. To anyone who wants to understand current demographic trends in Southeast Asia and how they are likely to affect the region?s future prosperity and geopolitical role, I highly recommend this book."

(Adrian Hayes, Australian National University and Chair, Scientific Panel on Climate Change, International Union for the Scientific Study of Population)