Occupational Safety and English Language Proficiency

Recent occupational injury data shows a rising trend, which happens to coincide with both increases in the foreign-born population
in the U.S. and changes in its composition. This study aims to explore the presence of a statistical relationship between
occupational injuries and the level of English proficiency of foreign-born using cross-sectional data on the rate of injury
and count of injury incidents. A cultural gap hypothesis is also examined as an alternative explanation for the rise in work
injuries. While there is some support for the adverse effect of inadequate English language proficiency of foreign-born, the
results for the cultural gap hypothesis are more robust.

In an ageing society, families may have an important role in the caretaking and well-being of the elderly. Demographic changes
have an impact on the size and structure of families; one aspect is how intergenerational support is distributed when there
is a need for support to both older and younger generations at the same time. Another vital aspect of the provision of care
for the elderly is geographic proximity. This study is oriented towards the potential “both-end carers” i.e. persons who have
grandchildren in potential need of care while still having living ageing parents. The incidence of having grandchildren and
having living parents at age 55 and the proximity between generations is described using Swedish register data. The results
show that the share of 55-year-olds who are grandparents decreased dramatically from 70% to 35% between 1990 and 2005. As
expected, more 55-year-olds have living parents—a proportion that increased from 37% to 47% during this period. As a result
of delayed childbearing among the children of these cohorts, the likelihood of belonging to a four-generation family among
55-year-olds has not increased, despite increased longevity. Furthermore, most individuals live within daily reach of their
kin and no evidence was found of a trend of increasing geographic distances between generations.

Canada is an aging society; with over 13% of the population 65 and over in 2008 and with this population growing at a rate
more than double the overall population. Moreover, the aging of the Canada population varies geographically across the nation.
Using data drawn from the 2001 Census of Canada Master files (20% sample), the objectives of this analysis are twofold. First,
the analysis examines the internal migration behavior of the older population, distinguishing between the native-born and
foreign-born. Second, the analysis examines how residential attributes at the census subdivision (CSD) and census metropolitan
levels influence the migration decision. This analysis examines the later-life migrations of Canada’s older population at
the census subdivision level in 2001.

Due to ageing populations and a future shortage of labour active people, there is a political ambition to prolong people’s
work force activities in Europe. The question of this paper is to what degree policy changes aimed at prolonging people’s
working lives have been successful in influencing peoples’ commitment to paid work during the studied period of time? The
age patterns of non-financial employment commitment (EC) and organisational Commitment (OC) are examined from the perspective
of policy changes in four European countries, using ISSP-data collected in 1997 and 2005 from Denmark, Great Britain, Hungary
and Sweden. Because of hypothesised country and group differences in visibility and proximity of policy measures taken to
increase labour market participation among older workers, Danish and Swedish people were expected to display some degree of
general and intended attitudinal response to the policy changes and that the British and Hungarian response would be more
gender divided. The results showed that policy changes overall had little intended effect on people’s attitudes to work. Instead,
EC dropped dramatically in Hungary for all men from the age of 30 and over, and for Swedish men and Danish women in the 45–53
age group. OC decreased for Swedish men in the age 54 and over, and for Danish women in the 45–53 age group. The main exceptions
were British and Hungarian women that displayed unchanged or even an increase in EC in the age group 54 and over.

The process of demographic ageing in Sri Lanka is striking in comparison to the experience of other countries in South Asia,
and in comparison to many developing countries more generally. The proportion of the population older than 60 years in Sri
Lanka was much higher—almost double—than in any other country in the region in 2000, and by 2030, it is expected that nearly
one of every five Sri Lankans will be elderly. The rapid ageing of the Sri Lankan population is contributing to the emergence
of several policy issues that will undoubtedly become more acute in the years to come. The primary aim of this paper is to
examine the magnitude, characteristics and determinants of demographic ageing in Sri Lanka, a country whose demography has
received little international attention, and discuss some of the implications of this ageing process for selected policy issues.

Anticipating the duration of a labor strike can be vital for both sides of the dispute, as well as outside observers. The
methods of a pair of studies using Canadian data are surveyed to analyze labor strikes in the United States from 1992 to 2008.
Corrections are made for strikes with predetermined lengths (“one-day” strikes and the like), whose durations are more a function
of the prior announcements than of other factors, such as number of employees striking and macroeconomic conditions. Strikes
are found to be generally shorter when the striking unit represents a larger portion of the firm’s total workers, a proxy
for its bargaining power. This ratio provides a better understanding of the strike dynamics (including expected length) than
do sheer bargaining unit size or sheer firm size.