Recent trends in Hispanic immigration to the United States

Recent patterns of Hispanic immigration to the United States are examined using data from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. "From 1960 to 1978 Hispanic immigration increased significantly, reflecting the general acceleration in total immigration to the United States. Demographic trends reveal that Hispanic immigrants are increasingly working-age women. Their occupation composition is primarily blue collar, with operatives emerging as the predominant job category during the 1970s." The authors note that these immigrants settle primarily in a small number of urban centers of Hispanic population and culture in the United States, and thus the effects of immigration will be concentrated on the low-skill segment of particular urban labor markets that already contain large numbers of Hispanic workers.     

Toward a Copernican revolution in our thinking about life's beginning and life's end

This article attempts to narrow the range of moral disagreement surrounding the issue of abortion by exploring current assumptions and comparing thinking about abortion with our thinking about death. Focusing the abortion debate on questions such as when life begins or whether the fetus is a person has thrust us into scientific uncertainty and definitional disputes. It is suggested that the focus of the debate should be shifted to the issue of whether the fetus merits our protection. Moral judgements regarding personhood represent a complex balancing that involves weighing our interests in protecting an entity against the loss to our liberty implied by such protection. This approach requires a Copernican revolution in our thinking about abortion, in which 3 major factors--the nature of the entity, the impact of its mistreatment on our broadest human interests, and the specific implications of its protection for our liberty--are considered in a relational whole. Similarly, the continuum in the dying process requires us to determine which aspect of human death will be recognized as morally significant. Since determinations with regard to life and death are arbitrary, societies must select their own moral values and take responsibility for collective moral decisions. It is concluded that the US Supreme Court decision that allows free access to abortion in the 1st trimester, imposes a requirement of medical supervision in the 2nd, and prohibits abortion in most cases in the 3rd trimester represents a reasonable response to the moral issues at stake.     

Geographic distance,the measurement of socioeconomic development,and the extent of migration

A study of migration in the region of Wojewodztwo Wloclawskie, Poland, is presented for the period 1975-1979 using a gravitational model. The model includes migration variables and variables measuring the level of socioeconomic development.     

Modern research on the demography of colonial Central America: a bibliographical essay

A review of the literature concerning the demographic history of colonial Central America is presented. An unannotated bibliography is included.     

An analysis of indirect mortality estimation

Abstract In this paper the robustness of Brass's child-survivorship indirect mortality estimation technique is investigated. An analytical method is developed for studying the error or bias caused in indirect mortality estimates by poor data, badly chosen model functions, and specific demographic assumptions that are often violated in practice. The resulting analytical expressions give insight into the rationale of indirect methods, the conditions under which they are robust, and the magnitude of errors that occur when specific assumptions are violated.     

The use of traditional and modern methods of fertility control in Kinshasa, Zaire

Abstract The practice of post-partum abstinence has been a long-standing tradition in many societies of tropical Africa, yet recent research suggests an erosion of the taboo on post-partum sexual relations as a means of fertility control. The current study among women in the lower income groups in Kinshasa, Zaire, provides evidence of this. There is strong motivation toward child-spacing, as shown by 80 per cent of the women who reported to be currently practising some means of fertility control: 73 per cent with traditional methods, only 7 per cent with modern contraceptives. There appears to be some carry-over of traditional practice, in that abstinence is related to the age and nursing status of the last born child. However, the most widely practised method is withdrawal. This suggests a desire on the part of this population for alternatives to abstinence, an issue with important implications for future family planning programs in Zaire.     

Professions as "callings"

The idea of an occupation as a "calling" refers to some moral and perhaps religious motives and to a vision of the larger ends and purposes that work serves. Professions are characterized by mastery of technical information, concepts and theories that guide choices, institutionalization that exercises social controls, and, at least traditionally, a service orientation. "Calling" without professionalization is inept, and a profession without a calling lacks moral and humane roots, loses human sensitivity, and restricts the vision of the purposes of human good that are served.