Lunch Meeting – Speaker: Professor Daniel Hiebert

“Vancouver's Place in the Global System of Migration"

We are experiencing a rapid transformation in global demography, with falling fertility rates in most countries. This is leading to population stagnation or decline in much of the global north, with virtually all of the world's population increase in selected countries of the global south (something like 90% of all young people in the world are in the global south). This presentation will first describe the basic contours of this demographic transition and then consider how it is related to the movement of people. I will then turn to the Canadian case, and how Canada is situated within this larger global system of change, before considering the particular way that migration is transforming Vancouver. I will include an overview of projections that have been made for Metro Vancouver's population in 2031 and end with basic questions about our readiness for the considerable changes we can expect to see in the cultural and socio-economic composition of Metro Vancouver.