A prominent theme of migration literature is the problems of adjustment migrants have living and working in their destinations. Many of these problems are seen to result from migrants coming from less developed areas and being less skilled and educated than the destination population, thus being a result of their poverty. This paper looks at a very different group of migrants, Taiwanese business migrants to Brisbane, Australia. They have come from a country which, while not the most technologically advanced is nonetheless developed. Moreover, they are at least on a par in education level with the host population and in wealth they are far above them.
However, they still have problems of adjustment, not as threatening to physical and mental health as other migrant populations face but problems which nonetheless affect their general happiness and their ability to make a living in the host economy. These problems stem from three major factors: the work skills these migrants brought with them are often unsuitable to the Australian economy as presently structured; the culture and social organization of Australia is quite different to that from Taiwan such that there are difficulties performing even very routine tasks; and the facility in English of most migrants prevents them from having more than the most superficial contact with locals. Their problems of adjustment and the reasons for them are shared with Taiwanese migrant communities studied in the other Western countries.

This paper analyzes the trends of three dependency measures in Taiwan to observe their relationships and to contemplate their economic implications. The findings indicate that Taiwan`s population is aging much faster than that of the United States, and that the shift from more young and less elderly to less young and more elderly dependents will accelerate in the near future.
It was also found that there have been no significant differences between the labor-force-participation adjusted dependency ratio (LADDR) and the expenditure adjusted dependency ratios (LEADDR) in Taiwan in the past two decades. These ratios were found to be about three times as large as the crude demographic dependency ratios (CDDR). Whether the consistent and stable relationship in Taiwan between LADDR and CDDR is due to Taiwan`s specific conditions or whether there is a systematic functional relationship between the two measures is an issue that needs further study. Finally, the changes in population composition and expenditure indicate that Taiwan`s family burden during the past two decades has been gradually eased because the high consumption group has decreased in size while the low consumption group has increased in size.

This paper is to identify and assess the determinants of 1985-90 interprefectural return and onward migrations of the young non-native labor force (aged 25-29 in 1990) in Taiwan, by applying a three-level nested logit model to Appendix h previous migration outcome and (2) the responsiveness to economic opportunities. The following are the main findings. First, disappointments are more likely to result in return migrations, whereas onward migrations are more prone to be induced by the pursuits of newly emerged or better opportunities; however, a large proportion of returnees remain subject to the effects of market forces. Second, the U-shaped effect of previous migration distance in the return/onward model not only supports the disappointment hypothesis, but also reveals its effects on the depreciation of location-specific capital left behind and on the ability to finance further move. Third, return migration is selective of the less educated labor force as opposed to the very strong positive pattern of its onward counterpart. Fourth, agricultural workers are particularly prone to emigrate and choose return option from prefectures with a high non-agricultural share of total employment. Fifth, the relative sensitivity of male and female labor force could be explained to be substantially affected by the patriarchal ideology; within this value system, breadwinners are (1) more prone to move onward, (2) less prone to return, and (3) more responsive to the pushes and pulls of market forces than non-breadwinners.

Single-mother families significantly increased since the end of 1980s in Taiwan, however, a great proportion of them is living under the poverty. Although a large body of studies has examined the issues of single-parent families in Taiwan, none of them have proposed a policy solution to resolve the disadvantageous economic status of these single-mother families. The Child Support Assurance System (CSAS) is designed with the dual goal of preventing poverty and promoting independence for single-mother families. Using the 1992-1994 Family Income and Expenditure Survey in Taiwan, this paper empirically examined the effectiveness of implementing CSAS in Taiwan. The results indicate that enforcing the CSAS should produce a high effectiveness with low costs. The most important benefit is the reduction in the poverty rate of these single-mother families and the improvement in their family income, which in turn improves their economic independence.

Poverty rates are known to differ over the stages of life cycle and by family types. Poverty rates of cohorts are also known to be affected by their sizes. This paper uses a demographic model, the Age-Period-Cohort model to assess factors affecting poverty rates among different family types.
We found that in the cohort effect on poverty rates among different family types, only male households whose heads were born in the 1938-1947 period showed significant differences both in terms of poverty rate and the means poverty level. This could be due to the effect of World War II. Although some feminization of poverty was observed, no significant difference was found.
In the period effect on poverty rates among different family types, we found an unstable S shape curve among male heads, a decline in rates first followed by an increase only to be followed by further decline later. This seems to indicate that a continuing ascendant in average income and in income inequality during the study period were responsible for the unstable result. The same was also true among female heads. However, this was due to the fact that female heads tended to work in low wages sectors. The changes in macro economic conditions did little improve the income of female heads.
In the age effect on poverty rates among different family types, we found male headed households whose heads were 35-44 years old or 60 years old and elder tended to show higher poverty rates. In those same households whose members age 30 or under tended to have lower poverty rates than others, due to the fact that most of their parents were in working age; and those members age were 45-54 years old also showed lower poverty rates due to the fact that their children had grown and their incomes were higher than previous period. The same trends held true for female heads with the exception for those members age 55-59 years old who showed higher poverty rates. This showed that female heads would enter poverty early than their male counterparts.

Previous literature has defined "population aging" only based on the relative age distribution of a nation`s population, let alone the discussion regarding an optimal age distribution for a nation. For example, many developing countries have relatively high birth rates, by definition they are relatively "young" countries, which may be harmful in terms of the productivity for a nation as a whole. These countries may be better off economically by effectively lowering their birth rate and facing an "aging" problem. Therefore, we have to redefine the "aging", not by looking at the age distribution, but by looking at when the age structure starts to have a negative economical impact to the society; at which we call it the optimal population growth rate. The research is to propose a theoretical framework, which can provide an analytical model of finding an optimal population growth path for a society.
The research will use Chu`s (1997) first-degree stochastic dominance analytical framework to define "aging" and prove that a society can improve some economic objectives (for example, dependency ratio, individual income distribution, tax burden etc.) by effectively reducing the birth rate, when the population growth is above the optimal level. On the other hand, a society`s economic objective would deteriorate when aging occurs at the time that population growth is below the optimal level.

While the elderly living alone with/without the spouse present is becoming a phenomenon in Taiwan, this paper examines the living arrangement of the elderly systematically. It is found that though the proportion of elderly living with their children has declined during the past two decades, most of the decrease can be attributed to the increase in the proportion of elderly living only with the spouse. The remnant of this increase in the proportion of elderly living alone can be attributed to the aging and retiring of the more than 600,000 soldiers brought to Taiwan after the nationalists retreated from the Mainland China in 1949. There are roughly 400,000 veterans of age 65 and plus on 1996 and 21% of them have remained unmarried. We found that counting only the ever-married, 9.02% of the elderly live in solitude in 1996 as compared to 12.01% counting all the elderly. Consequently 67.40% of the ever-married elderly live with the children while 64.49% of all the elderly live with the children in 1996. Focusing on the ever-married elderly, we found the decrease in proportion living with the children replaced by the increase in proportion living with only the spouse. It is also possibly related to the decreased propensity to live with the children, due to the socioeconomic changes generalized as a process of modernization. It should be noted, however that living with the children remains the predominant type of living arrangement among the ever-married elderly in 1996.