About 1.5 million people of Moroccan origin live as legal migrants in the countries of the European Union. For several decades, emigration has affected various provinces of Morocco. In some regions, the process started more than 40 years ago; in others the migration experience is much more recent. This study seeks to portray from a micro perspective the ongoing migration processes from Morocco, in particular to Western Europe. Emphasis is placed on the effect of family networks and migration culture on the intention to emigrate of Moroccan men and women without international migration experience. We focus especially on gender differences since the position and the roles played by men and women both within the family and within Moroccan society are very different. This gender distinction reveals remarkable differences between men and women in the intention to emigrate, and in its explanation. For men, emigration intentions are stronger in regions having a migration culture, while at the same time the presence of family networks abroad has a negative but small effect on the emigration intention. For women, however, the existence of a migration culture has no effect on the intention to leave the country, whereas family networks abroad tend to increase this intention. Interestingly, women with a paid job and who judge their financial situation negatively have the highest emigration intentions. This may indicate that, among Moroccan women, the more modernised, especially, intend to migrate. The more conservative Moroccan women are not likely to express an intention to migrate on their own. Rather, they behave in a manner that suits the husband or family. This behaviour may, or may not, include an emigration decision.

This article presents a framework which applies life course approach to high-skilled migration. By using the lens of the life course, migration behaviour is viewed not only in response to labour market triggers, but also in relation to other life domains such as education, employment and household. The data presented in this article are drawn from 22 in-depth interviews and visualisations of parallel careers. The results illustrate how highly skilled Indian migrants in the Netherlands shape their life course and highlight the parallel careers that structure their migration trajectories. Parents, spouse and social networks inform the life course decisions of these migrants through the linked lives mechanism to a large extent. Our findings challenge the notion of ‘trailing wives’ and suggest that, despite of gender differences in the life course patterns, the joining spouses play an active role in the family migration decisions of the highly skilled. Life course approach enables us to understand the migration process through the lives of the highly skilled and reveals how—the often culturally conditioned—life course interdependencies frame their migration decisions.

We present a new mortality projection methodology that distinguishes smoking- and non-smoking-related mortality and takes into account mortality trends of the opposite sex and in other countries. We evaluate to what extent future projections of life expectancy at birth (e₀) for the Netherlands up to 2040 are affected by the application of these components. All-cause mortality and non-smoking-related mortality for the years 1970–2006 are projected by the Lee-Carter and Li-Lee methodologies. Smoking-related mortality is projected according to assumptions on future smoking-attributable mortality. Projecting all-cause mortality in the Netherlands, using the Lee-Carter model, leads to high gains in e₀ (4.1 for males; 4.4 for females) and divergence between the sexes. Coherent projections, which include the mortality experience of the other 21 sex- and country-specific populations, result in much higher gains for males (6.4) and females (5.7), and convergence. The separate projection of smoking and non-smoking-related mortality produces a steady increase in e₀ for males (4.8) and a nonlinear trend for females, with lower gains in e₀ in the short run, resulting in temporary sex convergence. The latter effect is also found in coherent projections. Our methodology provides more robust projections, especially thanks to the distinction between smoking- and non-smoking-related mortality.

European regions experience accelerating ageing, but the process has substantial regional variation. This paper examines the effect of this variation on regional economic cohesion in Europe. We measure the effect of convergence or divergence in the share of the working age population on convergence or divergence in economies of NUTS 2 regions. The effect of convergence or divergence in ageing on economic convergence or divergence is quite substantial and, in some cases, is bigger than the effect of changes in productivity and labour force participation. Convergence of ageing leads to economic convergence only when the share of the working age population in rich regions exceeds that in poor regions and the former regions experience a substantial decline in the share of the working age population, or the latter regions experience an increase. During 2003–12, an inverse relationship between convergence in ageing and economic convergence was the rule rather than the exception.

Given the increased link between retirement age and payments to the development in life expectancy, a precise and regular forecast of life expectancy is of utmost importance. The choice of the jump-off rates, i.e. the rates in the last year of the fitting period, is essential for matching mortality forecasts to the most recently observed data. A general approach to the choice of the jump-off rates is currently lacking. We evaluate six different options for the jump-off rates and examine their effects on the robustness and accuracy of the mortality forecast. Death and exposure numbers by age for eight European countries over the years 1960–2014 were obtained from the Human Mortality Database. We examined the use of model values as jump-off rates versus observed values in the last year or averaged over the last couple of years. The future life expectancy at age 65 is calculated for different fitting periods and jump-off rates using the Lee-Carter model and examined on accuracy (mean absolute forecast error) and robustness (standard deviation of the change in projected e65). The choice for the jump-off rates clearly influences the accuracy and robustness of the mortality forecast, albeit in different ways. For most countries using the last observed values as jump-off rates resulted in the most accurate method, which relates to the relatively high estimation error of the model in recent years. The most robust method is obtained by using an average of observed years as jump-off rates. The more years that are averaged, the better the robustness, but accuracy decreases with more years averaged. Carefully considering the best choice for the jump-off rates is essential when forecasting mortality. The best strategy for matching mortality forecasts to the most recently observed data depends on the goal of the forecast, the country-specific past mortality trends observed, and the model fit.