Demographics: where is the next generation?
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted 36 years ago today, on 20 November 1989. On this World Children's Rights Day the media discuss why birth rates continue to decline and Europe's societies face ageing demographics.
Focus on family policy
In 2025, France will register more deaths than births for the first time since 1945. Le Figaro calls for
“a political and social pact that restores the balance between the generations. By striking a balance between the functions of the welfare state, which today spends 14.5 percent of GDP on pensions and 2.2 percent on family policy, whereas in 1946 the two were equal. By restoring universal family benefits and paying them from the first child onwards. By making the battle against the scandalous infant mortality rate a major national concern. ... By ensuring professional equality and facilitating the reconciliation of work and family life. ... And by modernising the education system.”
An adults-only world
Avvenire laments a world that is hostile to children:
“Today, 20 November, we celebrate International Children's Rights Day - an age group that is becoming increasingly rare in our society. Today, childhood is largely invisible, and not just because of the drastic decline in birth rates or migration. There are ever fewer children in our extended families, our homes, our courtyards. Streets and squares are closed to free play, in some cases there are signs explicitly prohibiting it. There are more and more 'child-free' hotels and restaurants - places where absolute silence must reign. Even churches sometimes set up separate rooms to prevent the little ones from disturbing the services. ”
A society in decline
HuffPost Greece warns:
“The low birth rate is not just the result of an ageing population, the strain on the social security system, the weakening of the regions, the decline and depopulation of schools, or the changing identity of the Greek family. ... However, an ageing population that is not renewing itself and whose sense of being a dynamically developing community has been disrupted becomes vulnerable to all forms of pressure, from economic dependence to cultural and political change. In a dynamic and sensitive geographical area such as the Aegean and the south-east Mediterranean, the ageing of Greece's population unfortunately - and understandably - equates to defeat without war.”
Fearmongering over Polish identity
Polityka warns of a xenophobic element in the debate about Polish parents having too few children:
“From an ethical point of view we should abandon the tales about a 'democalypse' as quickly as possible. Because they are not driven by concern for the state of society but by an exceptionally strong emotional fuel: fear for our identity. It's as if it somehow pains us to think of a future in which Polish culture is numerically weakened. As if we assume that foreigners who have children in Poland will no longer pass on this identity even if their children attend Polish schools and speak Polish.”