Family and religionI have just attended the IV International Summit on Demography, held in Budapest under this suggestive and challenging title. We find ourselves in the context of an unprecedented demographic winter across Europe, the background of which is not only a change of values in our society, but also a clear mismatch in women's employment policies and work-family reconciliation measures across the continent.
There are those who try to convince us that "sustainability means not having children". However, as Pope Francis affirms in the encyclical Laudato si', population growth is fully compatible with integral development and solidarity; so that blaming the problems of sustainability on population growth and not on the extreme and selective consumerism of some, is a way of not facing the problems (n. 50).
The growing consumerist mentality of the West sees children as a complication to be avoided at all costs, in order to enjoy life to the fullest. The so-called "dinkis" (double income no kids) are trend-setters, while families with children - especially if there are more than two - are viewed with apprehension and distrust, as if they were irresponsible. However, there are many couples who would like to have children, but in fact do not have them, or do not have the children they would like to have. We must ask ourselves why this decision is postponed indefinitely and implement measures aimed at removing these obstacles.
It makes no sense to strive to create a better, more just, more humane society if we are not thinking of those who can inhabit it.
Montserrat Gas
Hungary has been setting an example for more than a decade that it is possible to implement effective family policies, with real support for the stability of family life (with interesting housing and work-life balance policies) and that are achieving an increase in the birth rate, which is the real path to the sustainability of a society. This country has managed, according to 2020 data, to improve employment indicators and, at the same time, fertility rates, reaching 1.55 children (in clear contrast with the Spanish average of 1.18). The secret in our opinion is none other than to listen to the real needs of young couples and to respond to the reasons for the enormous gap between actual and desired fertility.
It makes no sense to strive to create a better, more just, more humane society if we are not thinking of those who can inhabit it. A society without children is a society without a future. In Spain, and in most of Europe, our governments have been ignoring this truism for decades. It is very striking that this growing trend towards infertility has not been the subject of a rigorous analysis in order to implement effective public policies. A clear sign that there is a genuine desire for political regeneration should be shown by putting aside ideological and party interests, to seriously address the real problems of a sustainable society, which wishes to have a future.
Professor at the Faculty of Law of the International University of Catalonia and director of the Institute for Advanced Family Studies. She directs the Chair on Intergenerational Solidarity in the Family (IsFamily Santander Chair) and the Childcare and Family Policies Chair of the Joaquim Molins Figueras Foundation. She is also Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Law at UIC Barcelona.
