Alícia Adserà is a Catalan demographer based in the US who was recently interviewed by La Vanguardia whose statements we read two days ago in The Contra from the same newspaper.
The interesting thing about this interview is to observe the differences at the social and economic level that families from countries like the US live and those that live in Spain.
One of the strangest statements, because of the situation we are in, is the one in which it says that having many children is a status symbol. I say strange because the feeling I have is that in Spain, those who really have many children are immigrants and some families with few resources, leaving the lowest birth rates to middle class families.
It is true that within the population located in the working class there are a large number of families with few children and it is true that within the upper class there are families with many children, which are the ones that would validate this claim, however I find it hard to believe that many families who have few children today are going to have more to improve their social status, basically, because after reading the headline all those people who thought we were crazy to have a second child have come to mind (yes we will still talk about the sixth, ok, but the second ...) and all those that recommend us to stop procreating already "because with two you have already fulfilled".
Spain still has everything to improve
The issue of offspring and status is not the only issue that Alícia Adserà try in the interview, since it makes an interesting comparison between our country and other more developed ones like those in northern Europe, Australia or the US itself.
As he comments, The low birthrate of our country is due to the fact that we live in a state of precariousness such that nobody dares to have too many children.
You could say that the birth rates of societies are determined by the level of development in which they live.
Poor countries have high birth rates, but as they develop the numbers begin to decline because “They access contraceptives and the State is increasingly effective in replacing children as providers of security and resources in old age”.
Thus they arrive at the situation in which Spain is now, with a low birth rate as a result of that development that will be solved when we grow even more (if that happens) as a society:
When countries exceed a certain level of wealth, birth returns again. The most prosperous and equitable countries have managed to invest that proportion and, the more wealth they get and the better distributed, the more children they have again.
The reason is simply that the system in these countries allows women to be a mother and have a profession, either by offering job flexibility (being able to leave your job knowing that when you want you can find another one) or through a family socialization system in which the State offers social resources destined to support families (long maternity leave, possibility of reducing working hours without losing wages, etc.)
Here in Spain we have the baby check, maternity leave of 16 weeks and paternity leave of two weeks, in addition to some grants. Adserà Comment on this:
Natalist measures alone are not the ones that decide to have children, but long-term confidence in economic prosperity and that there will be effective institutions that will transform it into employment and career opportunities for mothers.
Summarizing
I think he is right Alícia Adserà When I equate high birthrate with economic resources, however I believe that this relationship, in Spain, is still far from being a reality.
I observe every day many couples who consider a good number to have two children and who see three as a crowd and I doubt that, with more resources, they would increase the birth rate of these families (especially when to have several children it would be necessary to start having them relatively young and it is observed that the tendency is, precisely, the opposite, to be fathers past thirty and ...).
It is likely, however, that when our country grows, it develops and therefore citizens have more economic, educational and social resources and we feel more secure, thinking about life changes a bit, stop longing for what We already have and let's put our mind to enjoy life and human relationships with a few children. Maybe then you can say that, In Spain, having children is a status symbol.
Until then, it seems to me that the only thing that provokes a large family are doubts about whether it belongs to any religious congregation such as “opus dei” or if no one in life has explained to them what it is and how contraceptives work.
