Fewer migrants, more “bambini”: Italy creates incentives to have children

In Italy, birth rates are in free fall. The latest statistics show a new negative record: last year, for the first time since Italian unification in 1861, Italian women gave birth to fewer than 400,000 “bambini” (children).

To be precise: in 2022, 392,000 children will be born in Italy, of which about 800,000 will die. In 2008, 580,000 children were born. If things continue like this, only 50 million of the 59 million Italians will remain by the year 2100, according to calculations by the European statistics agency Eurostat.

Italy’s population is shrinking and ageing, and this will have disastrous consequences for the labor market and also for pension security in the near future. In addition, about 150,000 Italians emigrate abroad every year because they see no future for themselves in their country. A large proportion of the emigrants are young and well-educated.

The demographic winter turned permafrost has sparked heated political debates in Rome in recent weeks, not least as Italy simultaneously faces a tripling of the number of refugees and migrants arriving on the country’s shores.

Incentives for young people through the wallet

In fact, at least some of the population decline and associated problems could be solved with immigration. This is also stated in the financial plan presented by the government this week: “A 33 percent increase in the foreign population would be suitable to reduce the state deficit by a third in the medium term,” it says in black and white. , signed by Finance Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti the far-right Lega and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, head of the post-fascist Fratelli d’Italia.

But the right-wing government, which has taken up the fight against illegal immigration, does not want to hear about this recipe for ideological reasons.

Prime Minister Meloni also celebrates family happiness with her husband Andrea Giambruno and daughter Ginevra.

Instead, Italians should be encouraged to have children again through tax breaks. Giorgetti has been busy proposing that families with at least two children no longer pay income tax. And those who have paid little or no taxes so far – that’s 50 percent of all taxpayers in Italy – should get a hefty “bonus”. It would also be possible, added his party friend and Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, Massimo Bitonci, to introduce a tax deduction of 10,000 euros per child until the end of university studies. Today this deduction is 950 euros per child and year.

While the local descendants should be promoted, the government wants to make life more difficult for migrants who have entered the country illegally: On Wednesday, parliament decided to issue the residence permit for “humanitarian admission” only in absolutely exceptional cases.

This does not prevent any migrant from boarding a refugee boat to Italy, nor does it solve the problems of deporting rejected asylum seekers: the only result is that about 10,000 migrants who, thanks to the admission on humanitarian grounds, are legal living in Italy and having been able to work will soon become “illegals” without valid residence papers. But the government hopes that the measure can have a deterrent effect.

Racist undertones are mixed in the debate

Instead of more migrants, more “bambini” is the motto of the right-wing government. There is also no shortage of nationalistic and racist tones. “We should not settle for ethnic substitution,” said Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida, a relative of the recently deceased film diva of the same name and brother-in-law of Prime Minister Meloni.

The attempt to use the battle term “ethnic replacement” often used by far-right conspiracy theorists has sparked outrage from the opposition. Lollobrigida is, of course, in prominent company: his sister-in-law Meloni and Lega boss Matteo Salvini also used the phrase numerous times before the election victory in the autumn of 2022.

(aargauerzeitung.ch)