5 - Human factors

Summary

We have already seen in Chapter 3 the basic demographic indicators for the country: a long life-expectancy, a very low fertility rate, an unsatisfactory rate of women employment and substantial immigration. In this chapter I will focus first on the family, beginning with its strong traditional role, before examining its changed composition, how it has fared in the face of economic crisis, and the position of women. I will then consider education and human capital, before discussing the issue of immigration, with special attention given to the recent migrant crisis and the resumption of Italian emigration abroad.

FAMILY, AGE AND GENDER

Italy has shared the “nuclear” form of the family since the Middle Ages, with a propensity to retain very strong family ties. These ties can tend towards nepotism and even to amoral familism, however, in its positive version family ties have guaranteed a network of support and friendship that has lasted to this very day, although the situation of the Italian family is today very different with 58 per cent of “households” comprising one or two people and only 6 per cent having more than four members.

Over a third of households have a family head over 65 years of age. When we take into account that Italy has 3 million seriously disabled people (2.2 million over 65 years of age) and only 2 million receive state assistance, and only 22 per cent of children under the age of three attend preschool, it is easy to understand that the majority of families are engaged in the care of children and old people. Some resort to private help, although there is no clear information about the size of that help. In 2016 the Italian National Agency for Pension Schemes (INPS) reported 900,000 people enrolled as home helpers whose social contributions are paid by families, but it is well-known that there are an additional 600,000 “badanti” (caregivers to old people in their houses), mostly Eastern European migrants, who do not have an official contract of employment, plus an unknown number of child-minders who look after small children when parents are at work.