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Pro-child policies are all very well, but what about being pro-parent too?
States that want to encourage people to have more kids should think about making it easier to raise them.
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States planning pro-childbirth policies would be better off thinking about what a “pro-parent” policy could look like.
PHOTO: PIXABAY
Stephen Bush
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One of the things that forces a rich country to open its doors to immigrants is the need to find people to do work that its own population is unwilling or unable to do. And, increasingly in the developed world, one of the jobs that people are unwilling or unable to do is that of a parent.
Except for Israel, no country in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has a birth rate above replacement rate – 2.1 births per woman. Even countries like France and Hungary, which have spent large sums to encourage people to have bigger families, have not managed to get above this pivotal figure.
