What happened when this Italian province invested in newborns

BOLZANO, Italy — In a municipal building in the heart of the Alpine city of Bolzano, Stefano Baldo left work early to take a break to breastfeed.

“It’s clear that I don’t breastfeed,” said Baldo, a 38-year-old transportation administrator, in his office decorated with photographs of his wife and six children.

But with his wife at home with a newborn, a parent had the right by law to take time to pick up the children.

“It’s very convenient.”

Sold out has become more and more history in Italy, which has one of lower birth rates of Europe and where the prime minister Giorgia MeloneI, as well as Pope Francis, have warned that Italians risk disappearing.

But the Alto Adige-Südtirol area and its capital, Bolzano, more than any other part of the country, have gone against the trend and have emerged as a parallel procreation universe for Italy, with a birth rate that has remained stable for decades.

The reason, experts say, is that over time the provincial government has developed a wide network of benefits for families, which go well beyond the one-off baby bonuses offered by the national government.

Parents benefit from discounts on daycare, baby products, groceries, healthcare, energy bills, transportation, after-school activities and summer camps.

The province supplements national allocations for children with hundreds of euros more for each child and boasts child care programs, including one that certifies educators to turn their apartments into small nurseries.

All this, experts say, helps women have more freedom to work, which is vital for the economy.

As in France and some Scandinavian countries, this also demonstrates a supply-side policy affordable nursery it has the power to lift Italy out of the looming demographic abyss as the birth rate declines.

“If we don’t invest money in families, there is no future for any of us,” said Waltraud Deeg, a former provincial council member and architect of some of its family policies.

“Family is a long-term project, so policies must be too.”

This approach not only distinguishes the Bolzano area, but also stands out in Italy for other important aspects that can constitute an example difficult to replicate.

Identity

For much of its history, South Tyrol belonged to the various Austrian empires, who called it Alto Adige, until it was annexed by Italy in the early 20th century.

It maintains a certain independence over taxes, euros and financial decisions and, culturally, can seem otherworldly, more Austrian than the rest of Italy.

Most people still speaks German and you are more likely to eat bread dough balls than a plate of pasta.

The area also has the highest per capita income in Italy, according to ISTAT, the country’s statistical agency.

Outside his office, Baldo passed a blue wreath marking the arrival of a coworker’s first grandchild and left the building through a lobby filled with brochures advertising “Welcome Baby” backpacks loaded with advice for new parents and illustrated books.

She got on her scooter and arrived at the nursery to pick up her 5 and 4 year old children. “Oh, do you want both?” the nursery school teacher joked.

“But let me hide one under my apron.”

The children wore the “Welcome Baby” backpacks provided by Bolzano and crossed the street with their father to pick up their little brother from another nursery for younger children.

The four then walked across the street to their rent-stabilized apartment, where Baldo’s wife, Tiziana Balzamá, 39, greeted them with a baby in her arms.

Experts say the province’s consistent and reliable financial commitment to families matters more than the short-term baby bonuses that Italy’s unstable national governments have favored for decades.

“The difference is that it has a constant investment, over the years, unlike most national policies which are one-off,” explains Agnese Vitali, a demographer at the University of Trento.

“No one plans to have children based on specific policies.”

The Baldo family said provincial support means everything to them.

While a cake was rising in the oven, Rubén, 2, played a children’s song, while his brothers Beniamino, 5, and Gioele, 4, showed off the plastic vegetables in their toy kitchen.

His parents sat next to a toy register and explained that, like all parents in the province, they received 200 euros a month for each of their six children up to the age of 3.

Added to these was the monthly allowance of 1,900 euros (about 2,000 dollars) received from the national government for their children.

Your card Family +available to all families with three or more children, gave them the right to aa 20% discount. on many city supplies and was linked to the local Despar supermarket for further discounts.

Balzamá said he also took advantage of savings on public transportation.

When subsidies for families began in the 1980s, the province also imported the idea of ​​the Tagesmutter nursery, or child care, system from East Germany.

The Italians call it Baby House.

Under this system, the province certifies, registers and supports local teachers who convert their homes into daycare centers.

It is especially popular in rural areas.

«They opted for a very widespread network of micro-incubators», explains Mariangela Franch, professor of economics at the University of Trento.

Balzamá, who worked in classrooms across the province before the birth of her first child, said she considered a one-year course to become a Tagesmutter, but concluded that for now it made more financial sense to stay At home.

“It was my decision to say I will wait to go back to work,” he said.

Alternatives

For mothers who want to return to work, like her sister, a nurse with four children, Balzamá said the province also offers low-cost public nurseries.

Some experts say the province’s attitude toward family benefits is rooted in the desire of a minority culture in a historically contested area to maintain live an identity strongly encourage people to have more children.

This cultural factor becomes clearer when you look across the border, towards Trentino, the other (and culturally more Italian) part of the wider region.

Trentino has also invested heavily in childcare, a strategy that precedes and in some cases surpasses its neighbour.

However, its birth rate has collapsed to 1.36 children per woman, much lower than that of South Tyrol and much closer to the dismal national average.

“Local culture also plays an important role,” said Alessandro Rosina, a prominent Italian demographer.

“And that is difficult to export.”

Tradition

Baldo, who doesn’t speak German, claims to be Italian like anyone else.

He said his Catholic faith and his affection for the chaos of large families (his wife is one of eight children) motivated the couple to have children, a decision allowed by provincial policies.

At 4pm Baldo ran to pick up his other two children from school in his white truck.

He said he had ordered a new one, with nine seats, and that anything larger would require a special license.

He saluted the retired volunteers in fluorescent green vests who made up what the province called “grandfather’s traffic police.”

In addition to acting as crossing guards, he explained, they also took children to school in the morning in a program called “the walking bus”.

Baldo’s older children, Raffaele, 10 years old, and Elia, 8 years old, got into the van and they all returned home.

His grandmother Renata Canali, 71, stopped by and asked her daughter-in-law “give me my grandson.”

“Bye, bye, bye,” she said to 6-month-old Jonah.

“It’s as beautiful as the sun.”

Some children drew or danced, while others got ready for dinner, a shower or soccer practice.

“Many of our friends have one or two children because they want to live their own lives.

But here if they want they have help,” said Balzamà.

“We have a friend in Rome who has four children. “They pay a lot of aid.”

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