Today, while the world is celebrating the International Childhood Day, reading the reports of many organizations and international associations still leave some doubts about the future and the hopes of a decent quality of the life of the young people living on our planet.
In the third millennium, in fact, there are still 61 million children who still do not go to school; if children of low-income countries had access to education, 171 million people would no more live in poverty. In some countries the color of the skin and social class belonging continues to be a strong discriminant to gain access to education. As in Brazil, where white children have a 32% less chance to have serious gaps in school knowledge. Or in Nigeria, where young people between age of 17 and 22 belonging to the poor population have only five years of schooling in comparison to the 10 years of the rich ones. In 1990, the 93% of the poor lived in low-income countries. Today the 70% or almost one billion, live in middle-income countries.
To take future appropriate social policies is important today to understand demographic trends of children of the 21st century through a new research highlighting the global demographic changes expected for the next generations. In this context it is essential the data revealed by Unicef: by 2050 one out three will be born in Africa, as it will be african one out of three under the age of 18 years old. One century ago the ratio of births in the ‘Sub-Saharan Africa was only one out of ten.
In Italy, what are statistics recording? The 18.4% of those born in 2011 are children of other nationalities. More than 50% live in Lombardy, Veneto, Lazio and Emilia Romagna. Parents are from Romania, Morocco and Albania. “The continuous increase in births recorded in Italy in recent years – have observed the researchers of Leone Moressa Foundation – confirms the process of rooting of immigrant population is no longer represented by men in search of work but more and more by families.
Lavinia Macchiarini