The Poorest of the Poor - On the Edge of Europe
- 7 years ago
Italy may conjure up postcard perfect images of beauty, art, and culture, but it is also a country in which nearly 2 million children are struggling to survive.
Every morning, hundreds of thousands of children in Italy’s poorest regions wake up hungry. Some have never used a computer because the schools can’t afford them in the classrooms. Many don’t go to school at all, or when they do they drop out, hoping to find scarce jobs. While their parents try to eke out a living, infants are left alone with young children as caregivers because of a lack of public day care. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms. Others are pushed into the sex trade to help support their families. Thousands live without basic amenities like hot water, regular meals, or simple health care—all in picturesque Italy.
According to a report by UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) issued Feb. 28, Italy has the highest percentage of children living below the poverty line of 25 European nations, and the situation is only getting worse.
“In Italy, there are 1.8 million children living under the poverty line,” says Giacomo Guerrera, head of UNICEF Italy. “We could make this problem go away if only it were a priority on every local community and government agenda.”
This shouldn’t be happening in Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy. Sure, the country is in the midst of an epic financial crisis that saw it nearly default on its deficit late last year. The new interim government under technocrat Mario Monti has also been forced to tighten up the country’s budget. But that’s not the crux of the child poverty problem. After all, it’s hard to cut services that have never existed. In fact, childhood poverty was a problem in Italy long before the current economic debacle.
The divide between Italy’s wealthy north and its suffering south has always been a point of contention for lawmakers in Rome. Italy allocates only 4.4 percent of its total social expenditures on social services for children, meaning only 1.1 percent of the total GDP goes to investing in services like public child care that would allow more parents to work. Private investments from businesses do fill the gap. But in most cases the “Mezzogiorno,” as the poorest regions of the deep south are known, is often overlooked because of the high rate of organized crime that has infiltrated both the public-works sector and local government entities. In recent years companies have received tax breaks for investing in the Mezzogiorno and defying the mob, but many of those companies are now closing factories and heading back north where their investments are safer during these tough economic times.
Every morning, hundreds of thousands of children in Italy’s poorest regions wake up hungry. Some have never used a computer because the schools can’t afford them in the classrooms. Many don’t go to school at all, or when they do they drop out, hoping to find scarce jobs. While their parents try to eke out a living, infants are left alone with young children as caregivers because of a lack of public day care. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms. Others are pushed into the sex trade to help support their families. Thousands live without basic amenities like hot water, regular meals, or simple health care—all in picturesque Italy.
According to a report by UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) issued Feb. 28, Italy has the highest percentage of children living below the poverty line of 25 European nations, and the situation is only getting worse.
“In Italy, there are 1.8 million children living under the poverty line,” says Giacomo Guerrera, head of UNICEF Italy. “We could make this problem go away if only it were a priority on every local community and government agenda.”
This shouldn’t be happening in Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy. Sure, the country is in the midst of an epic financial crisis that saw it nearly default on its deficit late last year. The new interim government under technocrat Mario Monti has also been forced to tighten up the country’s budget. But that’s not the crux of the child poverty problem. After all, it’s hard to cut services that have never existed. In fact, childhood poverty was a problem in Italy long before the current economic debacle.
The divide between Italy’s wealthy north and its suffering south has always been a point of contention for lawmakers in Rome. Italy allocates only 4.4 percent of its total social expenditures on social services for children, meaning only 1.1 percent of the total GDP goes to investing in services like public child care that would allow more parents to work. Private investments from businesses do fill the gap. But in most cases the “Mezzogiorno,” as the poorest regions of the deep south are known, is often overlooked because of the high rate of organized crime that has infiltrated both the public-works sector and local government entities. In recent years companies have received tax breaks for investing in the Mezzogiorno and defying the mob, but many of those companies are now closing factories and heading back north where their investments are safer during these tough economic times.