Population policy in Western Europe

Abstract

Policies concerning procreation and fertility are considered first. In Western Europe there are countries which fully recognize and implement the personal rights of the individual to plan and space the number of children, as well as others denying these rights. The nature and implications of laws and policies concerning contraception, abortion and family planning in general are briefly described and their effects discussed.

The second topic considered the welfare and the economy of the family. The incidence of family allowance schemes, taxation systems, protection of working mothers, educational facilities (especially for children of pre-school age), and publicly financed housing is reviewed in an effort to understand whether the various social and legislative systems favour procreation and the raising of the children. The situation is contradictory: very mild pro-natalist effects of family allowances are partly offset by a taxation system that im unfavourable to the family, since husbands' and wives' incomes are in many instances assessed jointly. Increasing protection of working women may reconcile economic activity with childbearing, but serious shortage of institutions to care for very young children makes employment of mothers difficult.

The third topic is mobility, internal and international. Possibly the most serious demographic problems of Western Europe are the strong internal streams of migrants, congestion of cities and depopulation of rural areas. Measures for coping with these problems are generally in adequate. At the same time, international migration in very strong with many millions of foreign workers in various countries. The countries of immigration, although themselves tending towards almost stationary populations, seem not to accept the implications of this fact — particularly the cessation of growth of the domestic labour force. Temporary import of manpower through temporary immigration is a short-term solution which cannot be sustained indefinitely.

The paper concludes with a final consideration. Western European countries could probably lower their levels of fertility rather easily by giving more support to family planning programmes, liberalizing abortion, etc. But should fertility consistently and for a long time fall below replacement, where are the measures for stimulating recovery?

Address delivered before the Population Association of America, New Orleans, 26 April 1973.

Notes

Address delivered before the Population Association of America, New Orleans, 26 April 1973.