Reproducing Italians: contested biopolitics in the age of ‘replacement anxiety’

Abstract

In national and international discourses, Italians are often represented as a greying population failing to reproduce itself. Italian women are targeted for their very low birth rates, while migrant women are scrutinized for their ‘excessive’ fertility and abortion rates. These demographic concerns over differential reproduction reflect ‘replacement anxiety’ about the below-replacement rates of Italians and the replacement of Italians by immigrants. Demographic anxieties coalesce with the intensifying of Catholic ‘vitapolitics’ manifesting in the paradox of pro-natalist interventions coexisting with the curtailment of fertility-enhancing reproductive technologies. The children of migrants emerge in some population discourses as a threat rather than a contribution to the reproduction of the nation. Drawing on multi-sited ethnographic research in Milan, this paper examines how reproduction in contemporary Italy has emerged as a contested social, political, and moral issue that invests Italian and migrant women in different ways, engendering different forms and terms of resistance and contestation. On what terms are subjects governed and called upon to govern themselves to be more ‘rational’ and ‘responsible’ reproducers of the nation? What subjectivities and local responses are engendered by the politics of reproduction in Italy? As different rationalities and notions of responsible reproduction circulate, ethnographic research sheds light on how anxieties over low birth rates are reappropriated and redeployed against the state, suggesting that subjects are not so easily governable by population and reproductive discourses. This research contributes to the literature on critical demography and the politics of reproduction and migration in the new Europe.

Keywords:

• reproduction
• population
• migration
• biopolitics
• Italy

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to Silvia De Zordo, co-editor and co-organizer of the 2008 American Anthropological Association session on which this paper is based, for constructive feedback and discussions. The author also wishes to acknowledge the productive and thoughtful comments of the discussant for the session, Dr Elizabeth Krause, and the constructive feedback of two anonymous reviewers.

Funding for the dissertation research on which this paper is based was made possible by a Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Dissertation Fieldwork Grant (No: 7477, 2006–2007). This research received ethical approval by the University of Massachusetts Internal Review Board Committee.

Conflict of interest: none.

Notes

1. The following description and quotes are drawn from the author's fieldnotes and digital recordings, Milan, April 4, 2007.

2. TFR refers to ‘total fertility rates,’ the average number of children per woman, or more specifically: ‘the number of children that a woman would bear if she survived through the ages of childbearing and gave birth at the age-specific rates of the time period’ (Johnson-Hanks 2008, 302). Birth rates, on the other hand, refer to births per 1000 people. Italy's birth rate for 2010 was 9 per 1000 (Istat 2011).

3. See for example Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco's recent speech to the Italian Conference of Bishops in which he warned that ‘Italy is moving toward a slow demographic suicide’ (Vecchi 2010).

4. Italy's low birth rates are obviously not the result of individual Italians’ infertility, nor would access to ARTs significantly alter Italy's birth rates. The restriction of assisted reproduction is relevant here because it speaks to the parameters of what and whose reproduction is considered responsible and favourable to the reproduction of Italian society and of the nation. An illuminating comparison is the liberal and subsidized access to ARTs provided by the state of Israel in response to its own demographic anxieties (see Kahn 2000).

5. The author is grateful to an anonymous reviewer for this important point.

6. Cultural mediators are predominantly women and almost exclusively migrants who have lived in Italy for some years and work in the social services, including the health care sector.

7. All interviews were conducted in confidentiality by the author and all names are pseudonyms.

8. All non-English language materials and literature cited in this paper have been translated by the author.

9. The legalization of divorce and abortion were confirmed by popular referenda in 1974 and 1981 respectively.

10. The average number of children per woman in Italy in 2010 is estimated at 1.40 (Istat 2010c, 2). Families with three or more children constitute 10.5% of total families with children in Italy (De Luca 2010).

11. The author is grateful to Elizabeth Krause for this point.

12. In 1995, children born of foreign parents represented 1.7% of the births (Istat 2009, 3). Births by at least one migrant parent increased 10.4% between 2009 and 2010 (Istat 2010a, 3).

13. Undersecretary of the Family, Parliamentary Testimony, July 2008 Commission XII Affari Sociali, Audizione del sottosegretario di Stato alla Presidenza del Consiglio, Carlo Giovanardi, sugli orientamenti programmatici del Governo in materia di famiglia e di droga, Seduta di giovedi’ 3 luglio 2008, http://new.camera.it/_dati/lavori/stencomm/12/audiz2/2008/0703/s000r.htm, 8–9.

14. These discourses and anxieties over the internal and external threats posed by differential reproduction are not limited to Italy, of course; see Kanaaneh (2002) for an ethnographic analysis of anxieties over differential birth rates between Arabs and Jews in Israel; Chavez (2004) for research on the discourse of Latina fertility in the United States, and Heng and Devan (1992) on differentialist pro-natalist policies in Singapore.

15. Uploaded September 2008, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Na6H7hlFKI

16. In an interview, Professor Vittori explains: ‘we choose YouTube to speak to young women who often do not even consider the issue of a future maternity, on the contrary, they are often only concerned with avoiding unwanted pregnancies, without realizing how delicate is the equilibrium that regulates feminine biology.’ http://italiasalute.leonardo.it/Copertina.asp?Articolo_ID=9361

17. While women are the most common target of political and expert interventions in matters of reproduction and fertility, Italian men also come under scrutiny, both in the media and in the comments of their female peers. The Italian daily la Repubblica, for example, reported a 2006 demographic research with the headline: ‘Few children, it's men's fault “They are afraid of responsibility”’ (Monestiroli 2006). The representation of Italian men as mammoni, or Momma's boys who fail to leave home and start their own families, generates headlines in other European countries and across the Atlantic (see for example, articles by the Guardian: ‘Why Italy's mamma's boys can’t cut the ties,’ January 20, 2010, http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jan/20/italys-mamma-boys-cant-cut-ties, the BBC: ‘Italians ‘slow to leave the nest,’ February 1, 2005, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4227675.stm)

18. These arguments ignore the concerns over precarious employment and shrinking social services.

19. The Catholic Church has a long history of disciplining reproduction and family-making in Italy (see Kertzer 1994).

20. Encyclical letter Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI, 1968, http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae_en.html

21. Pope John Paul II, for example, established intellectual institutions such as the Papal Academy for Life (Pontificia Academia per la Vita, PAV), which has held conferences on matters related to the biological and ethical status of the embryo since 1994.

22. Until the approval of the ART legislation in 2004, medically assisted reproduction was governed by government circulars and the Italian medical association's code of ethic. The lack of a national legislation was seen as a problem across the political spectrum and feminist groups sought legislation to protect women from the unregulated market. In the debates over the disciplining of ARTs, the notion of Italy being the ‘Far West’ of reproduction was successfully appropriated by those favouring restrictions to protect the embryo and the family.

23. See for example the speech of Senator Corrado Danzi, a member of the Catholic Udc party, who argued: ‘We consider this a just law, because at every step, in each of its articles, in each of its words, it foregrounds the defense of the weakest subject’ (Senato della Repubblica, seduta pubblica 506, Resoconto sommario e stenografico, 11 Dicembre 2003, pg. 11, http://www.senato.it/documenti/repository/leggi_e_documenti/raccoltenormative/15%20-%20Procreazione/SENATO/AULA/st506.PDF).

24. Recent court decisions have found some of the more controversial aspects of the law unconstitutional: these include the limit on the number of embryos that can be produced and the injunction to transfer all embryos (ruling n.151/2009 of the Constitutional Court) (Legge 40, stop della Consulta ‘No a limite di tre embrioni’, Repubblica.it, April 1, 2009, http://www.repubblica.it/2009/03/sezioni/cronaca/viaggi-della-fecondazione/consulta-boccia/consulta-boccia.html); and the ban on donor assisted reproduction (‘Legge 40, ancora un rinvio alla Corte Costituzionale,’ Corriere.it, October 22, 2010, http://www.corriere.it/cronache/10_ottobre_22/fecondazione-costituzionale_f786e7fc-ddfb-11df-a41e-00144f02aabc.shtml).

25. Giuseppe Fioroni, Chamber of Deputies session 124, March 27, 2002, 22.

26. Senator Maurizio Ronconi, Udc. In L’Unità website, 10/12/03. http://www.unita.it/index.asp?SEZIONE_COD=HP&TOPIC_TIPO=&TOPIC_ID=31220

27. Rapporto sull’attività dei consultori familiari accreditati 2003/2006 - Assessorato Famiglia e Solidarietà Sociale, Regione Lombardia.

28. Modifiche al Regolamento regionale del 9 novembre 2004, n. 6 ‘Regolamento in materia di attività funebri e cimiteriali’, d’iniziativa della Giunta regionale.

29. A reference to Italy's TFR at the time of the book's publication.

30. ‘Le culle vuote sono il primo problema italiano’ (‘Empty cradles are the foremost Italian problem’), Marzio Breda, Corriere della Sera, 3, March 8, 2004, http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2004/marzo/08/culle_vuote_sono_primo_problema_co_9_040308027.shtml

31. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reports a 46% employment rates for women in Italy (OECD 2008, 1–2), which it attributes to the lack of publicly funded childcare and ‘persistent labour market discrimination’ (OECD 2008, 2). Additionally, the inequity that characterizes the labour market in Italy is matched by high gender inequity in house- and care-work (Cooke 2008; Ranaldi and Romano 2008, 22).

32. See for example the official summary of the 2010 report on abortion in Italy: Ministero della Salute. Salute delle donne. ‘Presentata al Parlamento la relazione 2010 sull’applicazione della legge 194, che regola l’interruzione volontaria di gravidanza’, http://www.salute.gov.it/saluteDonna/newsSaluteDonna.jsp?id=1159&menu=inevidenza&lingua=italiano

33. According to Italy's citizenship law (n.91/1992) children born to immigrant parents are eligible for citizenship only once they reach 18 years of age and only if they have been legal residents in Italy for the entirety of their lives. Considering the structural pervasiveness of periods of undocumented status for many migrants, many children of immigrants are in fact ineligible for citizenship once they reach age 18.

34. Ministero della Salute. 2010. Relazione del ministro della salute sulla attuazione della legge contenente norme per la tutela sociale della maternità e per l’interruzione volontaria di gravidanza (legge 194/78), pg., http://www.salute.gov.it/imgs/C_17_pubblicazioni_1312_allegato.pdf

35. ‘Istat: “Siamo oltre 60 milioni,” record di nascite da genitori stranieri. Superato il traguardo grazie agli stranieri. I figli degli immigrati riempiono il 19% delle culle del nord Italia,’ la Repubblica.it, 23 June 2009.

36. ‘Aumentano gli immigrati, sono 4 milioni e il 20 per cento è irregolare. Secondo i dati del rapporto Ismu, gli stranieri sono il sette per cento della popolazione italiana. Si prevede un'impennata nei prossimi anni, i numeri potrebbero triplicare con le nascite,’ laRepubblica.it, March 6, 2007, http://www.repubblica.it/2007/03/sezioni/cronaca/immigrazione/immigrazione/immigrazione.html

37. ‘E adesso ‘l’invasione’ arriva dalle culle. Secondo le proiezioni demografiche il 10% dei bambini che nasceranno quest’anno sarà figlio di immigrati,’ laPadania online, January 3, 2007.

38. Ferruccio Fazio, Minister of Health in Berlusconi's conservative government coalition, argues that abortion rates in Italy are attributable more to ‘socio-cultural factors, rather than to economic ones’ (ANSA 2010).

39. The convergence of the fertility rates of migrants with those of residents of the country of destination has been documented by demographers and scholars (see Chavez 2004).

40. For a review of research testing various hypotheses on the demographic behaviours of immigrants compared with non-immigrants in the country of destination see Milewski (2010, 299–301).

41. The group also called for automatic citizenship for children of migrants born in Italy.