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Italy Has Europe’s Highest Percentage of Children in Poverty


usndiver
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Italy Has Europe’s Highest Percentage of Children in Poverty, Says UNICEF

Mar 4, 2012 12:00 AM EST

Close to 2 million kids live in poverty in Europe's third-largest economy, according to a new UNICEF report. The country has the highest percentage of child poverty in all 25 European countries, a longstanding crisis that predates the nation’s current economic woes.

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.

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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.

Children in Italy

Illustration by Daniele Butera / Getty Images

These attempts to bolster the southern communities as a whole have been moderately successful through the years, though the efforts rarely trickle down to the region’s most vulnerable. Many of the country’s poorest children live in or near the very cities where recent government investments have greatly enhanced the lives of many others. But so many families in the Mezzogiorno live on the edge of the poverty divide that government aid and incentives are never enough to cover everyone. Urban renewal and government investments over the years have provided playgrounds, better schools, and safe sports facilities for communities that have been overlooked for decades. Public child care has also increased, but spots are first given to working parents, so the unemployed who are searching for work don’t qualify, creating a Catch 22 situation.

In most cases, Italy’s very poorest children have fallen through the cracks, and as the country struggles through an economic crisis, there is no expectation that things will get better any time soon. Instead, an increasing number of families with children are joining the ranks of the extreme poor. What meager services are available will have to be spread even thinner.

One in two minors in Italy lives in what is considered “absolute poverty.” According to UNICEF, that means families are able to provide only one adequate meal every two days and they often cannot provide necessary medical treatment.

“In Italy, some 25 percent of children are now at risk of poverty,” Daniela Del Boca, director of CHILD (Center for Household, Income, Labor and Demographic Economies) at the University of Turin. “This proportion is much higher than the average proportion of children at risk of poverty in the rest of the European Union.”

One in two minors in Italy lives in what is considered “absolute poverty,” a condition under which basic needs are not met. According to the UNICEF report, that means families are able to provide only one adequate meal every two days and they often cannot provide necessary medical treatment, either because they cannot access public-health services due to lack of funds for transportation, or they cannot buy simple over-the-counter medicines like aspirin or even Band-Aids for their children. Of the poorest of the poor, 42 percent live in Sicily, 32 percent in Campania, 31 percent in Basilicata, and the rest are spread around the wealthier northern regions, including 8.6 percent in the very wealthy Veneto region.

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True.. We have lots of problems. Thanks for bringing that up... Appreciated...I'm not Italy's defender anyway.

I'll shortly post a link to a documentary "Black Block" (yes it's written incorrectly in the title...) showing what Italian Police did at the G8 Meeting in Genoa in 2001... It's always good to know the truth.

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B) I know why you posted this please...please let me tell them.......,because umbertino has been poking his nose in our country and you thought lets see whats in his back yard..not looking to go :lol::lmao::peace:

We all poke our nose in other countries business on this board, I mean really, we read more Iraqi news than U.S. news... why can't Umbertino post American articles, whats wrong with that?

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We all poke our nose in other countries business on this board, I mean really, we read more Iraqi news than U.S. news... why can't Umbertino post American articles, whats wrong with that?

Absolutely nothing wrong with that. But as a veteran and as a proud American I am tired of the left wing, and what I perceive is anti-American, garbage that is posted ad naseum here. It's one thing to take it from a fellow American, it's an entirely different thing coming from a foreign national. Call me thin skinned, that's fine.

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I understand why you'd get upset but Umb means no harm, he just posts things to get opinions... I have never seen him once be disrespectful to Americans. I didn't care for that Obama article either but I didn't get upset with Umb for posting it...

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I understand why you'd get upset but Umb means no harm, he just posts things to get opinions... I have never seen him once be disrespectful to Americans. I didn't care for that Obama article either but I didn't get upset with Umb for posting it...

Thank you.

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Hopefully i will get to meet you someday Umbertino. I'll show you the good stuff in my country and you can return the favor!

I know your Country and liked it and liked its People ( the ones I met I mean)... Lived there for a year and came back a few times for trips... I like the US and have many friends there.

If you want to visit here while I'm around I'll be glad to be your host.You're welcome anytime.

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