A Brazilian couple and their two children take part in an outdoor activity at a school in the city of São Paulo. Credit: Escola Meu Castelinho

By Humberto Márquez
CARACAS, Oct 2 2024 (IPS)

Large families are already a relic of the past in Latin America and the Caribbean, as a result of modernisation and the growth of the economy and the labour force. Now, the region faces an ageing population and migratory movements.

In the region, “fertility rate has fallen from 5.8 children per woman in 1950 to 1.8 in 2024. The largest drop in fertility was between 1950 and 2024 (-68.4% versus -52.6% worldwide),” Simone Cecchini, director of the Latin American and Caribbean Demographic Centre, told IPS from Santiago de Chile.

“Improvements in education levels, living conditions, urbanisation, the empowerment of women and their incorporation into the workforce have favoured the option to reduce the number of children,” said Cecchini, whose centre is part of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

Martha Marcondes, an educator from the Brazilian city of São Paulo, tells IPS how the number of children has been changing in her family, reflecting regional behaviour.

“My great-grandmother had 14 children, and life was dedicated to them; my grandmother thought differently in her time and only had four; my mother had three, and pregnant for a fourth time, she chose to have an abortion,” she explains.“Improvements in education levels, living conditions, urbanisation, the empowerment of women and their incorporation into the workforce have favoured the option to reduce the number of children”: Simone Cecchini.

Marcondes only had one daughter, because “we liked the idea of a second child, but my husband and I sat down and decided not to have any more. My daughter, who is 22 and studies International Relations, is focused on her career and travelling and does not plan to have children”.

Most of her daughter’s classmates are also only children or at most have one sibling. “Having fewer children is a way of being able to provide a better life for the ones you do have,” says Marcondes.

Couples like Tamara and Héctor – they prefer not to disclose their surnames – agree. She is a pastry chef and he is a firefighter in Ciudad Guayana, in southeastern Venezuela, with a 10-year-old daughter.

“With just enough to pay for school and support ourselves, we don’t have a house or a car. Covering expenses in Venezuela is increasingly difficult, income is very low, so years ago I told Héctor: no more children,” she told IPS from her home town.

Demographer Anitza Freitez, head of the Department of Demographic Studies at the Andrés Bello Catholic University in Caracas, confirmed to IPS that “the experiences analysed in countries in crisis show that the situation of deprivation in these contexts encourages people to avoid having children.

Cecchini notes that “as people become more educated and wealthier, they choose to have fewer children. This choice has been made possible by greater access to sexual and reproductive health and the use of modern contraceptives, which have also lowered adolescent fertility”.

He notes that while the region’s adolescent fertility rate (50.5 children per 1,000 women aged 15-19 in 2024) is down from the recent past (in 2010 the rate was 73.1 children), it is nevertheless well above the global average (40.7).

A large family in Peru, which are becoming increasingly rare in Latin America and the Caribbean as modernising trends in the region continue. Credit: MSC

Ageing and the economy

The fall in fertility is causing strong changes in the population’s age structure, with a sharp decline in the share of children and a steady increase in that of older adults.

The average household size is also decreasing, from 4.3 persons in 2000 to 3.4 persons in 2022, according to ECLAC data for 20 Latin American countries, while longevity is increasing.

The average life expectancy at birth for both sexes in Latin America and the Caribbean was only 49 years in 1950 and has reached 76 years in 2024.

As a result of declining fertility and increasing life expectancy, 95 million people aged 60 and over will live in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2024, representing 14.2% of the total population. In 2030 there will be 114 million, 16.6% of the total population.

In particular, the group of people aged 80 and over is projected to grow strongly, from 12.5 million in 2024 to 16.3 million in 2030.

The declining birth rate and increasing life expectancy lead to a growth in the older population. Credit: PUC Chile

Cecchini argues that ageing populations and shrinking family sizes are reshaping economies and societies, with their burden of challenges and opportunities.

Ageing, he said, “holds challenges for public policies on social protection, health, care, as well as the labour market. Universal coverage of social protection or health care is still not provided”, and the increase in the older population sharply increases the demand on these systems.

It also increases the need for care, particularly long-term. As the traditional model of care based on women’s unpaid work within large families is no longer sustainable, “public policy measures are also needed in this area,” Cecchini stressed.

But on the opportunity side, older people are increasingly demanding products and services, which can hold benefits for markets.

The ‘silver economy’ – focused on the needs and demands of older people – brings opportunities in fields such as tourism, entertainment, telemedicine, information and communication technologies, smart home systems, healthcare, and home care, the expert says.

“New jobs in these sectors, especially in health and care, will be created as a result of population ageing,” he said.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted within the United Nations 2030 Agenda, do not set targets for fertility rates, but can benefit from reductions, such as reducing poverty by having more people in the workforce with fewer dependents.

A Warao indigenous family from Venezuela arriving in the city of Boa Vista, northern Brazil. Credit: UNHCR

Demographic dividend and migration

Population ageing and declining fertility impact on the demographic dividend, the window of opportunity for economic growth and poverty reduction due to the higher growth of the population in the most productive age group, between 15 and 64, relative to the dependent population.

This segment of the population averages 68% of the total in the region, according to World Bank figures, with some countries in the English-speaking Caribbean, Brazil and Colombia above the average, and others below, such as Guatemala, Puerto Rico and Venezuela.

The foreseeable duration of this dividend varies widely across the region – the longest in Bolivia, the shortest in Uruguay – as it depends on the pace of the ageing process, determined by declining mortality, declining fertility and migratory processes.

“But we must always remember that the demographic dividend is only an opportunity, which must be taken advantage of with appropriate public policies, such as investment in the human capacities of young people and the promotion of gender equality in the labour market,” stressed Cecchini.

Migration has a major impact on countries such as Cuba, where more than 800,000 people have left in the last two years, and Venezuela, which has seen more than seven million of its nationals leave in the last decade.

“The decline in fertility in a country like Venezuela is combined with a migratory process, which translates into a loss of the demographic dividend and an ageing population,” said Freitez.

She emphasizes that this process is occurring “in a country where ageing is not at the forefront of public policy. One example is that pensions received by the elderly are not even minimally sufficient to cover some needs, and public health is very deficient”.

Old-age pensions in Venezuela are pegged to the minimum wage, which is less than four dollars a month, although some groups of pensioners occasionally receive bonuses for a few dollars more.

“The entire burden then falls on a family whose structure has been transformed, as more than one million households (of the slightly more than six million in Venezuela) have experienced the migration of some of their members, becoming transnational families,” Freitez said.

Whether due to this dispersion, reduction in fertility rates, progress of modernisation and ageing, the large families that characterised life and tradition in Latin America have now become museum pieces.

Crowds waving Crimean and Russian flags in Simferopol in Crimea after the referendum. Credit: Alexey Yakushechkin/IPS.

By Pavol Stracansky
KIEV, Mar 18 2014 (IPS)

As Crimea prepares to become part of Russia following a referendum which much of the international community says has no legitimacy, families on the peninsula are being forced apart by the political upheaval while others are considering leaving the region.

Results of the referendum held Sunday suggest that an overwhelming majority of Crimeans want to become part of Russia, with official results showing that 97 percent of voters backed joining Russia following a turnout of just over 82 percent. Crimea has been a southern republic of Ukraine.

But while many people in cities like Sevastopol, and in Simferopol which is the regional capital, celebrated well into the night after the results were announced, the decision is already taking a toll on many local families.There is a noticeable political divide between younger and older people.

Valery Dorozhkhin, 39, a professor at Simferopol University, told IPS: “There are conflicts in families here. In some you have grandparents whose family roots were in Russia who very strongly support Russia. Then you have their grandchildren who feel Ukrainian and will have voted against joining Russia in the referendum.”

Large parts of southern and eastern Ukraine have historically had close cultural ties to Russia. But these have always been especially strong in Crimea.

Crimea was annexed by the Russian empire in the late 18^th century. But Russians did not form a majority in the region until after World War II.

This came about largely after Soviet dictator Josef Stalin deported the entire population of Tatars – around 200,000 people – en masse to labour camps in central Asia in 1944 on false charges that they had collaborated with Nazis. Nearly half of those deported died of starvation or disease within a year. Russians were moved into Crimea to replace those expelled.

In 1954, then Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev decided to make Crimea a part of Ukraine. Today, 60 percent of the Crimean population is ethnic Russian and even more speak Russian as their first language.

As part of the Soviet Union, any potential ethnic tensions were largely negligible, but since Ukraine’s independence in 1991 there have been calls from separatist groups among the Russian community in Crimea for secession, with waxing and waning support.

The political upheavals across Ukraine in recent months exacerbated those ethnic tensions and the recent run-up to the elections has been marked by, many rights activists and independent observers say, violence and repression against non-Russian communities and those supporting the new Ukrainian government in Kiev.

But there is not just an ideological dividing line between ethnic Russians and Ukrainians. There is also a noticeable political divide between younger and older people.

Of the thousands who turned out in rallies in support of Crimea remaining part of Ukraine ahead of the referendum, many of them, although certainly not exclusively, were from the younger generation.

Many younger people who have never known Crimea as anything other than a part of Ukraine have found themselves confused and in some cases fearful of what life under a different regime will be like.

“It is especially hard for younger people in Crimea at the moment. They see themselves as Ukrainians, they feel Ukrainian,” Dorozhkhin told IPS.

This concern about what will come next has already led to some people considering leaving Crimea. There have been reports of individual families deciding to leave the region, while others are concerned about their work.

Some Ukrainians living in Crimea have said they have lost their jobs for perceived support to authorities in Kiev.

Vladimir Vasylenko, a 37-year-old NGO worker in Sevastopol, sums up the mood of those who are concerned about what the future holds for them.

Speaking to IPS, he is worried and almost tearful, as he explains how he is afraid that Russian authorities’ generally negative attitude to the third sector could put his work in jeopardy. But he says he is also worried because he has no idea what life in general will be like under Russian rule.

“I wonder whether I should leave or not. I sometimes think that yes, I will, but I have older members of my family, my mother and grandmother, who will not leave, who do not want to go. I have to think of them too. I just don’t know what to do. The worst thing is that no one knows what is going to come next.”

Tensions remain in Crimea despite the support shown for a return to Russia in the referendum. The Tatar population, which makes up 13 percent of the Crimean population, boycotted the referendum. There is a growing fear in communities of Tatars, many of whom distrust Russia because of what happened to their grandparents and ancestors under Stalin.

They say that since the Russian occupation, their communities have grown fearful of attacks by armed pro-Russian “self-defence” groups, which they say roam the streets at night.

Some say that they have woken up to find white crosses daubed on their front doors and out of fear of attack they have set up their own self-defence squads controlling areas with Tatar populations, while others guard mosques.

But those who backed integration into Russia now see a bright future ahead for Crimea.

Aleksandr Pavluk, a 54-year-old resident of Simferopol who works in one of Crimea’s key industries, tourism, told IPS: “Everything here is fine after the referendum. We’re all very happy and people are looking forward to being part of Russia.

“We are also hoping to have a good summer tourist season when we expect to see lots of holidaymakers from both Russia and from Ukraine.”

A father and son in a Havana street. Credit: Jorge Luis Baños /IPS

By Ivet González
HAVANA, Jan 16 2013 (IPS)

While more and more young men in Cuba today are rising above cultural prejudices that condition their role as fathers, many continue to conform to traditional styles of fatherhood, often reproducing negative patterns of neglect and abandonment, with serious repercussions for the whole family in light of the country’s economic and legal situation.

“Many take fatherhood seriously and come to it with a different attitude, but others don’t. The way I see it, it depends on the social environment they move in, their age, and whether the pregnancy was planned or not,” says Raynol Pérez, a young 24-year-old father who is home to put his small daughter Vanesa to bed every night.

In his opinion, the pregnancy is a critical period.

“The future father’s involvement or lack of involvement during the pregnancy is an indication of how he will behave when the baby is born,” he tells IPS.

“A good way to measure this is by the number of pregnant women who go to their medical check-ups with a man. There’s still only very few men who accompany their partners to their appointments,” this young married man, whose daughter was born when he was studying law at Havana University, says.

In a 2011 article on the role of fathers in Cuban families (published in Spanish under the title “Una mirada del ejercicio de la paternidad en familias cubanas”), psychologist Anais Ángela Chapelli revealed that the issue has for the most part not been addressed from a male perspective in studies conducted on the subject in this Caribbean island.

Chapelli notes that more information is needed on how men view fatherhood and on their experiences as fathers.

There have been changes in the way fatherhood is experienced and viewed, which have been brought on by the erosion of the patriarchal system through the advancement of women’s rights, as well as by a number of increasingly widespread phenomena, such as civil unions, migration, unwed mothers, divorces, same-sex unions, blended families, and single-parent households headed by men.

However, over half a century of public policies aimed at improving the situation of women have failed to eradicate Cuba’s deep-rooted sexist culture, with strong stereotypes still dictating how fathers and mothers are expected to behave. Moreover, while there are many social efforts made to bring about change among women, very little is done to promote a similar change in men.

But sociologist Magela Romero and other young experts on the subject have observed a growing trend in Cuban families, as more and more the role of ‘provider’ – economic or otherwise – is no longer seen as an exclusively male obligation, and men are in turn more involved in domestic life and new forms of fatherhood.

But these experts also note that fatherhood still takes a backseat to motherhood.

University student Emanuel George told IPS that the view that a father’s role is limited to that of “economic and material provider” is a firmly entrenched stereotype. Popular sayings such as “Anyone can be your father, but you have only one mother” perpetuate this image, George says.

Lourdes Pasalodos, a journalist, has delved further in the issue. Her book “En el nombre del hijo” (In the name of the son), published in 2009, openly addresses fatherhood problems such as abandonment and neglect, approaching them from a common-sense perspective.

“This affects both men and women,” Pasalodos told IPS. In her opinion, “the presence of men in the home has become less important” as a result of the high rate of male emigration in the 1990s and a sexist culture that is still going strong and “pushes men away from the home”, among other factors.

“Once they’re divorced or separated, many fathers forget their obligations to their children, causing them psychological, emotional, and financial harm,” she said. The period from 2010 to 2011 saw a slight increase in the annual rate of marriages, and while the rate of divorces has dropped, it remains high.

However, the last fertility study, which was conducted in 2009 by the National Bureau of Statistics and Information, revealed that young couples choose a civil union over marriage, and that “they see marriage differently” from previous generations, as they no longer view it as a necessary step before sexual relations or as a precondition to having children.

Pasalodos believes a cultural and educational change is needed. “Many live as a family but are never home and leave their children’s care to the mother of their children,” she says.

“We need to bring our education in line with the times and start teaching elementary school children about both the roles of mothers and fathers, and how to change a diaper, for example, among other parenting skills,” she suggests.

This cultural gap may explain why the legal progress made in terms of gender equality in recent years has had little impact. As of 2007, only 17 fathers had applied to fully enjoy their right to care for or share in the care of their children during their first year of life, as provided under Decree Law No. 234, passed in 2003.

Official sources say the situation has not changed much since then.

This legal measure was promoted by the non-governmental organisation Federación de Mujeres Cubanas (Federation of Cuban Women or FMC) with the aim of guaranteeing the right of working fathers to take a year off work to care for their infant children in the event of the death or abandonment of the children’s mother, and to a six-month leave to take over for the mother once the exclusive breastfeeding period is over.

A 25-year-old biologist from the southern coastal city of Cienfuegos, located 232 kilometres from Havana, observes that when a couple splits up, the father’s relationship with their children changes, as the children usually stay with the mother.

According to this young professional who asked to remain anonymous, the change in how a father behaves towards his children after a separation is so common that people often talk of fathers also “divorcing their kids.”

“I’m not just saying this because that’s how it was with me and my daughter. I’ve seen it happen to a lot of people I know,” the biologist, who works at a government research centre, told IPS in a telephone interview. In her opinion, it all comes down to the father’s sense of responsibility.

She also believes that the Code of Family Law, which is from 1975, “is very outdated and its provisions are too general.”

When she separated she pored over those regulations, which she says, “talk about everything but specify nothing”, and in the end filed a legal complaint to obtain court-ordered child support from her ex-husband and to settle custody issues. “I was lucky because my lawyer has handled many cases like mine and the judge put my little girl’s well-being first,” she says.

“We were able to get more child support than what is usually granted and the judge ruled that my ex would only be able to have our baby overnight after she was no longer breastfeeding,” she adds. But “the money he has to send me every month doesn’t even cover half of what I need to support her,” and “unless he comes to see her he forgets about her and doesn’t worry about how she’s doing,” she complains.

While very much ahead of its time in child protection and gender equality issues, the Code of Family Law needs to be revised and amended to reflect the current situation of Cuban families, activists say. FMC and Cuba’s National Union of Jurists worked together on a new draft code and presented it to parliament several years ago, but legislators have yet to discuss it.

(END)