Childfreedom And The Falling Birth Rate
I recently had the good fortune to be interviewed by Al Jazeera English for a news segment. Here it is, if you’d like to watch:
United Kingdom Falling Fertility Rate
UK faces falling birth rate as immigration debate intensifies
Report by Rhys Durham.
(By the way, if Youtube’s not cooperating, the direct link to the segment is here: United Kingdom Falling Fertility Rate.)
Being interviewed about this was quite an experience, but a 30-second soundbite leaves so little unsaid.
For a start, there’s an obvious link between population and childfreedom. If we’re having fewer children, then a purely mathematical approach shows us there are going to be fewer people in the country. However – and this is something Al Jazeera’s segment explores – if British people aren’t having children then where is our workforce coming from?
I could go on a meaty tangent here discussing the capitalist system and how it needs an ever-increasing population to work as it was designed to do, but as tempting as that is, it falls outside the remit of this article. Just about.
I'd also like to address a potential elephant in the room: I’m not sure how I feel about showing up in the same article as Nigel Farage. On the one hand I’m glad this conversation about childbirth rates and the reasons behind them are happening at such a high-profile level that one of our political party leaders' face and name were connected to it. On the other… please understand I don’t align with his views on many things. At the risk of sounding judgemental: ew, no, I hate that, absolutely gross, go away.
I never claimed to be non-judgmental. Thank you for letting me get that out of my system.
IMMIGRATION
More than a few people are concerned that our workforce is coming from abroad, which lands us neatly (and regrettably) in discussions about immigration. Sometimes it seems like we barely talk about anything else.
Before we go on, I want to make clear that I do not believe we should curb immigration. Historically, the English did a huge amount of damage to the world via the British Empire, and as far as I’m concerned, we should make anyone who wishes to visit or come to live on our shores feel welcome. It’s the least we can do after imposing ourselves on the rest of the world, and after taking so much more than we ever gave.
Will that dilute British culture? Perhaps, but I think there’ll always be people fascinated by their native culture, who will want to preserve it. Goodness knows, cultural preservation is a passion for so many people. I used to live in Brighton, and the TLC that went into the West Pier beggars belief. She’s a grand old lady and it’ll be lovely to see her restored to her former glory, even though, strictly speaking, we don’t need the West Pier and already have a far more functional alternative in the Palace Pier, but I’m far from the only one who’d like to see it restored. Having some of your own history to enjoy is grounding, isn’t it?
My point is, we as a community like to preserve things. I don’t think English traditions will be any different, so the conversation about erosion of what it means to be British is unfounded.
The only perspective from which I’m against immigration is the colonial nature of it – more specifically, how England benefits disproportionately. We have a long history of poaching professionals from overseas, and that’s not serving those professionals’ countries of origin very well at all. Indian doctors and nurses aren’t coming to the UK because everyone in India’s in strapping health. They come because England offers more lucrative opportunities. In offering these tempting opportunities, we’re continuing to damage India – and every other country where this dynamic applies.
I want everyone – British, Indian, and everyone else – to thrive and to spend their lives doing something they love, as much as possible. But in order to do that, we need to mend the broken systems of the UK, including the one that makes training as a British student to work in the health sector so unappealing. I’m not an economist, and it’s our economists who will need to explore the nuances and practicalities of the whole issue, but I believe firmly that that is what we must do.
CHILDLESSNESS FOR ECONOMIC REASONS
At the time of writing, the comment section of that video has a high proportion of people staying that they aren’t having children because they can’t afford it. Some may be doing what I sometimes do and pointing out how poor of a decision it would be to reproduce anyway, without actually saying that they’re childfree, so some may be childfree while others may be childless.
I hope that that sentiment hasn’t gone unnoticed by our government, which seems to be hoping for women to have children. The will is still there, but the economic safety isn’t. Fix things so it’s economically safer to have children, and more will be born.
WHERE DOES CHILDFREEDOM FIT INTO ALL OF THIS?
One aspect of childlessness that wasn’t covered in that news segment was childlessness by choice. Some of us never would have wanted to have children, and in recent years, we’ve been talking about that more.
Knowing you’re not the only one who doesn’t want kids can be a godsend. It means you don’t have to choose between becoming a parent, knowing you won’t enjoy it, and being left behind by your friends as you find you can no longer relate to a big part of their life experience. This, once again, is why community matters so much for us childfree and childless people.
I can’t tell you, reader, how many people in that comment section and beyond would have children if they could afford it, versus how many are glad that the pressure is lessening (after all, if even those friends who want children aren’t having them, the pressure drops significantly as you’re not getting left behind), but I think that, no matter what happens with this whole situation in the long run, what’s going to come out of it is a new sense of empowerment to choose whether or not one becomes a parent.
I’ve said before, and I’ll say again: every child should be wanted. Isn’t that a value worth taking out of all of this, British or otherwise?
Photo by Kaique Rocha on Pexels.
