In Italy, hard to get the kids to move out

The government is proposing incentives to get the nearly two-thirds of 30-somethings living with parents to set up shop on their own.

By Erica Alini | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor

from the November 15, 2007 edition

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Rome - To many Italian moms, it does not make a difference if the child they are kissing good morning is 3 or 30 years old. But to the government, it does – and officials want young adults booted out of the parental nest.

"We want the bamboccioni to move out," Finance Minister Tommaso Padoa Schioppa recently said, using a term that evokes grown babies still attached to mamma's apron strings.

With fewer job options than their American peers and less generous welfare benefits than their European counterparts, nearly two-thirds of Italians between the ages of 30 and 34 are still sleeping in their childhood bedroom. Besides fostering stereotypes of spoiled youths, that figure has serious consequences for the country's demographic balance. Without a house of their own, the young stay single, delay starting a family, and depress the country's birthrate, already below replacement levels.

"The problem," says Alessandro Rosina, who teaches demography at Catholic University in Milan, "is not just that Italy's birthrate of 1.3 is one of the lowest in Europe, but that is has been stable at that level for too long."

Now Italy's center-left government is proposing a ¤999 ($1,431) yearly tax credit on rents for people ages 20 to 30, hoping that will encourage young adults to start living on their own and start a family. But experts say the measure, though encouraging, is not enough to undo cultural and economic factors keeping young men and women at home.

The 1960s, says Mr. Schioppa, produced a generation of parents who are letting their kids enjoy freedom without giving up the comforts of freshly washed linens and homemade lasagna.

"Young Italians have found a new formula for la dolce vita," writes journalist Beppe Severgnini on his popular blog, "Italians." But, he adds, it is also a matter of "unconfessed egoism of the parents," who encourage the kids to stay at home as way of postponing the solitude of retirement.

Intergenerational solidarity is a factor driving the development, says Professor Rosina. Parents expect help themselves when mama and papa grow older. In fact, even if they do move out, many Italians save a room for when parents may not be as independent.

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