329.2
Contrasted Cases: Childcare in France and Germany
Children under six need adults to take care of them and teach them the basics of social life, which they also learn by themselves in playing – a very serious occupation. Sociologically speaking, childcare organisation is not only about who will take care of a given child, but also through which kind of social relation with him/her. Razavi’s care diamond, used by Ochiai to compare childcare organization in East Asian countries, distinguishes four main types of social relations. In continental Europe also, ways of organising childcare differ widely. In some countries: Portugal, Spain, Italy, Ireland, but also Germany where public childcare for young children is almost non-existent, the traditional ‘familialist’ pattern remains. Thus women as mothers have no choice but to stay home (or remain childless). By contrast, in Scandinavian countries but also in France public care of children is highly developed and subsidized; mothers can keep their job and pursue their career (or study). The French école maternelle, local preschools where children from age 2 to 6 are taken care of by well-trained personnel during ‘normal’ working hours, is a success story. While free of charge and not compulsory, 98 % of children aged 3 to 5 attend it. For the nation’s budget the cost is 5.000 euros per child/year, totalling 0.8 % GNP. But as a result French (and Swedish) birth rates are 50 % higher than the German one. Children in France do love their neighbourhood’s maternelle; and this is where children from migrant parents, who do not speak French at home, learn it. Of course it helps them when entering elementary school, compared with migrants’ children in ‘familialist’ countries who will only start learning host society’s language at six.