ESISC: German Working Parents' Struggle for Kindergarten Places

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To read the full article, published June 7, click here: http://www.esisc.org/publications/briefings/12771

As the authors Genovefa Etienne and Claude Moniquet note, in 2013 Bundestag has passed a law giving all parents of children aged twelve months and older the right to have a place in a daycare center, thus lowering the previous minimum age threshold established for children aged three or older. Add to that recent unprecedented migrant influx in Germany - out of the 443000 asylum applicants registered in 2015, 117000 were under the age of 16 with many pre-school children among them. As a result, one of the most densely-populated German states North Rhine-Westphalia, for instance, comes short of 77459 kindergarten places which correspond to 16.2% of children entitled to daycare but unable to secure it. The situation is similar in other states, all over the country.

The government's intention to create new kindergarten places to accommodate, primarily, refugee children carries a potential danger of inciting social tension between German citizens and asylum applicants, warns the article. "As a result, their growing frustrations will be directed towards the German state and authorities who have failed to anticipate and put in place the right measures to cope with the arrival of the immigrants. In doing so the German authorities could have prevented this uncomfortable situation - in which it now sees itself engaged in a difficult stress-test with the money of its young working parents and taxpayers."

SOURCE ESISC