"If someone who's been in a coma for 20 years woke up, they wouldn't recognize the country."

BarcelonaSurely the biggest demographic myth is believing that we will ever be able to return to a society like it was before. "We will no longer be generations with large families, with women caring for many children," says Dolores Puga, a researcher with the Aging Research Group of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). Given this, adapting to the present may be more efficient, according to the expert, than trying to return to the past. And it can be, although the "nostalgic" discourse, conveyed by the far right, of increasing the birth rate by any means may be "very tempting," corroborates Andreu Domingo, deputy director of the Center for Demographic Studies (CED).

The title of the discussion, moderated by ARA journalist Natàlia Vila, was Demographics: the challenges of the society of the future, which is also the title of the new edition of the magazine Ideas. More than a hundred pages to understand where we're headed as a society. And to understand these recipes, both experts first attempted to refute the false myths about Catalonia's demographic future. These post-transition societies have gone from a traditional regime of low birth and death rates to the complete opposite.

And the first myth is that birth rates are the antidote to all ills. "In the 20th century, the population did not grow due to birth rates or immigration, but rather due to increased survival rates," Puga noted. And another myth expressed by Domingo: only 13% of the immigration that Europe receives comes from outside the EU's borders. In other words, demography, the experts said in a debate held this Wednesday at the Sant Pau Art Nouveau Complex, does not understand dichotomies.

For example, why are Catalans having fewer children now? The cost of raising children has increased, and society is increasingly opting for more individual values. There's a gap between the children desired (partners are still the most popular) and those actually obtained. Professional plans compete with starting families, and sometimes it's not only difficult to have a child, but also to have a partner. All of this, as Domingo pointed out, sums up today's society in a country where "if someone who's been in a coma for 20 years were to wake up, they wouldn't recognize them."

"Demographics anchored in the past"

"But it's not solved by women having more children," Puga insisted. And this is where simplistic discourse comes in. "They interpret a demographic anchored in the past," the researcher reiterates, which ends up "terrorizing the population" and causing a shift in responsibility: we go from accepting that there are problems that must be addressed as a society to blaming individual behavior.

According to experts, there are no unique recipes, but there are solutions that must begin to be implemented. "If we approach the country in an increasingly restrictive way, we have the problem," Domingo said, adding that second-generation migrants are, to a large extent, the ones who will have to transform the country, and that is why it is "fundamental" to guarantee their rights. In the same way, according to Puga, we need to adapt to being older and, in many cases, to being alone. This is where it is necessary, in her opinion, to adapt care, make it more complementary, and not start it only when the situation is already critical. Stopping seeing aging is, in essence, "the first step before disappearing."