- EISSN: 2309-3927
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oa The role of the family in social integration in the Middle East and North Africa1
- Source: Doha International Family Institute Journal, Volume 2013, Issue 1- Special Issue- Protecting the Arab Family from Poverty: Employment, Social Integration and Intergenerational Solidarity, May 2013,
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- 01 March 2015
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Abstract
Families play an important role in social integration because they shape the social relations between men and women and between generations. Gender and youth issues dominate the public debate about the future of the countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), so relations formed within the family are important for social integration. The division of labor and the balance of power within the family influences how gender equity issues play out in the society at large. Likewise, the decision made by parents regarding investment in the education of their children has implications for the relations between young and old. The last few decades have witnessed a dramatic transformation of the family in most countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), with implications for greater social integration of these societies. This transformation is characterized by decline in fertility and increase in investment in children, which implies change in the relationships between men and women as well as between parents and children. In this paper I take a comparative view of the MENA region's economic-demographic transition, defined as decline in fertility associated with increased child schooling.
