'One million babies' created by EU student exchanges

http://yahoonewsdigest-intl.tumblr.com/post/98180077267/one-million-babies-created-by-eu-student-exchanges

by antr • 12 years ago

65 64 12 years ago

yahoonewsdigest-intl.tumblr.com

rmc4• 12 years ago

That's a good way to reduce nationalism in Europe (which has sometimes led to wars).

guard-of-terra11• 12 years ago

I doubt that Europe has much inter-Europe nationalism already. That is, between different nations of Europe.

And I'm not sure this program affects nationalism between locals and immigrants. It may do so, since a lot of university students are immigrants. But on the other hand, it is also true if you study locally.

jkrems• 12 years ago

If you think there's no inter-Europe nationalism I'm not sure where you live. There's a bunch of it. In my environment (German) growing up it was mostly about French, Polish, and a bit about British people. Sure, straight racism mostly happened towards e.g. Turkish immigrants but that's where it stops.

kamakazizuru2• 12 years ago

intra european nationalism is alive and kicking. Just ask Germans what they think of "lazy" spanish, "corrupt" italians etc.. but it is moving in a better direction - also thanks to programs like the Erasmus exchange.

smutticus• 12 years ago

You must not live in the EU. Nationalism is alive and growing in EU countries, and it's not just aimed at non-EU nationals.

Swizec3• 12 years ago

Haha really? Culture in Europe revolves a lot around nationalism. Especially the culture that spreads through jokes. Although this is mostly geared through neighbouring countries - everyone's got a couple of spicy jokes about their neighbours to the South or East (or both). The further South/East a nation, the worse they supposedly are.

But for a more serious example: Just ask any European how they feel about gypsies.

agiamas• 12 years ago

Europe doesn't have much inter-Europe nationalism at the moment and Erasmus (Orgasmus btw holds some truth in it..) has a lot to do with it. By mixing students from different countries we all realize that there is nothing to separate among people of different nationalities, we all breathe and think and act similarly.

And this has tremendously helped Europe to get past its horrible past where almost each country was fighting against each other in 2 world wars etc into a future where no German will think of a French or British as enemy. But rather as just a guy/gal who happened to grow up in a different part of Europe.

vidarh2• 12 years ago

We have had multiple wars with nationalism as a major factor in Europe over the last couple of decades. It's just that the most serious stuff have been happening "far" away from Western Europe.

voidr2• 12 years ago

There were a lot of wars in the name of freedom, religion, human nature etc., you might want to throw away those too while you're at it, in fact, let's just exterminate humanity, cause all wars were caused by humans.

History has also shown us that, even if you have people with the same beliefs, skin color, nationality... etc. they will still find a way to wage war with each other.

scarmig• 12 years ago

You seem to be implying that there's a constant level of violence that people commit, and eliminating one outlet for it will simply cause the violence to spill over into others.

But that's simply not true. The USA, for instance, hasn't had significant levels of collective domestic violence since the ethnic cleansings of the 19th century. Western Europe hasn't either since WW2. Compare that to, say, a similar geographic area of similar size in Africa, and it's a world of difference.

Good institutions, civil society, and well-developed property rights reduce violence to a negligible level.

gpvos• 12 years ago

Tell that to the inter-ethnic families in former Yugoslavia (i.e., Croat-Serb, etc.). During the war, they were simply forced to choose sides. Similar examples can easily be found throughout the world.

manicdee2• 12 years ago

Maybe there simply weren't enough inter-ethnic families, or not enough of the population were exposed to other cultures?

aikah• 12 years ago

Yeah lol, everywhere in Europe nationalist parties are on the rise.

What reduces nationalism or racism is people having jobs and enough money to make hands meet so they dont have time to blame the jew,the arab or the negro. Go ask the greeks,italians or the french if Erasmus babies "reduced nationalism".In France a far right party leader has some serious chanced to be elected as president.The far right is growing in Austria,Germany,Sweden,France,Greece,Holland,Uk and many other countries.

Jun8• 12 years ago

Media is summarizing a 220+ page report of analysis of Erasmus' impact to "1M babies!".

Here's a site with a better summary (http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-14-1025_en.htm) where you can download the PDF of the report. The executive summary contains some interesting facts.

pslam• 12 years ago

Indeed. The media report is an odd spin, considering the headline of the EU report is:

"Erasmus Impact Study confirms EU student exchange scheme boosts employability and job mobility"

The part about "1 million babies" is buried several paragraphs in as random statistic, but the author turns the entire story over and runs with that as the lead.

I think the submission should be changed to the EU report, as it's far more informative than the blog re-write, and has less of a smelly spin to it.

yurylifshits• 12 years ago

On the other hand, without "1M babies" headline this link would be less likely to appear on Hacker News )

RIMR• 12 years ago

Because you expected journalistic integrity from a Tumblr blog title "Yahoo News Digest"?

chiph• 12 years ago

The steam engine also did much to promote distant relationships and increase genetic diversity. You were no longer limited to dating someone from the local town or county -- in a few hours journey you could meet someone far away.

AndrewOMartin2• 12 years ago

There's a reason the Erasmus program (through which I've met some really great people) is often known by the students as "Orgasmus".

All things considered, this is one of those positive headlines we so rarely see these days.

dominotw4• 12 years ago

what is so positive about spawning babies?

awjr• 12 years ago

"Multi-national" babies in Europe where populations are actually declining.

Ygg2• 12 years ago

There is a deficient of babies in Europe. I still don't get what's the point if the youth employment rate is so abysmal.

AndrewOMartin2• 12 years ago

It's just a nice headline, being more or less directly responsible for new families is a more pleasant claim than you see in most headlines. It also seems more common that a headline referencing sex does so in a negative sense (Are exchange students bonking when they should be studying?).

viraptor• 12 years ago

Unless they're unwanted and accidental - what isn't positive about spawning babies? Specifically in the context of people leaving their own country to discover other cultures. It shows how easy it is to just be great humans together, without artificial segregation based on country boundaries.

rmc4• 12 years ago

If there are a million people where Mother is from country A, and Father from country B, then that person is unlikely to think that everyone from country A is scum (or vice versa), and unlikely to support a war between A and B.

20th century Europe is what happens when people fight among each other. If we can reduce that, we should.

microtherion2• 12 years ago

I'm not convinced that trans-national babies are an unmitigated good. Anecdotal evidence among my friends and acquaintances suggests to me that the more cultural differences there are between the parents, the more friction they can potentially generate down the road in a long term relationship.

cyphunk3• 12 years ago

    showed that 27 percent of people who took part had met
    their current life partner during their stay abroad. 
    Thirty-three percent of Erasmus students hooked up with 
    people of a different nationality than their own, 
    nearly three times the rate of students who had not 
    travelled.

Obviously to meet people of a different nationality you have greater chance when leaving your own country. Next, there is probably something to meeting their partner suitable for starting a family during a certain period of their life that may coincide with Erasmus. So, not sure this statement or this part of the study means anything at all.

mhandley• 12 years ago

There's a slightly more balanced summary article about this report on the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-29310930

tehwalrus• 12 years ago

Interesting point about the EU's actual argument - that Erasmus students are more likely to be employed - is that (as I remember from my (entirely chaste) Erasmus summer, there was some competition for the places, and better students (or students who were better at presenting themselves) won.

I predict that it is not Erasmus that creates jobs, but students who win Erasmus places also win jobs that were already there.

OedipusRex• 12 years ago

"Thirty-three percent of Erasmus students hooked up with people of a different nationality than their own, nearly three times the rate of students who had not travelled."

Hooked up is the scientific term now. But in reality it's just human nature to want to couple up, combine that with the romantic notion of being in a different country and you have a fairy tale.

'One million babies' created by EU student exchanges

Related Stories