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Switzerland

Where Grandma Needs A Permit To Have The Grandkids Stay Over

Some working parents couldn't make it without the grandparents taking on steady child-care duties. But in Zurich, Switzerland, if the kids are with the grandparents for an extended stay, it must be reported to the city -- or the family risks a fi

Where did the parents go? (kindergentler2001)
Where did the parents go? (kindergentler2001)

ZURICH - Little David loves to spend the night at Grandma and Grandpa's. The two-year-old generally spends two or three nights a week at his grandparents' house. It's an ideal solution for his parents, both of whom work. "For us, it's an alternative to day care. And because my parents live at some distance from us, he often spends the night," says the child's father.

Many families would no doubt see young David's situation as pretty routine – quite normal in fact. Why shouldn't he spend quality time with his grandparents? And yet such arrangements are not something authoritites in Zurich, Switerland take lightly. There, parents who leave their children in the care of grandparents for more than two days a week on a regular basis have to report the arrangement to social services – or face a fine of 1,000 Swiss francs ($1,060). Not only that, but grandparents also need a permit.

Peter Hausherr, who heads the city office for foster children, believes that leaving one's children with relatives can indeed be a good way to manage the demands of work and raising a family -- and that as a general rule such arrangements don't need to be reported to authorities. "However, if the focal point of a child's life shifts to the relatives, then it must be reported," he told Tages-Anzeiger

Concretely, that means that any arrangement whereby a child under the age of 18 regularly spends three nights or more a week -- or 10 nights or more a month -- with other family members must be officially declared. "Regularly" is defined as a two-month period or more, which means that vacations -- assuming the child isn't spending non-vacation time with the relatives as well -- don't count, said Hausherr.

If little David were to spend any more time at his grandparents' house than he currently does, his grandparents would have to get a permit. The point of the permit, according to Hausherr, is both to protect the child and to make sure that the city can support the "foster parents' in their job. To make sure that children are being properly looked after at their grandparents', staffers in Hausherr's office make house visits. "In most cases, the relatives don't perceive the visits as check-ups but as welcome back-up," said Hausherr. The visits usually go off without a hitch. In 2011, only three families were subject to follow-up checks.

"And fines – to my knowledge, nobody has been fined for the past 10 years," he said.

Read the full story in German by Lucienne-Camille Vaudan

Photo – kindergentler21

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Migrant Lives

What's Driving More Venezuelans To Migrate To The U.S.

With dimmed hopes of a transition from the economic crisis and repressive regime of Nicolas Maduro, many Venezuelans increasingly see the United States, rather than Latin America, as the place to rebuild a life..

Photo of a family of Migrants from Venezuela crossing the Rio Grande between Mexico and the U.S. to surrender to the border patrol with the intention of requesting humanitarian asylum​

Migrants from Venezuela crossed the Rio Grande between Mexico and the U.S. to surrender to the border patrol with the intention of requesting humanitarian asylum.

Julio Borges

-Analysis-

Migration has too many elements to count. Beyond the matter of leaving your homeland, the process creates a gaping emptiness inside the migrant — and outside, in their lives. If forced upon someone, it can cause psychological and anthropological harm, as it involves the destruction of roots. That's in fact the case of millions of Venezuelans who have left their country without plans for the future or pleasurable intentions.

Their experience is comparable to paddling desperately in shark-infested waters. As many Mexicans will concur, it is one thing to take a plane, and another to pay a coyote to smuggle you to some place 'safe.'

Venezuela's mass emigration of recent years has evolved in time. Initially, it was the middle and upper classes and especially their youth, migrating to escape the socialist regime's socio-political and economic policies. Evidently, they sought countries with better work, study and business opportunities like the United States, Panama or Spain. The process intensified after 2017 when the regime's erosion of democratic structures and unrelenting economic vandalism were harming all Venezuelans.

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