Europe

‘One million babies’ created by EU student exchanges

The Erasmus student exchange scheme has brought so many couples together from across the continent that it has led to the birth of one million babies, the EU said Monday. A study of the programme’s impact since its launch in 1987 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.

It is a great encouragement to young people to go and live abroad and open up to all the opportunities that exist if you are willing. Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen

But the EU insisted the program achievements went beyond spawning dual-nationality babies — creating jobs as well as population growth. With unemployment affecting one in five young people in a Europe increasingly gripped by economic stagnation, the EU said the Erasmus scheme also played a vital role in increasing the job prospects of students who took part. Erasmus involves the 28 European Union states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey. In total, three million students and 350,000 teachers have taken part in the scheme, the EU said.