--- Jim Devine <jdevine03 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> it is very common that birthrates are highest in the
> poorest areas.
> Poorer people are more likely to see children as
> investments, whereas
> richer folks see them as luxuries.
>
Yes, and I think there's another factor here. Ingush, Chechens and most of the ethnic groups of Dagestan have societies that are based upon tribal/kinship/clan ties*, and so you have a big social support network that doesn't exist in Slavic culture.
* This has its downside. Back during their heyday of the kidnap industry in 1996-1999, lots of Dagestanis especially were targeted by the kidnapping rings on the belief that "this guy we caught may be poor, but his clan can come with the money." (It also created a serious statistical skew downward in number of kidnappings officially reported, since Dagestanis are much more likely to turn to their clan or to criminal groups for help rather than seek out the help of the police, widely perceived as worthless. Official number of kidnappings between 1996-1999 is about 1,100, but unofficial estimates are that the real number was three times as high.)
Nu, zayats, pogodi!
__________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - Find what you need with new enhanced search. http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250