We read of the plight of unemployed people in various countries in Europe and high unemployment in the USA and elsewhere, but often overlooked are the young people. In some countries, such as Spain and Greece, the unemployment rate for those under 25 can often be as high as 50%.
What is to happen to these young people, many of them tertiary educated? No hope for the future - and the prospects of taking up a life in another country not all that easy. In addition the whole social fabric of society is being altered.
It's a subject taken up in this op-ed piece "Young and Isolated" in The New York Times.
"But often overlooked are what the sociologists Richard Sennett and Jonathan Cobb in 1972 called their “hidden injuries” — the difficult-to-measure social costs borne by working-class youths as they struggle to forge stable and meaningful adult lives.
These are people bouncing from one temporary job to the next; dropping out of college because they can’t figure out financial aid forms or fulfill their major requirements; relying on credit cards for medical emergencies; and avoiding romantic commitments because they can take care of only themselves. Increasingly disconnected from institutions of work, family and community, they grow up by learning that counting on others will only hurt them in the end. Adulthood is not simply being delayed but dramatically reimagined along lines of trust, dignity and connection and obligation to others."
What is to happen to these young people, many of them tertiary educated? No hope for the future - and the prospects of taking up a life in another country not all that easy. In addition the whole social fabric of society is being altered.
It's a subject taken up in this op-ed piece "Young and Isolated" in The New York Times.
"But often overlooked are what the sociologists Richard Sennett and Jonathan Cobb in 1972 called their “hidden injuries” — the difficult-to-measure social costs borne by working-class youths as they struggle to forge stable and meaningful adult lives.
These are people bouncing from one temporary job to the next; dropping out of college because they can’t figure out financial aid forms or fulfill their major requirements; relying on credit cards for medical emergencies; and avoiding romantic commitments because they can take care of only themselves. Increasingly disconnected from institutions of work, family and community, they grow up by learning that counting on others will only hurt them in the end. Adulthood is not simply being delayed but dramatically reimagined along lines of trust, dignity and connection and obligation to others."
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