Posted on 03/22/2014 6:41:23 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Europe’s unemployed youth do not mind a little economic insecurity. What they can’t stand is a chronic atmosphere of political hopelessness. No wonder they are fleeing the continent.
Young people appear to be the social group most affected by the lingering economic crisis of the EU. Around a quarter of them is unemployed. As expected, the situation is the most dramatic in the countries on the European periphery: In Spain 57 per cent of the population below 30 is unable to find a job, according to the most recent Eurostat figures. The worrying list also includes Greece with 58 per cent and Croatia, the Union’s newest member state, with 52 per cent.
Being young, motivated, and well-educated no longer means being on the path for financial independence today. Especially not in Spain, where many ambitious graduates are refused employment on the grounds of being overqualified. The lucky ones might find an unpaid internship or an underpaid, temporary job that scarcely matches their qualifications.
Latin America beats Germany
For that reason, many Spaniards have begun seeking employment elsewhere. Irene S. (30) has been living in Canada for two and a half years where she is pursuing a PhD in Communication. Back in Spain, she had worked as a journalist: “I actually worked for three newsrooms at the same time,” she says, “But the conditions were precarious.”
Other European countries, particularly the economically strong states like Germany and France, are increasingly losing their appeal for migrants like Irene. Studies have shown that Latin America is slowly becoming as popular as European countries. “Many of my friends have already left Spain,” Irene explains, “I now have friends in Chile, Mexico, the United States, France – everywhere.”
89% of Spain’s emigrants have a college degree. This should not come as a surprise, since it has always been the well-educated that were more willing to move and had higher chances of finding a job abroad. But even students are leaving the country. Thousands of them took to the streets when the Rajoy administration announced to not only slash scholarships for advanced degrees, but to also cut the financing of the Erasmus program.
Erasmus is what allows many young Spaniards to go abroad in the first place; often, it is their first meaningful stay abroad. Many students remain in their host countries or quickly return there. Not only because continuing their studies back home is difficult in the absence of government scholarships, but also because other countries frequently offer better job chances than Spain. Other countries’ job markets might be crowded by native graduates, but even a low-paid job is often favorable to what is being offered back home.
When I ask Irene whether she could imagine returning to Spain in the next 5 to 10 years, she responds “No, not at all!” Her plans reflect an ongoing trend. “At my going-away party, a friend warned me that Canada was going to be too cold for somebody from Spain. She suggested that I would surely be back soon. Then, six months later, she contacted me to ask for advice considering the Canadian immigration process.”
If she were to return, Irene believes that she would surely find a job in Spain. “But what kind of job would it be? How much money would I make? And would it be enough to start a family? When I left Spain, it was because I was fed up with the political situation there and in the rest of Europe. I was very upset. And so leaving the country was really a means of survival: Nobody can live through constant, desperate indignation.”
The weak are being crippled
In European politics, fighting youth unemployment is a flagship initiative. But it also constitutes populism, yet another case of the symptomatic therapy: On the one hand, European governments try to create jobs through large investment sums. They do not care which kinds of jobs are created – as long as they provide employment. On the other hand, they encourage migration towards the economically strong countries through their campaigns and subsidies. As a result, countries in the European periphery are weakened even further.
Being able to move within the entire continent is undoubtedly a blessing. But in political marketing, even the desperate kind of migration is held up as proof of successful European integration. While being able to study or work abroad offers a valuable experience and contributes to integration, it does so only when equal opportunities are offered in all countries – and when a return home is a realistic option.
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Translated from German
bunch of economic retards
Not where I live.
If by "often" you mean "almost never" then you are correct.
Note that the whole revolt in Western Ukraine was because these people wanted to be like those in the EU... unemployed baristas.
it was frightening 13 years ago when I worked a Disney install - Morrocans and whatnot eveywhere, and boy, where they a sullen bunch...
.
(if they were not rioting in the Parisian malls)
College degree no longer equates to highly educated.
It doesn’t help the demographic situation if millions of the remaining young Europeans are leaving, too.
If the government pays for her to study abroad, saying she wants to study communications in Canada might have been the way to get her government to pay to send her and get admission to Canada (as a student).
Yeah. I was there for the big car burning event a few years back.
So entertaining.
Of course, everyone in Paris thought I was nuts because I thought they could burn a few more, no one would miss them...worlds second worst traffic next to Moscow...
““Around a quarter of them is unemployed’’. And some can’t write in proper English grammar either. “
That is perfectly correct British English.
It's hard to tell what was told, and to who. The people at Maidan were a ragtag bunch, and you can bet that a good part of them was interested in the process more than in the results.
Revolutionaries often love to tell tall tales, knowing well that when the dust settles many of those who are misled today won't be around to question those stories. Revolutions live and die by the current moment; anything that can be a weapon becomes a weapon. Blame game is also extremely popular, no thanks to GWB who is personally responsible for that and more :-)
But even if we look at a small percentage of Ukrainians who were aware of details of the trade agreement (that was not joining the EU,) they likely hoped to move on to Europe and then perhaps elsewhere because Ukrainian economy is worse than Greece's. At least in Greece they honestly wasted money on high salaries of bureaucracy. In Ukraine all the money was stolen, is being stolen, and will continue to be stolen because there is not a single hint that the new team in power is planning to turn the tide of corruption. The people are just trying to swim up.
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