SANTIAGO DE CHILE, 19 August 2009: Young Latin Americans living in poverty are increasingly losing faith in school and work as a means for social mobility, while they view material and symbolic consumption as a determinant of social inclusion or exclusion, and forger of their identity.
This is one of the conclusions of the article Youth and Sense of Belonging in Latin America: Causes and Threats of Social Fragmentation published by Gonzalo A. Saraví, Professor and Researcher of Mexico’s Center for Research and Higher Studies in Social Anthropology (CIESAS) in CEPAL (UN Economic Commission for Latinamerica and the Carubbean) Review Nº 98, released Wednesday.
The author defines material consumption as that which satisfies economic, family and personal needs, while symbolic consumption is that which builds identity.
Saraví asserts that an increasing number of youths perceive high school education as incapable of ensuring them better life conditions. They hold a similar view regarding the labour market, given the growing precariousness and instability of jobs and low wages, resulting in a work life deadlocked in poverty.
Secondary school education has become more massive, but keeping students in school continues to be difficult. According to ECLAC, over half of 20-24 year old Latin Americans have not completed 12 years of school, the minimum number of years needed to rise out of poverty.
In his field work, Saraví interviewed young, impoverished Mexicans who said they were bored (loss of interest in school), felt like creating “disaster” (means of entertainment through violating norms), felt impatience, that they are losing time and that they “existed without knowing what for”.
Many youths in marginal sectors of Peru have also lost interest in school or work, and are characterized mainly by uncertainty and inactivity, according to a local report referenced by Saraví.
The article quotes another study carried out in the favelas (slums) of Río de Janeiro, Brazil, where youths said they had little faith in education because they see how their friends and older siblings who spent more years in school are nevertheless unemployed or underemployed.
Saraví believes that the crisis regarding the importance of school and work has led to greater migration, delinquency, illegal activities and evasive behaviour, making the dilemmas for public policies even more complex and urgent.
