SANTIAGO, 28 October 2008): Unemployment among the youth of Latin America has diminished over the past decade, and youths are at the forefront of comprehending and using new technologies. However, they scarcely trust political institutions in their countries, feel discriminated because they are poor, and education hasn’t helped them rise in the social scale.
These are some of the conclusions of the report “Youth and Social Cohesion in Ibero-America: A model in the making”, published by the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Ibero-American Youth Organization (OIJ), and released Thuesday during the XVIII Ibero-American Summit in El Salvador.
The study analyzes the relationship between youth and social cohesion, understood both as the structures and institutions that facilitate social inclusion (education, employment, social protection), as well as the sense of belonging to a community.
For Latin American youths, the gaps that in the long run undermine social cohesion “are an everyday thing”. Youths have “more education but fewer jobs; more information but less power; more symbolic consumption but less material consumption; greater expectations of autonomy, but more difficulties in living independently…” says the report.
An average 69 per cent of Latin American youths say they feel discriminated, and this proportion is particularly high in the Dominican Republic (84 per cent), Ecuador (81 per cent) and Bolivia (79 per cent); over 20 per cent feel discriminated because they are poor. More than 35 per cent of youths in the region are poor, and another 11,4 per cent are living in conditions of extreme poverty.
Almost 11 per cent say they are discriminated because they lack education. Education as a means of social mobility “doesn’t work the same for everyone… Those with the least probabilities of finishing high school are those youths whose parents didn’t conclude their formal education, those of indigenous and afro-descendent origin, those living in rural areas and those who enjoy less material well-being,” states the report.
They do not trust others, either. Less than 20 per cent of youths consulted in the study believe they can trust most people, but in countries such as Brazil and Nicaragua, an extremely high percentage (95 per cent and 89 per cent, respectively) does not trust the people around them.
Reasons for optimism
Nonetheless, the ECLAC study provides some optimism. Unemployment among youths has fallen over the past decade, and this has been the case across all income groups. They enjoy increasingly greater levels of education, leading to more opportunities for social inclusion, and connectivity is starting to spread to the new generations of all social strata, as they have more access to computers and internet through the educational system.
“The challenge is to advance towards greater equality in achievements among youths of different income groups, areas of residence and ethnic origins. And complement increasing education with policies geared at rebuilding the missing links in their transit from education to employment,” concludes the report.
Youths are at the forefront of communications and knowledge, says the study, but the digital gap based on socio-economic and educational differences is notorious. However, “differences based on age, socio-economic conditions and education clearly define the digital gap in terms of access, intensity and contexts of use, which could exacerbate pre-existing socioeconomic gaps, undermining social cohesion,” alerts the study.
The report is organized in five parts: poverty and risks; development of capabilities; generation of opportunities; youth, family and sense of belonging; and institutions and policies for youths. It includes specific chapters on mortality, teenage maternity, education, connectivity, employment and youth violence, among others. It received support from the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB).
Kilde: www.eclac.org
