FES MENA Youth Study

Even with significantly improved education, social upward mobility has moved beyond the reach of many. Only one third of young people in the MENA region (pupils and students excluded) have a regular income; all others are temporarily or permanently without work. Insecurity and vulnerability hence become chronic conditions, with precariousness omnipresent. Even young families starting out as well-educated, dual earners are constrained by massive economic problems.

Family continues to play a key role for MENA youth. Breaking away from their family is virtually inconceivable for this generation, as hardly any other institution provides a safety net in the face of economic insecurity. Young men and women are themselves interested in strong family ties, consider having their own children to be important, and would change little about their own upbringing. At the same time, they are also pursuing autonomous goals such as wanting to select their own marriage partner.

Inequalities in MENA societies are often framed as gender-specific, an approach that does not take into account other decisive factors or even obscures them. Regarding sexual harassment, for example, young men and women hold equally misogynist attitudes, regardless of their level of education. Gender issues are thus always embedded in society and need to be addressed within social configurations.

While empirical data paints a picture of MENA youth as rather pious, young people consider religion first to be a private matter, as a source of hope and optimism. Religion for MENA youth no longer serves political or ideological purposes, but instead centres on individual well-being and self-discipline, making it more of a channel for spirituality. Where one finds high degrees of piousness, it is primarily felt at the individual level, no longer in terms of a social utopia.

The 2010/11 uprisings show the potential for politicising young people in the MENA countries, which in many cases allow only limited political participation. A large majority of young people have distanced themselves from politics after the region’s recent experiences, emphasising that they are no longer interested in politics. In doing so, however, they are often referring to party politics, because at the same time, they also express interest and commitments related to the arena of everyday politics.

Asked about political systems, a democratic system is clearly the top preference of young people living in the MENA region. At the same time, a large proportion of young people want a greater state presence. This primarily concerns improved social security, which they think the state should provide in the face of growing uncertainty. Young people thus embody significant potential for constructive changes to the political order.

The events of 2010/11 represent the climax of the political mobilisation of youth geared towards changing state-society relations. In the aftermath of this, and despite the disillusion of many with formal political processes in recent years, young people remain ready to become politically active. However, the areas in which they might act have shifted; they are more interested in standing up for socio-economic objectives than for political change.

Young men and women in the MENA region are generally willing to work for the interest of others as well as for social objectives. Rarely, however, do they engage through formal civil society organisations; only a third of politically active youth act within an institutional framework. With the change in young people’s values and goals and the firm grip with which the authoritarian states of the region control and co-opt civil engagement, civil society organisations have obviously lost their appeal for the younger generation.

Despite the uncertainty that reigns the region, only a small group of young people is firmly committed to migration. Labour migration is usually oriented towards other MENA countries; the desire to work in Europe remains limited. Those youth affected by precarious situations are often torn between thoughts of migration, and deep, emotional connections with their home countries and families. Emigration is thus by no means understood as a simple "way out".

While the political and economic situation in countries in the MENA region currently offers few grounds for optimism, the study results present a picture of young people who are better educated than ever before, with strong emotional ties to their home countries and a positive attitude to life, prepared to shoulder responsibility and become actively involved in addressing societal issues.