What place for young people? Access to employment in developing
countries
Florence BOYER (geographer,
Institute of research for development, France), Charlotte GUÉNARD (economist, University
of Paris 1)
Because of
lagged demographic transitions on different continents, young people today face
highly differentiated employment opportunities. In Sub-Saharan Africa as well
as in the Arabic countries, which began their demographic transition earlier, the
young people who massively enter the labour market are at the heart of present demographic
and social challenges: unemployment, employment precariousness, saturated urban
informal sector, generational tensions, constrained desires for autonomy. The
“Arabic revolutions” have brought out the yearnings of increasingly qualified young
people unemployed or occupying positions that do not match their skills. In
emerging countries, in Latin America or in Asia, young people will have to support
the burden of an increasing number of inactive people: as a result of the
absence of generalized pension systems, the termination of activity may be
delayed at the end of the life cycle, leading to competition for employment
between different generations while the eldest remain the responsibility of
their descendants.
While farming
largely remains a family affair In Sub-Saharan Africa, rural activities tend to
diversify a process to which the younger generations contribute in still relatively
unclear conditions. In that region, the young people remain massively rural in
spite of the fast growth of the cities, which still attract people and
activities. The population distribution and the economic activities are more
concentrated in cities in Latin America, where young people are essentially urban.
In Asia, the situation is intermediary due to a relative under-urbanization: economic
activities and employment are still massively located in rural areas, but due
to rapid urbanization, urban people should be the majority by 2030. From one continent
to another and from one environment to another, young people face unequal
opportunities resulting from changes on labour markets – steep decrease in
public sector recruitments for example – and from educational differentials.
Facing
difficulties using their skills, young people struggle to build their future
around key moments: end of schooling, entry into the working world, end of
cohabitation and/or migration, first marriage and family formation. Entering
the working age is often not independent from the family sphere where collective
choices of activity, income diversification, etc. are made. The previous
generations more or less largely hold the economic power and may be in a
position to influence the activity choices and projects of the young people
while they themselves expect that a higher level of education as compared to
their elders should allow them to target a better professional career.
In the past,
social sciences have focused on young people in public space. They have more recently
turned to research on specific categories of workers: women, homeworkers, small
tradespeople in the informal sector. The purpose of this issue is to conduct an
in-depth analysis of the employment situation of young people in developing
countries in terms of gaining access to employment and working conditions, and
to emphasize the different constraints young people face.
Proposals for
this issue might address, but not exclusively, the following themes:
-
Integration in
employment. Under what
conditions and in which contexts do young people start working? Does finding a
first employment or diversifying their activities imply an internal migration, mobility
between rural and urban areas, or even an international migration for the young
people? Do they mobilize their personal or family networks for their
professional insertion? Does access to a first employment, even precarious,
constitute a step toward new opportunities in their professional and migration history?
Do they benefit from public incentives or assistance in finding employment? Are
they victims of discrimination?
-
Working
conditions and remuneration. What are the working conditions of young people? What are their levels
of remuneration? In which sectors are they more likely to work? Do they find
employment in the formal or informal sector? Are there important gender
differences in their working conditions and remuneration? Are young women
concentrated in precarious positions due to their level of education, employers’
policies, family decisions, or because of a temporary personal positioning on the
labour market?
-
Youth autonomy,
intergenerational relationships. What are the professional aspirations of the youth in developing
countries today? Who makes the decision regarding their search for employment
and their career choice? How are know-hows inherited and negotiated from one
generation to the next? What are the main transmission channels of experience
and know-how (family, apprenticeship, social networks) ? Are young people
willing to avail of the legacies of previous generations or do they want to break
free for more autonomy in decision making?
-
Social and
professional mobility. do young
people occupy “better” positions than their elders at the beginning of their
professional life at the same age? What is their perception of their future occupational
mobility? Are their success models different from those of their elders? Do
they experience an upward or downward mobility in comparison with the previous
generations? What can be the professional insertion of young graduates when
they return to their country of origin?
Autrepart
invites researchers in the fields of anthropology, demography, economics,
geography, history, political science and sociology to address these questions.
