Adaptation and mobility” “

Although their educational level is among the highest in the world, European youngsters are those who bear most of the brunt of the crisis of the labour market. Short-term contracts, compulsory flexibility, part time. And so long as they do not remain unemployed, young people are prepared to accept any conditions. What are the consequences? Psychological vulnerability, depression, apathy, insecurity, sense of precariousness. Levels of unemployment obviously vary depending on country: the highest – according to a survey conducted by the European Trade Union Institute – are registered in Greece and Italy; the lowest in Denmark, Austria and Holland. Holland, Germany and France also top the European league table in terms of the impact of short-term contracts and part time. In spite of the variety of situations, it is possible to identify some common denominators. CIJOC-Europe (European International Coordination of Christian Worker Youth), a federation of ten nations on issues connected with youth employment, has tried to do so. Labour and youth: “temporary employment” is growing. A first common denominator is “temporariness”: a phenomenon that is equally widespread in the east and west, in the south and north of the continent. Young people live from hand to mouth, alternating periods of employment of varying length with others of unemployment. This is because the labour contracts offered to them are temporary, lasting from just a few days to one or two months. “Paradoxically – says a document put out by CIJOC – this situation is not considered abnormal by young people, because having a temporary job is always better than having no job at all”. Another characteristic is the increasingly short interval between the end of one job and the start of another: in other words, young people are being asked to work for ever shorter periods. Young people, besides, are often forced to change their “type of work” and hence to develop a great capacity for adaptation and versatility. Ever more often, too, young people are also asked to change their “place of work”. “This system – comments CIJOC – escapes any measure of protection and security; it is subject to little or no control (both by labour inspectors and by the trades-unions) and is prone to degeneration”. Tiredness, neurosis, sense of vulnerability. “The consequences of these conditions – continues the CIJOC document – are similar throughout the European continent. The difference consists only in the higher number of young people in southern and eastern Europe who are forced to accept these conditions of precariousness in work and in life”. In general, continues CIJOC, “the most important consequence is psychological fragility (neurosis, feeling of tiredness) combined with physical symptoms of malaise (headache, backache…)”. But the document also raises the question of responsibility: some firms lead young people to believe that they have responsibilities which in fact they do not have. “Some accept this situation of precariousness as a challenge; but many others are gradually worn down by it. And these forms of vulnerability generate, in turn, well-known consequences such as depression, apathy, loss of self-confidence”, to the point of self-isolation, either directly or indirectly, from family and friends. The commitment of the Church. The international Coordination of GIOC (Christian Worker Youth) is a federation of 64 organizations in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Europe and is aimed at the evangelization and education of young people especially in the world of bluecollar work. CIJOC forms part of GEPO (European Group of Worker Apostolate), an umbrella organization which brings together agencies involved in the pastoral care of workers in several European countries: Germany, Belgium, Spain, France, Luxembourg, Italy, Malta, Holland, Portugal and Switzerland, as well as representatives of the European coordination of the International Movement of the Child Apostolate (MIDADE) and the World Movement of Christian Workers (MMTC-MTCE). Founded in 1972 in the aftermath of Vatican Council II, thanks to the initiative of various European bishops with a particular interest in labour conditions. GEPO’s objective is to “reinforce solidarity, the struggle for justice, the preaching of the Word and an action of liberation inspired by the Gospel and Christian social teaching ‘in’ and ‘with’ the world of work in Europe”. M.C.B.