A sacrificed generation

“I could never have a job that didn’t make me feel useful … I can’t work just for money”. “Work is important, but it must never prevail over life”. “I consider working as an ongoing challenge, which I’m always ready to face”. These are some of the replies by young men and women interviewed by the International ACLI Federation – Christian Associations of Italian Workers – in nine European countries (Belgium, France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Albania, and Kosovo) for a survey (over 150 interviews) whose findings were presented in London during the international seminary held on October 7-9 titled “Work, participation, democracy, people, rights, civil economy”, promoted by the same Federation, with the support of the European Centre for Workers’ QUestions (EZA) under the auspices of the European Social and Economic Committee. Less and less protected. “In a Europe that is ageing and is called upon to update her social protection systems, the new generations are not highly valued or, even less, protected”, the ACLI state in the report. According to Eurostat findings highlighted in the EU Commission document “Europe 2020” that was mentioned during the seminary, youth unemployment rates reached 21% among under 25 students. 14.4% of the EU’s citizens between the ages of 18 and 24 leave school before obtaining a certificate of higher secondary education and they do not follow subsequent education and training paths. Ideal investment. “Even the most trivial job is important for the performance of this machine called ‘world'”, said a young woman from France. “To me life should also be centered on the working environment, on helping other people”, added an English girl. “I am sure that I have given my contribution to the legal office by bringing democratic values within Kosovo’s legislation”, said a young lawyer from Kosovo. “In spite of the crises and the difficulties that young men and women encounter in Europe – underlined ACLI researches – a great ideal of investment in work emerges, in terms of values and meaning”. On the individual plane, “working is a form of identity, since unfortunately you are what you do”, said a young employee from France. But it’s also a challenge: “It’s looking into oneself, challenging oneself to obtain something more”, said another youth. As regards the attitudes requested, “it’s important to be flexible – said a German young man – adapting to new situations that may be linked to problems”. “Being creative and taking initiatives”, is equally important according to his colleague from Belgium. Women. The poll shows that women’s daily lives differ in many ways, and that they are marked by difficulties and unequal treatment, linked especially to maternity, compensation, household burdens. A young Albanian woman said: “I work with joy, but I housework tires me dearly. Nobody helps me, although there are three men in the house. When I finish here I start my work at home and viceversa, without a moment of rest”. However, for European women “work remains a tool of emancipation leading to full citizenship”.Youth. The picture of the youth, researchers say, “is even darker: those in employment have precarious working conditions; the unemployed struggle in the quest for a job”. From the interviews emerges the profile of “a sacrificed generation, conditioned by poor protection also for the future: as if there were a ‘black hole’ in the generation link”. “Even when the crisis will come to and end – sooner or later”, remarked an interviewee, the consequences “will linger on for more several years. Those who are now temporary lay-offs or precarious workers, those who have no possibility to save money, those who cannot create a family for themselves”, nor a “future… doomed to continue living in a permanent state of crisis”. Nonetheless, the researchers underline, “the youth continue having faith in Europe, which they consider a vital space”, but they underline the “importance of speeding up the social and political aspects of the European building, testifying to the incompleteness of a purely economic development”. Representation and participation. Devolution of authority prevails. “Lack of commitment and detachment – the ACLI write – are the most problematic attitudes”. However, “there is the need for a new model of representation” that can be reached “through a path of recognition to overcome the individualization and precarisation of employment”. In this scenario “a new model of development” must emerge, the ACLI conclude, and propose the model of civil economy, “a civil economy, where market, State and civil society, in their diverse articulations, interact virtuously and jointly plan strategies of integrated development”. Only in this way will it be possible to enhance workers’ rights, productivity and the logic of bestowal, positioned as required by “Caritas in Veritate” in the origins of the market itself and not downstream, as a compensatory elements, reconciling the “fundamental equality of a democratic state, the regular freedom of the market and fraternity as the added value of civil society”.