Youth in Turkey Report
Results of the United Nations Development Program 2008 “Youth in Turkey” Report:
From an interview with one of the authors:
Only about 4 percent [of Turkish youth participate in civil society activities], and most of these are university students. Despite the perception of young people in Turkey as dynamic, middle-class students, the reality is quite different. Only 30 percent of young people are students. The remaining 30 percent are working and 40 percent are idle — they neither study, nor work. So 40 percent of the young population does not participate in work life, school life and, of course, in social life. One can call these people the “invisible youth.”…
[For Turkish youth, happiness often means living according to the desire of their families.] When we started one of our focus groups in a small town in the Turkey’s western Marmara region, one of the young participants was 24-year-old Selim, who said he was happy and satisfied with his life. Listening to his story from beginning to end, we realized that it was not Selim himself who was “happy,” but his family — which did not let him go to cadet school in another town, even though Selim succeeded in the exams. His family could not get beyond “we can’t live without you.” Selim now works at a dairy factory, the only place he could find a job in his hometown, and he is still living with his parents. Because of Selim’s long working hours, they see each other only at the breakfast table. But he says his parents are very happy and he’s also “happy” because he did not hurt their feelings….
According to the official figures, there are 2.2 million young women in Turkey who are not studying and not even looking for jobs [although they might like to live more independently]. This kind of compromise by young people can even be seen in more educated, wealthier families….
Forty-nine percent of young people said “a good job” is what they want most, followed by “esteem” with 18 percent, and “love” with only 16 percent. About 1 million young people between the ages of 15 and 24 are actively looking for jobs. The unemployment rate of about 18 percent among young people is almost twice the national average... 30 percent [of young people said they couldn’t find a job because they were] “young and inexperienced.” …Businesses are not willing to provide training for their prospective employees… 23.6 percent said they couldn’t find a job because they had no connections.
The rate of political participation among young people in Turkey is only 4.7 percent. Three-quarters of the remaining 95.3 percent do not expect to participate in any political party in the future.
For the full interview with one of the report’s authors, click here.
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