Arab young people and the problem of unemployment was the topic of the second Youth Panel Series organised by the American University in Cairo (AUC) Forum recently. The panel, entitled “Coping with Youth Issues: Why and How,” was held in collaboration with the SAHWA youth project on the Southern and Northern Mediterranean countries. SAHWA is an EU-funded research project that explores the prospects and expectations of Arab and Mediterranean young people. The panel was moderated by Bahgat Korany, director of the AUC Forum. The main speakers were Ivan Martin, senior research fellow at the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB) in Spain and the SAHWA project coordinator, and Ibrahim Awad, a professor in the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy and director of the Centre for Migration and Refugees Studies at AUC. Martin said the EU is interested in Arab youth for various reasons. Though youth were the leaders of the Arab Spring, surveys have estimated that between 40 and 60 per cent of Arab young people want to emigrate from their countries, he said. This had made the EU anxious to do more for Arab young people, if only to stem the problem of migration. Studies of innovation have shown that innovators and entrepreneurs are mainly in their early thirties, he said. And it was difficult to expect innovative dynamics in society if such people feel excluded, something that is happening in Arab countries. “Young people are the gift of society. What we do for them and what they do for themselves constitutes the future of society,” Martin said. Awad said the unemployment is a global issue for young people, and youth unemployment was one of the main causes of the Arab Spring uprisings. There is a 25 per cent unemployment rate among young people in the Arab region, double the world average. There is also “hidden underemployment,” or working for less time than a worker would like to, and “inadequate employment,” or employment in jobs for which a person is overqualified, he said. Martin and Awad criticised the education system in Egypt and said that it did not provide young people with sufficient skills for the labour market. Awad also said that the labour market in Arab countries does not generate demand for highly educated and skilled people, which explains why university graduates are so often unemployed. A third Youth Panel will be held in February.
