Youth Unemployment And Social Exclusion In Europe

This important new book presents the findings of the first comparative study of unemployed youth in Europe using a large and original data set. It addresses some of the key questions around the issue including: How do young people cope with unemployment? Does unemployment lead to social exclusion of young people, implying a withdrawal from society, financial deprivation and social isolation? Drawing on a research sample of over 17000 young unemployed people in ten European countries, the book examines how different welfare strategies and labour market policies in different countries influence the risk of social exclusion among unemployed youth.

This book confronts readers with questions emerging from the 'gap' between EU aspirations to reduce youth unemployment without increasing social exclusion - and what is actually happening in practice. Aimed at a diverse readership, it is based on a three year European Union (EU) project into education, training, guidance and employment (ETG) programmes for young adults across six countries. Insights are grounded in the lives and stories of disadvantaged young adults, and of those who work with them, bringing to life unintended impacts of well intended interventions. The authors consider the influence of shifting political and pedagogical ideologies in the EU on local practices and young peoples’ lives and choices. They also consider the impact of policy and performance management discourses ’on the ground’. This work uses rigorous yet innovative narrative forms to invite readers into a ’whole system’ inquiry into these complexities. Unemployed Youth and Social Exclusion in Europe will make an important contribution to reflecting critically on current policy and practice, as well as to academic understandings of unemployed youth, and restrictive and reflexive approaches to learning for inclusion across Europe.

EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. Policymakers throughout Europe are enacting policies to support youth labour market integration. However, many young people continue to face unemployment, job insecurity, and the subsequent consequences. Adopting a mixed-method and multilevel perspective, this book provides a comprehensive investigation into the multifaceted consequences of social exclusion. Drawing on rich pan-European comparative and quantitative data, and interviews with young people from across Europe, this text gives a platform to the unheard voices of young people. Contributors derive crucial new policy recommendations and offer fresh insights into areas including youth well-being, health, poverty, leaving the parental home, and qualifying for social security.

In this volume, the European research project YUSEDER ("Youth Unemployment and Social Exclusion: Dimensions, Subjective Experiences and Institutional Responses in Six Countries of the EU"), supported by the EU Commission (Directorate General Research) as a part of the programme Targeted Socio-Economic Research (TSER), addresses the question of what effects long-term unemployment has on young people in regard of their feeling of belonging to society. Does long-term unemployment imply the risk of social exclusion for young people? How does social exclusion develop, and which factors counteract the processes of exclusion? Thus far, research into unemployment has seldom performed comparative studies. This interdisciplinary project in six European countries has conducted for the first time a qualitative study with 300 long-term unemployment young people from age 20 to 25. The inquiry was carried out in the three northern European countries Sweden, Belgium and Germany and in the three southern European countries Greece, Italy and Spain. Researches from psychology, sociology, public health and psychiatry participated in this research project coordinated by Thomas Kieselbach (University of Bremen, Germany). The volumes in the series published up to now within the YUSEDER project represent a state of the art overview of the topic of youth unemployment and health (volume 1) and youth unemployment and social exclusion (volume 2) in the six participating countries. This third volume focuses on the personal experiences and assessments of young people affected by unemployment. Besides presenting the country-specific manifestations of social exclusion, this new study identifies those important key mechanisms which increase (vulnerability factors) or reduce (protective factors) the risk of social exclusion. The results of this interdisciplinary comparative study represent an important basis for conceptualising future intervention measures in the European Union which could redu

This volume draws attention to the concept of social exclusion in the context of unemployment as well as to vulnerable groups of young unemployed people with regard to social exclusion in six European countries. It is based upon the results of an international research project (Youth Unemployment an Social Exclusion: Dimensions, Subjective Experiences, and Innovative Institutional Responses in Six Countries of the EU) (YUSEDER) conducted in the framework of the research programme Targeted Socio-Economic Research (TSER) of the European Commission. Partners from six European countries with differing scientific backgrounds (health psychology, public health research, psychatry, industrial sociology, medical sociology) from six European countries participated in this project. The concept of social exclusion has gained an impressive importance in the European policy debate. The refused entry to the labor market for members of the younger generation increases the risk of social exclusion for the affected youth as well as for the social fabric in general. The contributions of this volume illustrate an initial approach to analysing and comparing theoretical reflections about the meaning and extent of social exclusion for young unemployed people from a comparative perspective. The research has been carried out in three Northern European countries (Sweden, Germany, Belgium) an three Southern European Countries (Spain, Italy, Greece). For each country a specific national report ist presented. The comparative section describes and attempts to explain the similarities and dissimilarities between countries having rather diverse histrorical and social understandings of being socially excluded or marginalised für young people

Youth unemployment has become one of the most crucial social problems in many EU countries. In the 90s it can be observed that in most Western countries, the rate of youth unemployment have risen dramatically, in some of these countries the unemployment problem can be considered primarily a problem of refused entry to the labour market for members of the younger generation. This development increases the risk of psychosocial impairment to the individuals affected as well as to the social fabric in general. The present volume draws attention to the health effects of long-term youth unemployment in six European countries. It is based upon the results of an international research project (Youth Unemployment and Social Exclusion: Dimensions, Subjective Experiences, and Innovative Institutional Responses in Six Countries of the EU) (YUSEDER) conducted in the framework of the research programme Targeted Socio-Economic Research (TSER) of the European Commission. Partners with different scientific backgrounds (health psychology, public health research, psychiatry, industrial sociology, medical sociology) from six European countries participated in this project. The contributions in this volume illustrate an initial approach to analysing and comparing empirical evidence on youth unemployment and health from a comparative perspective for three Northern European countries (Sweden, Germany, Belgium) and for three Southern European countries (Spain, Italy, Greece). For each country a specific national report is presented. The comparative section describes and attempts to explain the similarities and dissimilarities between countries having rather diverse historical and social understandings of being in and out of work for young people.

Young people and contradictions of inclusion critically assesses policies addressing young people's transitions from school to employment. It presents and discusses the findings of seven EU-funded projects involving 13 countries: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

This book examines the everyday-life patterns of young adults under circumstances of vulnerability and precariousness. Its main focus is on the web of social relations that structure the everyday life of young people, for instance by providing resources and tools of solving problems, exerting pressures and voicing expectations, and shaping the person’s self-conception, identity, and well-being. Based on more than 120 in-depth interviews with young long-term unemployed in six European countries, this book puts social support and the young jobless’ webs of social relations at center stage. It expands knowledge by raising awareness of the multidimensionality and complexity of the social conditions of young jobless, drawing, on the one hand, a more differentiated picture of unemployment, vulnerability and social exclusion amongst young people and, on the other hand, taking a close look at the social reality of young adults’ unemployment in different European cities.