The Transition to Adulthood in a Time of Crisis. the Emergence of a New Population Group

THE TRANSITION TO ADULTHOOD IN A TIME OF CRISIS. THE EMERGENCE OF A NEW POPULATION GROUP, OF NEW NEEDS AND NEW CHALLENGES TO PUBLIC POLICY.

Gemma VILÀ[1]

Catalina CHAMORRO[2]

Marta LLOBET[3]

UNIVERSITAT DE BARCELONA

Contribution to the stream 14:

Young People and Social Policy in Europe: New Risks and Emerging Challenges.

2012 ESPAnet conference

1. Introduction

Changing from youth to adulthood is a complex transition as it depends on diverse other specific transitions such as financing one’s own education, leaving parents’ home, getting a job and setting up one’s own home, among others. The different ways they combine determines the creation of multiple life coursesand defines various stages in the transition to adulthood. We believe that getting a job and housing are both two the main focal issues but also the major problems. The possibility or not of obtaining both resources generates life course uncertainty periods in which the biological age does not correspond to the social one.

Within the Mediterranean model, Spain has traditionally been considered a paradigmatic case. Despite the youth’s employment careers can be very diverse, they all have something in common, they all emancipate very late due to housing access problems and the role of families. In addition to the latter problems, the economic crisis hasnow worsened risk situations andincreased the group’s vulnerability. As a result, there is higher job instability (48% of Spain’s youth is unemployed, one of the highest unemployment rates in Europe) and youth residential emancipation has been delayed even more, even though it already was one of the latest in Europe. In sum, all this issues togetherare leading to a new scenario based on a delayed transition into adulthood, life courses reversion –therefore making youths return to earlier life course stages–, and risk group and factor extension. As a result, there should be a redefinition of those most vulnerable youth group. As transition to adulthood has been prolonged, it supposes the emergence of a group that is not covered by youth policy because they exceed the established age in spite of not having finished the transition to adulthood. Therefore, the latter policies do not adapt to this group’s present real needs.

This paper, presented within the Young People and Social Policy in Europe: New Risks and Emerging Challenges stream, intends to analyse present Spanish youth as a differentiated paradigmatic model within Europe. In addition, the impact of the crisis on the economy and on social policies has strengthened these differences. This paper intends to give further diffusion to the Welfare Innovations at Local Level in Favour of Cohesion (WILCO)[4]European project results. By comparing ten European country cities, the project aimed to determine how social welfare systems were attempting to diminish social inequalities and promoting social cohesion by focusing on social innovation activities. To this aim, three main inequality dimensions –age, gender and immigration– were introduced in the project. Target groups were defined in each of them, so that the elements determining in each city the degree of social vulnerability could be better observed. Within this general picture, this paper focuses on the case of Catalan youth. Though many references are made to Catalan youth in general, it particularly addresses the issue of WILCO targets, that is to say, young vulnerable people who are in transition into adulthood[5].

The paper has two sections. The first presents Catalan youth transition into adulthood. It reviews theoretical contributions to the subject and introduces the main changes which these transitions and the classical definition of youth as a life cycle stage have undergone. Then, Catalan youth’s specific case is analysed, the last Catalan studies on the subject reviewed and the last results and theoretical contributionsrecovered. Recent data on the impact of the crisis on these transitions are also introduced. The second section focuses on analysing a vulnerable youth group’s transition to adulthood in particular that of those at risk of being excluded from employment, that is to say, the unemployed or those who have highly precarious jobs. By studying their life cycle we can understand the elements differentiating their life courses from the rest of those completing a general youth to adulthood life course typology and which can normally be observed in studies. This section presents some of the results obtained from analysing the WILCO Project interviews[6]. This information is used to analyse these people’s specific situation, their life courses, their experiences and the challenges they pose to social policies. The latter would lead to the need to create new ways of intervention linked to social innovation, a fact which we have underlined and will be addressed in future analysis. The paper finishes by discussing conclusions and present social policies challenges.

2. Youth within the life cycle and transition to adulthood

2.1. The challenge of becoming an adult: a transition in transformation

There is no doubt thatparticularly, advanced capitalism societies, nowadays consider youth as a life cycle stage. Several basic social and economic structural changes in these societies have entailed that transition from adolescence to adulthood is extended. Therefore, youth has become a life cycle stage in itself, one which has its own roles, identities and its social and individual expectations. However, age limits are blur, and if this is so when examining an specific society on its own, the analysis becomes much more complex when time and space comparative elements are introduced.

In effect, transition from youth to adulthood has presently become a complicated process which depends on other basic life cycle subtransitions. Miretet al.claim that there would be four main subtransitions–ending school, entering the labour market, residential emancipation and family formation– within it(Miret et al., 2008).The four occur simultaneously and develop during youth. Completing all of them is associated to the attainment of stability and the necessary conditions for full individual, family and social autonomy allowing–both from an individual and social perspective– to enter adulthood as a life cycle stage. However, in youths, these four transitions create life cycle uncertainties or even contradictions between the youth and adulthood stages. Additionally, as transitions do not all end at the same time and multiple life courses are created at this stage, the duration of youth varies between individuals. They would also create specific and diverse symbolic universes on the meaning of youth within the life cycle and on the social and individual expectations on this life stage.[7]Therefore, youth can no longer simply be considered a quick step between adolescence and adulthood (Galland, 1999). As the latter author claims, youth is no longer “a quick social and labour market insertion process. Now, it is a proper stage, one characterised by individual autonomy and the desire to multiply vital experiences”(Miret et al., 2008).

The end of fordism and the consolidation of globalisation have led the so-called post-industrial societies to major changes. These have had a direct impact on these countries’ economic and social structures which, in turn, have affected the four formerly mentioned transitions[8]. Indeed, the linear model in which people ended their studies, found a stable job, a new home and formed their own families, characteristic of fordism, does no longer exist. Now, people start multiple life cycles and experience diverse situations. Within this changing context, personal and family resources, and social position largely determine the steps taken within the four transitions and therefore socially extremely vulnerable profiles which stop individuals from reaching complete adulthood, can be generated.

The present crisis has had its own direct effects on these processes, as now young middle class members are also affected by this vulnerability because they find more difficulties in entering the four transitions.

Spanish and Catalan youth are both particularly significant cases of the formerly mentioned transformations, though, within the European context, they have their own specificities. The country’s social and economic structure, youth’s role in creating possibilities and opportunities, the rhythm and the way these transitions are undertaken by them and more recently, the economic crisis effects and youth’s greater vulnerability resulting in increasing delays in their entry to adulthood, underline these specificities while making it a particularly interesting case to study. Therefore, the rest of the paper will focus on these issues.

2.2. Catalan youth and their transitions into adulthood: a specific model

Once general transition to adulthood trends have been introduced, we will now analyse Catalan youth and the specific processes which lead their transition into adulthood[9].

In 2011, Catalonia had 7,539,618 inhabitants. In recent years, it has become one of Europe’s oldest regions. However, this last decade ageing has improved, as immigration has rejuvenated its population structure[10]. Out of the whole population, 1,188,373 are young people -aged between 16 and 29 years old-, a 15.8% of the population. If this group is reduced to those between 16 and 24, it diminishes to 666,207 inhabitants or 8.8% of the population. Now it has 175,000 people less than two decades ago. In other words, it experienced a -13% population growth. As for the city of Barcelona itself, 254,622 young people live in it, that is to say, 15.8% of its population is of this age. If they are reduced to those from 16 to 24 years old, their figures only reach132,916. One of the major changes Catalan young population has undergone these last years is its composition by nationality. While in 2000 foreigners only were 3.3% of the population, in 2011 they are 25.7% of it. Those same years, percentages for Barcelona are even higher, increasing from 3.9% to 31.4%[11].

How does Catalan youth face transition to adulthood? By replying this question we can obtain a better profile of Catalan youth.Recent studies on Catalan youth would indicate that subtransitions to adulthood contain certain processesemphasisingthe need to redefine youth as a life cycle stage[12].In the following paragraphs specificities of the Catalan four transitions into adulthood will be analysed.

Ending education

These last years, youth’s education main characteristic has been the growing number of years they dedicate to it.Obtainingqualifications is generally considered as the best way to successfully enter the labour market. Therefore, the amount of people in post-compulsory education has considerably increased, particularly during the crisis. The rate of 17 year old still in education –age at which non-compulsory education starts– is a good indication of this higher investment in education. In the 2001-2002 school year, this rate was 62.9% and in the 2009-2010 one, figures reached 80.5%. Likewise, the rate for 16 to 29 year olds is presently 27.9%[13].

Labour market insertion

Catalan youth and labour market relationships are complex. These last years, delays in entering it have intensified due to their tendency to leave education late. Despite career dissimilarities, due to social class and education attainment differences, as a group, young people have some common elements. Their high unemployment rate would be the main one. At the beginning of the year 2000, when there was high economic growth, 16 to 24 years old had a 13.3% unemployment rate (21.3% in Spain). On the whole, since then, two large periods can be distinguished. The first would go from 2003 to 2007 and, during those years, unemployment rate would have fallen to 9.3%. From 2008, the effects of the economic crisis become clearly visible. Year after year, the rate increases and in the first semester of 2012 it reaches 50% in Catalonia and 52% in the rest of the country. For 16 to 24 year olds, figures are even higher.

Figure 1. Youth unemployment rate. Catalonia and Spain, 2000-2011.

Source: Observatori Català de la Juventut. Sistema d’indicadors sobre la juventut de Catalunya.

Generalitat de Catalunya and Encuesta de Población Activa

However, unemployment is not the only feature defining youth and labour marketrelationships. Some authors consider that youth has what they call structural instability and that this would be the result of their great difficulties in finding a first job,work temporality, low wages, the abundance of unskilled jobs in careers and the labour market in general, and of those in which part of their education is not required -for those who have low education attainment, this would particularly, though not exclusively, be so. The economic crisis has strongly affected these trends,as it has not only incremented the number of socioeconomic categories touched by vulnerability and economic instability, but increased the ages of those concerned by the latter uncertainties.The 2011 youth and labour market report published by the Generalitat de Catalunya(Observatori d’Empresa i Ocupació, 2011), claimed that youth had three main problems:

Firstly, youth unemployment rates, which,as explained, have highly increased due to the economic crisis.

Secondly, particularly high job temporality and poor quality contracts. In 2011, youth temporary employment rates reached 40.4%. In other words, they doubled those of employed population as a whole (16 and over), i.e. 19.8%[14]. As the following figures show, temporary employment has become a structural element in youth’s employment, as this rate has only varied from 34% to 49%. From the year 2000 to 2011, at least85%of the contracts signed by 16 and 29 year olds were temporary contracts. Though the use of this type of contract decreased between 2006 and 2008, they are now 90% of those signed between these ages.

Finally, training and labour market mismatch. On the one hand, there are too many jobs occupied by people who have a university degree, particularly technical ones, though on the other, too many low skill jobs occupied by young people who have very low education. In general, data would show that employment rate grows as education does and therefore, those who only have primary education or who abandoned school early, generally, remain out of the labour market. If we focus on the type of job offered, it becomes clear that it is becoming polarized. Offers concentrate at the two skill requirement extremes. In other words, directors, managers and professionals but also catering, industrial, agricultural, construction workers and elementary would have been the most affected groups.The highest annual unemployment rate increases have been observed in university degree holders. Moreover, one of Catalan youth labour market characteristics is that young workers are generally overqualified for their job. In Catalonia, between the year 2000 and 2011, 50% of the workers had more education than their job required, percentages for women were even have higher[15]. In sum, even though training is still considered the main way to enter the labour market, young people do not obtain enough advantages from their investments in education.

Low salaries would be another feature defining young people’s employment conditions. In average, these last years, the gross monthly salary of 16 to 29 year oldswas around 1000 or 1100 euros, that is to say, between 600 and 1000 euros less than that of active population as a whole[16].

Table 1. Active population’s monthly earnings. Catalonia and Spain, 2004-2009.

Source: Observatori d’Empresa i Ocupació, 2011. Generalitat de Catalunya.

Residential emancipation

Youth’s difficulties inbeing able to leave their parents’ home anddelays in doing so would be the main features defining youth’s present residential emancipation process. Spanish youth –16 to 29 year olds– has one of the lowest residential emancipation rates in Europe as in 2000 it was only 20.2%. The real estate bubble, bank loans and family large economic investments allowed young people to leave their parents’ home and, therefore, the rate started to increase, achieving,in 2007, a maximumof 33%. However, due to the present economic crisis andthe subsequent higher employment instability,the rate fallen once again. Therefore, in 2011, it had reduced to 27.7%[17]. Finally, it should also be noted that, compared to the rest of Europe, Spanishyouth also leaves their parent’s home for the first time later than the rest of the countries –at 27 years old[18].

Figure 2. Residential emancipation rate (16-29 year olds).Catalonia and Spain, 2000-2011.

Source: Observatori Català de la Joventut. Sistema d’indicadors sobre la joventut a Catalunya.

Generalitat de Catalunya.

There would be several reasons behind it: a) the prolongation of the other two transitionsdue to youth’s difficulties in entering the labour market, the role of education and training systems, and investments in both b) economic problems involved in buyinga flat as housing prices are high –the housing market, basically based on property instead of rents is extremely rigid[19]–, jobs are unstable and salaries low c) public policies and d)the role of families, and cultural and symbolic issuesmakingparents and youth’s co-residence,during the latter’s transition to adulthood, to be considered normal[20]. In this sense, comparing young Catalan and Spanish people’s residential emancipation processes and those undergoneby other European country youths can both help find the specificities of the case in which we are focusing and bring light upon youth' symbolic universe in comparison to that built by population in general. According to Van de Velde, “Spanish society, like other Mediterranean ones, favours that young people wait in their parents’ home until they have the necessary conditions for a stable adult life. Only when theunemployment and job instability life cycle closes,do they leave”(Van de Velde, 2008). Family legitimates it, so youth remains within the family household during the transition processes. “In this sense, adult youth autonomy lifecyclesare mainly built by constructingof their individuality within the family unit by gaining reciprocity with their parents, and preparing to be able to move out” (Ibídem).

Forming a family

Forming a family continues to be considered as the moment of entering adulthood, particularly when this transition is understood as a result of consolidating the other three. However, this is not always so. Scenarios are so diverse from this point of view, that youth life courses become increasingly diverse. Spain and Catalonia have delayed both the mean age to start cohabitation with the first partner and the mean age of women at first birth (Miret et al., 2008). While in 2011, the average mother’s age was 29.7 years, in 2000 it was 29 years, and 27.4 years, in 1991[21]. This trend would be related to other delayed transitions, but also reinforced by public policies. Young Spanish and Catalan people’s values on forming a family have also changed, so therefore the variety of situations found is larger. The growth of the percentage of children born to unmarried young mothersfrom 26% in 2000 to 42.2% in 2011 would be an indication of it. At the same time, the 16–29 age specific marriage rate considerably diminished, from 29.4% in 2000 to 12.3% in 2011[22], to be more exact.