Yesterday I spoke of youth unemployment rates at 50 per cent or more through much of Europe.
This is bad, but apparently in the MENA (Middle East/North Africa) region, the situation is even worse. Many young people from this area are getting onto boats to cross the Mediterranean Sea because they think their prospects are better in Europe.
An English newspaper, The Guardian, reported last week that a ship carrying 500 people from Egypt and bound for Malta was "apparently rammed and deliberately sunk by people traffickers."
On July 15, the UN High Commission on Refugees reported that 29 people apparently had died from asphyxiation in the hold of a fishing boat. Italian authorities arrested five men on suspicion of murdering and throwing overboard more than 100 migrants on the same boat; all the dead were attempting to cross from Africa to Europe.
A day earlier, Italian authorities rescued 12 people from a dinghy off the coast of Libya. It originally had gone to sea with 121 aboard; when the boat began to deflate and then capsized, there was panic and the other 109 passengers drowned.
By July of this year, news reports said, 2,900 people had died attempting to cross the Mediterranean in 2014. "Only" 700 died -- drowned -- in all of 2013.
Obviously, only desperate people will undertake such risky escapes from their homelands.
Why They Leave
There are many reasons why the MENA region is not an ideal place to launch an adult life.
-- War has uprooted many families. Between 2012 and 2013, the war in Syria alone displaced more than 6 million people. At that point, 40 percent of the population (half of them children) had either left the country or moved from their homes to other, presumably safer, parts of the country. This year's incursion by ISIS militants no doubt has increased the dislocation in Syria as well as much of Iraq.
By May of this year, Libya was engulfed in a civil war involving various militias. Islamists had taken over Tripoli and Benghazi, the Tripoli airport had been demolished and as many as 1 million refugees had left the country for Tunisia.
-- Most refugees from various Middle East countries end up in developing countries. Here is the breakdown at the end of last year.
Pakistan -- 1,616,500 refugees
Iran -- 857,400 refugees
Lebanon -- 856,500 refugees
Jordan -- 641,900 refugees
Turkey -- 609,500 refugees
It's not easy to get a good education or to launch a career from a refugee camp. Families in these camps are said to be marrying off their underage daughters to protect them from predators.
--- There are not enough jobs. The Brookings Institution reported in 2012 that youth labor force participation was low in North African countries: 28 percent in Algeria, 34 percent in Egypt, 33 percent in Tunisia and 35 percent in Morocco.
Another report found that youth unemployment perversely had increased after the Arab spring, with Egyptian unemployment among young adults increasing from 26.3 percent to 38 percent. In Tunisia, the results had been worse, with unemployment increasing from 29.4 percent to 42.4 percent.
It is likely that seeming disparities in these numbers reflect whether surveys count or do not count workers in the underground economy.
In Lebanon, the National Council for Economic Research held an interesting conference last year. Participants noted that youth unemployment in the country was 35 percent and that inadequate infrastructure like affordable electricity frustrated efforts for economic growth and was contributing to a "brain drain" of the country's best educated young people. One expert told the group that Lebanon imported $19 billion in products, presumably in 2012, but exported only $4 billion in products.
Jordan also has reported a mismatch between the skills of young workers and the jobs in that country.
In all MENA countries, young women were much more likely to be unemployed than young men.
-- Politics intervenes. The Egyptian spring several years ago ousted a strong-man ruler who was replaced in an election by a hard-line government more interested in Islamic initiatives than economic improvement. When it became clear that the new government was writing the new Egyptian constitution to suit religious hard-liners' preferences and had greatly increased shipments of concrete and weapons to Hamas in Gaza, a military coup in Egypt replaced the government with another strong man.
In Gaza, where sentiment against Israel is no doubt keen, it is impossible to guess how the Palestinian population regards its elected Hamas government, which diverted financial resources away from schools and economic development and into tunnels into Israel to kill and kidnap Israelis. Hamas, seeking public-relations points for dead civilians, encouraged Gazans not to flee when Israel warned in advance of missile strikes against weapons placed in civilian neighborhoods, hospitals and schools. Hamas also killed, without trial, young Gazan men suspected of cooperating with the Israelis. Under the circumstances -- with much of Gaza destroyed by Israeli attacks and Hamas prepared to kill any who disagreed -- economic development that might lead to jobs appears to be, at best, a secondary goal. Disagreeing with Hamas looks dangerous, and prospects for jobs and a functional economic system look bleak.
-- There are many people. Reports vary, but the general theme is that MENA countries experienced major population growth in the last century. In one report I found, the population was said to have increased from 68 million in 1914 to 340 million in 1994. In another, the population was said to have grown from 127 million in 1970 to 305 million in 2005.
Population growth has slowed across the region in recent years, but there is still a bulging cohort of young adults with not much to do.
Conclusion
I don't know how to reconcile the numbers I have given here, although all were pulled from reputable sources. My guess is that keeping careful statistics is not a top priority for countries afflicted with poverty, chaos, political instability and outright war.
The World Bank reported a 0.1 percent contraction in MENA economies in 2013 and predicted economic growth this year, but with this ominous caveat:
"This modest upturn, however, remains fragile and well below the region's potential
as structural reforms needed to spur growth, lower unemployment and alleviate poverty
remain unaddressed."
This may be why frustrated young people take up arms in a search for meaning -- any meaning -- in their difficult lives.
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