Youth Disengagement: Myth or Reality?

Are youth disengaged? This is the question I was invited to speak about recently at the first of a series of ‘youth dialogues’, organised by Wilton Park in partnership with Restless Development, the WANA Institute, and the British Council. Despite a lot of the mainstream media rhetoric arguing to the contrary, I believe young people are engaged. But could it be that it is in innovative or immeasurable ways? Or simply in ways we disapprove of, and thus dismiss?

It is easy for us to dismiss those who carry out acts of violent extremism as disengaged, for instance. But, with the average age of suicide bombers estimated to be between 20 and 22, it appears a number of young people, who are willing to misguidedly give up their lives for a cause, are incredibly engaged with something – it is just not something we condone, encourage, or understand.

And how much are the youth themselves involved in the discussion of what constitutes their own engagement? On the day of my presentation, the British elections were underway, in which it has been suggested record numbers of young people voted. So in the UK, it may be that young people are not necessarily disengaged, but that there has been a lack of politicians they have felt capable of engaging with until now.

A problem of measurement?

Could the problem with youth disengagement partially stem from the ways we measure and quantify it? To me, ‘youth engagement’ seems a very prescribed and contrived term. It suggests there are very set right or wrong ways in which to engage, and outside of those ‘the youth’, whatever exact bracket that may mean in each context, are disengaged and at fault.

For example, the US peace corps in Morocco has come up with set indicators for what they conceive of as youth engagement. These include an adoption of healthy lifestyles, the development of life skills and community engagement, and preparation for the world of work.

As with any donor driven, top-down, development program, it is understandable why such measurable and achievable targets have to be created. However, with the largest global youth population ever, numbering around 1.8 billion according to UNFPA, and the complete shift in technology and communication that has taken place in the last decade, is it possible that we are behind in our traditional assessments of engagement?

If a child in the West Bank sits in a bedroom playing computer games against a child in Mexico are they disengaged? They may not be at a youth centre playing football, the type of thing a development agency loves to log, but they may have more global connection and awareness than their parents ever had, or will have.

A problem of governance?

Furthermore, how often is the system in place actually set up to allow youth to succeed even if they do engage in the preordained, measurable ways? Personal experience in the last year has included working in refugee camps in Calais, in rural areas of Zambia, and as a researcher in Jordan. In all three it has been made starkly clear that one of the biggest causes of frustration amongst youth is that even when they follow the set paths and rules of engagement they are limited by dysfunctional, sometimes corrupt, and usually inefficient governance systems.

In Calais migrants are to this day left unsupported and undocumented with little to no guidance, other than from untrained volunteers, as to what their rights and channels of engagement are. In Zambia, my experience indicated a basic reliance on bribery at all levels. I was told multiple times about children who had worked hard and achieved good grades but as their parents were unable to slip the right amount to their teachers at the end of the year they did not go beyond a certain grade, and usually dropped out as result.

In Jordan, I am reminded daily of the importance of what is known as wasta, which basically translates as your personal network - who you know, and who knows you. While individuals of both genders are able to complete high school and university, they then face a reality in which unless they have the right connections they end up unemployed or underemployed. As a taxi driver recently told me ‘none of my uncles work in ministries’, and so despite his degree in economics, he works as a taxi driver, lives at home, and is understandably angry.

Structural barriers to young people are so deeply entrenched across the world that often the only solution seems to be to ignore them, or to focus on something else, and this is what most of the international community, governments, and NGOs are doing. It seems very unsurprising, then, that many of the youth also have little interest in engaging with such systems, but it seems deeply hypocritical when we then criticise them for it and dismiss them as ‘disengaged’.