[Articles] Youth coping with unemployment. The role of social support.

31 December, 2011

There is little doubt that unemployment has a number of negative consequences for those who are in such a situation of exclusion from the labor market. Beingdeprivedofapaidjobentailsariskofsocialexclusionand isolation, Paugam (2009) uses the concept of “social disqualification” to label this phenomenon, but potentially also has a number of negativeconsequences on the personal life and well-being of unemployed people. This is especially true when unemployment is sustained over time. The classical study by Jahoda et al. (1933) for example, showed how long-term unemployment upset the whole life of the people who remain outside of the labor market for a long period of time. Among the difficulties they face is the lack of a daily routine or time structure.

This paper deals with the negative consequences of long-term unemployment on youth. More specifically, we examine how different forms of social support may help youth cope, in their everyday life, with the absence of employment. In particular, we deal with two aspects of their psychological well-being: the degree of anxiety they face and their level of happiness. Moreover, we do not only include different forms of social support: sociability, practical help, and financial help, but also three providers of support: the partner, the family, and friends. We propose to study the effects of different forms and providers of social support for the youngsters who are coping with long-term unemployment.

Author(s): Jasmine Lorenzini, Marco Giugni

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[Articles] Access to employment for children of immigrants. An exploratory review of several explanatory factors.

This paper analyses the situation of the “second generation” of immigrants on the labour market and the main factors that influence their professional careers. We define the second generation as the children of immigrants who were born in their countries of residence or who have had most of theirschooling in those countries (Bolzman, Fibbi, Vial, 2003). The question of integration into the labour market of the “second generation” has long been a concern in North America and in Europe. However, as indicated by an OECD report (Liebig & Widmaier, 2009), labour market integration of the children of immigrants is an area in which knowledge is gradually evolving internationally, but is still underdeveloped.

Author(s): Claudio Bolzman

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[Articles] A capability approach to public policies for marginalized youth. The case for FORJAD in the canton of Vaud.

Since the mid-eighties, social policies have increasingly being turned into re-commodification tools, i. e. their main objective is no more to compensate for income loss, but to promote quick and possibly long-lasting reintegration into the labour market. This evolution has coincided with the emergence of various activation requirements imposed on recipients, upon which entitlement to benefits are often made conditional (esp. in unemployment insurance and social assistance programmes). In this context, activation is frequently identified with compliance with the expectations defined by officers of the public administration. Thereby, it is claimed that activation can take place without, or even against, the beneficiaries’ consent. In other words, the prevailing view of activation or empowerment is implemented in a top-down way, and this applies especially to the most disadvantaged beneficiaries, who are also those submitted to the strongest requirements or sanctions.

By contrast, the capability approach (henceforward CA) insists that genuine empowerment cannot be achieved if the empowered, i. e. the activated person is not willingly participating to the process.

Developed by Amartya Sen, the CA relies on the distinction between functionings, i. e. what a person actually is or does, and capabilities, i. e. what a person could be or could do. In this framework, the enhancement of individual capabilities requires both empowerment (i. e. being adequately equipped in terms of capacity to act) and free participation: if the former is missing, the individual recipient’s freedom remains formal (in the Marxian sense); if the latter is not guaranteed, then empowerment boils down to paternalism.

Author(s): Jean-Michel Bovin, Maël Dif-Pradalier

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[Articles] Have unskilled youths become more vulnerable to unemployment in Switzerland?

Unemployment scourges many countries, but Switzerland has been known for a long time as a place where unemployment is a “non-problem” (e. g. Flückiger, 1998). The situation has clearly changed since the mid-nineties, when unemployment rose to national record levels and peaked at around 5% in 1997. Young workers, especially unskilled ones, are the most vulnerable to unemployment, and we therefore focus on this socio-economic group. Our contention is that evolution in trade, new technologies and workplace organisation might have an adverse impact on low-skilled young workers.

The gap between highly qualified workers and those having achieved only intermediate or basic education has widened over the past 20 years in most developed economies, raising concerns about increasing income inequality (Juhn et al., 1993; Card & DiNardo, 2002). This literature has focused on the relative situation of highly educated individuals, and has tried to uncover the determinants of this growing inequality. Among the latter, one can mention technological change, globalization, or the lossof union power.

This paper examines young workers in Switzerland who failed to achieve any formal education beyond compulsory schooling. We focus on the labour market status of these young workers, and compare it with those of adults in order to identify possible changes that have occurred over the last decades.

Author(s): Sylvain Weber, Vahan Garibian, Giovanni Ferro Luzzi, Jean-Marc Falter

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[Articles] Visual Case Study in the History of Russian Child Welfare

31 December, 2009

Visual research as an attempt to represent physical environment, events or ideas is a rather new approach to the history of social problems in Russia. In this research, we aimed to study the historical, cultural, ideological context of public policy in the sphere of social aid for children deprived of parental care, by employing the analysis of visual representations which have been preserved in the archives of children’s homes, in private collections, in state archives and libraries. In our project, the images of children, orphanages and carers are to be seen not just as illustrations or representations but also as important elements of a studied context – no less important than official documents or personal narratives. This is micro-level analysis, which makes it possible to understand how the representations reflect and construct specific forms of arrangement of space in orphanages, disciplinary practices, ideological intentions of the photographers and organizers of such imaginative work. The photos, which represent various activities of the orphans in the institutions, are intended to be read in our study as messages based on the principles and values of Soviet upbringing and presented in chronicles and children’s cinematography.

Author(s): Elena larskaia-Smirnova, Pavel Romanov

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