When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Already a subscriber? Log in .

You've reached your limit of one free article.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime .

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Exclusive International news coverage

Ad-free experience NEW

Weekly digital Magazine NEW

9 daily & weekly Newsletters

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Free trial

30-days free access, then $2.90
per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch
Sources

Misunderstanding Mexico's So-Called Idle Youth

Youth who neither work nor study number in the millions in Mexico, though not exclusive to it. The state should be laser-focused on this mostly female segment of the population.

Teens in Oaxaca City, Mexico
Teens in Oaxaca City, Mexico
Fernando Chávez

-Analysis-

MEXICO CITY — When sociological studies go into details, it sometimes reveals the unexpected presence of pockets of people living in intolerable conditions. This is not confined to backward or developing countries, showing up frequently in flourishing democracies and dynamic economies, and more so today as the equalizing winds of globalization create very similar panoramas in different countries.

One such segment consists of young people who neither work nor study: NEET (Not In Employment, Education or Training) as they were termed in the United Kingdom, or NiNis (Ni trabajan ni estudian) in Spanish-speaking countries. The term is applicable within the 15-24 age range (all of whom numbered 21.4 million in Mexico in 2015, or 18% of its population), where a negative perception has spread of NiNis as idle and lazy. It has indeed led certain members of the political class here to propose — rather shamelessly in their case — idiotic solutions to the precarious state of this population. One of these proposals came from the former governor of the state of Chihuahua, now fleeing justice, César Duarte, who suggested in 2011 that they should be recruited into the army.

It is not easy to gauge the size and state of NiNis in Mexico. Studies in recent years figures have cited them at 7.0, 4.7 or even 2.6 million, though none is really reliable, and various calculation methods and information sources are used. Indeed, it is time that the state statistical agency INEGI. begin to monitor this sector specifically, given its ability to forge social and economic data that help mold relevant public policies.

They are distributed throughout the country and found in all social classes.

NiNis everywhere are marked by the discrimination they suffer in both the labor market and education system. In 2016, the estimate for Latin America was that one-fifth of all youngsters aged 15-24 neither worked nor studied, which did indicate a relative decline between 1992 and 2010, and an absolute increase in the NiNi population by two million.

About 50% of NiNis are thought to be engaged in housework, which means they are not available for the labor market, and 95% are female, who also remain the longest in this position.

While the group is part of the Not Economically Active Population, the household chores it performs typically — shopping, paperwork, housework or even voluntary work — are socially useful, though not all NEAP are NiNis. The term NiNi was defined recently (by Gerardo Leyva and Rodrigo Negrete, 2014) as "neither useful nor pertinent," perhaps for the negative perceptions, it has engendered.

Non-remunerated housework in Mexico was valued in 2014 at 20% of the GDP, which forces one to reconsider both the pessimistic view of NiNis and of work done at home by women.

Briefly, we may say of NiNis: they are distributed throughout the country and found in all social classes (though most are poor). The media generalizations about this group highlight other problems relating to them, like youth unemployment (with or without qualifications), and precarious employment conditions (expressed through low wages). Being a NiNi is not a permanent state, and most would never choose to live this way. NiNis show mobility in time (when they find work or move to study for example), their situation is more precarious when they have studied less, and generally, they are characterized by a relative dearth of education.

A Mexican teen smokes marijuana before a rally demanding the decriminalization of drugs Photo: Javier Rodriguez/ZUMA

A part of the NiNi population is always close to certain acute problems like drug or alcohol addictions, violence, risky sexual practices or emotional instability. Their migration, in many cases to the United States, is part of a risky bid to integrate themselves in an alien society that is easily, and immediately, inclined to criminalize them, especially in the Trump administration.

Being a NiNi is not a permanent state.

The neoliberal economic model winds up destabilizing the development of NiNis. The mediocre economic growth patterns of recent years, interspersed with recessions (1995, 2001 and 2009), have created higher joblessness, disguised unemployment, precarious job contracts (or none), and inflationary episodes (most notably in 2017) that produce sudden bouts of extreme poverty and middle-class decline.

All of these macroeconomic indicators have helped nurture the NiNi class in Mexico. And this prompts the need for a debate to identify them as a social challenge that requires specific study, an assessment of their considerable creative potential — and ultimately public policy solutions.

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

FOCUS: Israel-Palestine War

Palestinian Olive Trees Are Also Under Israeli Occupation — And That's Not A Joke

In the West Bank, a quieter form of oppression has been plaguing Palestinians for a long time. Their olive groves are surrounded by soldiers, and it's forbidden to harvest the olives – this economic and social violence has gotten far worse since Oct. 7.

A Palestinian woman holds olives in her hands

In a file photo, Um Ahmed, 74, collects olives in the village of Sarra on the southwest of the West Bank city of Nablus.

Mohammed Turabi/ZUMA
Francesca Mannocchi

HEBRON – It was after Friday prayers on October 13th of last year, and Zakaria al-Arda was walking along the road that crosses his property's hillside to return home – but he never made it.

A settler from Havat Ma'on — an outpost bordering Al-Tuwani that the United Nations International Law and Israeli law considers illegal — descended from the hill with his rifle in hand.

For the latest news & views from every corner of the world, Worldcrunch Today is the only truly international newsletter. Sign up here.

After kicking al-Arda, who tried to defend himself, the settler shot him in the abdomen. The bullet pierced through his stomach, a few centimeters below the lungs. Since then, al-Arda has been in the hospital in intensive care. A video of those moments clearly shows that neither al-Arda nor the other worshippers leaving the mosque were carrying any weapons.

The victim's cousin, Hafez Hureini, still lives in the town of Al-Tuwani. He is a farmer, and their house on the slope of the town is surrounded by olive trees — and Israeli soldiers. On the pine tree at the edge of his property, settlers have planted an Israeli flag. Today, Hafez lives, like everyone else, as an occupied individual.

He cannot work in his greenhouse, cannot sow his fields, and cannot harvest the olives from his precious olive trees.

Keep reading...Show less

The latest