Youth Citizenship and Unemployment: The Case of Passive and Active Labour Market Policies towards the Young Unemployed in Greece

Gabriella Lazaridis and Maria Koumandraki

Sociological Research Online, 2001, vol. 5, issue 4, 85-101

Abstract: This article concentrates on youth transitions into the labour market in one EU member state, Greece. The aim is to explore ways in which the Greek state has responded to the problem of youth unemployment, looking at policies (passive and active) introduced to address this. It reveals that state policies and social norms deeply embedded in the Greek culture, rather than encouraging acquisition of ‘full-citizenship’ and financial independence, restrict young people's chances for independence from the family. As is the case in other southern European countries, in Greece, the family and informal clientelistic networks of relatives and friends have acted as the primary source of economic and social support for young people. We argue that four co-centric circles circumscribe the type of citizenship available to a young person and have implications for young people's acquisition of full citizenship and financial independence: (a) the family, (b) friends and acquaintances, (c) changes in the labour market and (d) opportunities offered to the young unemployed through passive (benefits, social assistance) and active (vocational training) labour market policies available. With regard to young peoples’ ability tobecome financially independent, these either exercise a centrifugal force, encouraging dependency upon others (especially parents and close friends) for care, guidance and support, or a centripetal force, encouraging them to assume full rights and responsibilities of adulthood.

Keywords: Employment; Social Policy; Southern Europe; Unemployment; Welfare; Youth; Youth Citizenship (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2001
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.5153/sro.558 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:socres:v:5:y:2001:i:4:p:85-101

DOI: 10.5153/sro.558

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Sociological Research Online
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().