Poll shows sharp divisions among Arab youth over education, employment

DUBAI: Young Arabs have grown increasingly pessimistic about their future over the past year, and the gloom is at its deepest in the trouble-torn Levant and Yemen, according to a survey of 3,500 people aged between 18 and 25.
The ninth edition of the Arab Youth Survey, published on Wednesday in Dubai, revealed a sharply divided outlook among the 200 million young people of the region. “Optimism is waning among Arab youth, with young Arabs in the Gulf countries being the only ones overwhelmingly optimistic about the direction of their countries,” the survey found.
The contrasts are stark. In the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), 85 percent of the people polled thought their country was going in the right direction; in the Levant (excluding Syria) and Yemen, the level of confidence was a mere 14 percent. North Africa youngsters were more optimistic, though not as much as among Gulf youth.
But overall levels of optimism have also fallen, with the aggregate figure down 12 points across the whole region at 52 percent. Alarmingly, some 39 percent of under 25 years old in the region agreed with the statement “our best days are behind us.” In the Levant and Yemen, two in three young adults thought the future held little promise for them.
An overwhelming number of young Arabs — 81 percent — blamed their governments for their problems in education and employment, but in the Gulf countries 86 percent said policymakers were putting policies in place to benefit young people.
Sunil John, founder and chief executive of Asda’a Burson Marsteller, which produces the survey in partnership with polling group PSB Research, said: “The stark divide between the responses of youth in the GCC nations and those in the Levant and North Africa is clearly related to the huge differences in access to opportunity. In the nine years we have conducted this important research — the biggest study of its kind in the region’s most important demographic — we have always seen geographic differences, but they have never been so pronounced.”
A comparatively bright spot was the view that the threat posed by Daesh — which young people last year said was the No. 1 danger — was receding, with 61 percent saying that the terror group was getting weaker.
But instead, unemployment is now seen as the top concern. More than half of respondents said they were “very concerned” about the lack of jobs, 9 percent higher than last year. Youth in Iraq, Algeria and Bahrain were most concerned about unemployment. Many said that education reform and suitable employment were just as important as military action in defeating Daesh terrorism.
It was not just a case of young people in oil-producing countries having a different outlook to oil importers, John added.
“That’s too simplistic. Iraq and Libya, for example, are oil-rich states, but are among those countries… in which youth is most concerned about unemployment,” he said.
Once again, there was a sharp contrast in different parts of the region. In the GCC, 80 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with the way their education system prepared them for jobs in the future; in the Levant and North Africa, two-thirds said they were not satisfied.
Mohamed Alabbar, the Dubai tycoon, said that there was a failing on the part of the government to provide education facilities for its young people. “Governments have failed. Why are you in government if you cannot manage education?”
But Fadi Ghandour, the Jordanian entrepreneur, said the employment crisis was not only the fault of government: “It’s not only government that can supply jobs. Young people have to look elsewhere to the private sector, or create jobs for themselves.”
Sheikha Hanadi bint Nasser Al-Thani, the Qatari business leader, said: “I am frustrated. We have been discussing youth unemployment for the past 15 years, but have not put a dent in it.”
The survey also revealed that one in three young Arabs — up from 22 percent last year — would like to live in the UAE more than any other country in the world, making the country twice as popular as the US. Saudi Arabia ranked third in the list of popular countries with 14 percent, three points higher than it was last year. The UAE was once again named the country that the highest proportion of Arab young people would want their own country to emulate, ahead of the US. Most thought that the UAE was “safe and secure” and “has a growing economy.”
Roy Haddad, the regional director of WPP, which owns Asda’a, said: “The survey provides a voice to the voiceless, and allows young Arabs to be heard around the world. As such, it is an invaluable tool for businesses and governments, and civil society in general.”
The survey was conducted in February and March this year in face-to-face interviews with 3,500 Arabs, equally split between men and women, in 16 countries across the region.