When people speak about "millennials," those between the ages of 18 and 34, it is often in reference to their selfishness and entitlement, their addiction to technology, and their insistence on over-simplification, but these accusations are tantamount their most offensive indictment: laziness.
But is it laziness? Or is it lack of opportunity?
Charlie Sennott , founder of The Ground Truth Project joined Boston Public Radio's Jim Braude and Margery Eagan on Monday to dig into his organization's new reporting fellowship aimed specifically at understanding the nuances of youth unemployment around the globe, and they way what he calls "generation TBD" is handling it.
Unemployment rates among young people have skyrocketed worldwide. Twenty-five percent of the world’s young people exist in a kind of limbo— not employed, not enrolled in school, and not participating in any professional training.
Millions of these young people are struggling to navigate day-to-day challenges including affording rent, paying back loans, and providing for themselves without a job on the horizon, let alone around the corner. Malaise and despondency have become some of the defining characteristics of this generation. They are acutely aware that they might not attain the kind of life their parents have, Sennott said.
These millions of individual crises amount to a staggering global problem. Pope Francis spoke this past summer of the dangers of wasting an entire generation, "the most serious of the evils that afflict the world these days is youth unemployment."
Sennott went on to add "lack of opportunity, despair? That’s the soil in which militancy grows." He highlights Bosnia a unique and critical place for unemployed youth. "It's a postwar society. No jobs. They have not integrated well in the aftermath of war," Sennott explained.
57 percent of Bosnians between 15 and 24 are jobless, with mounting debt, no lifeline, and old conflicts that are easy to fall back into. Despite their education, it is a Bosnian generation that has been unequivocally squandered, and "in that squandered opportunity," Sennott describes, "comes the potential for the resentments of the past… to ignite back into ethnic conflict." To attempt to change their luck, many of Bosnia's youth are migrating.
"They’re leaving Bosnia. They ones who do have skills leave. The ones who stay have nothing."
But young Bosnians have, at least, the opportunity to try for a life outside of militancy. Eighty percent of Nigerian young people are not even close to earning a livable wage, and are not enrolled in any kind of formal education. A popular tattoo in Nigeria bears the phrase "born throwaway." It is easy to see how and why the violently militant Islamist movement Boko Haram has gained so much ground in recent years.
All is not lost, though. Sennott points to the "tremendous potential" of what he calls "generation TBD," citing Egypt where “the young people who were part of the Facebook revolution…made a movement happen that toppled a dictator.”
Millenials are set to harness the energy of their own innovation, Sennott said, even as they despair.
Perhaps it is not laziness that defines the millenial generation, perhaps it is challenge. Charlie Sennott names this generation "To Be Determined," and perhaps that is exactly what they must be. Determined.
