Maurice Knijnenburg (24) experiences it personally. He is one of the many young people who involuntarily have to postpone major milestones, such as buying a house or having a child. ‘When registering for social housing, I am still number one hundred and so many,’ says the chairman of the SER Youth Platform. So he is forced to live at home.
From the report published on Friday Promising It turns out that young people are having a hard time. They experience increasing pressure to perform, loneliness and inequality of opportunity. The concerns about their finances and about the future of the earth are great. For the report, 1,550 young people between the ages of 16 and 34 were surveyed. ‘The results are representative of about 3.4 million Dutch people’, says Knijnenburg.
Two years ago, the SER already warned that major steps in life are forced to be postponed by the youth. You are now writing that the position of young people has deteriorated. What’s up with that?
‘What we mainly see is that the inequality of opportunity has increased further. Young people with chronic conditions, a lower socio-economic status or a non-Western migration background are increasingly disadvantaged. The housing market is in a sorry state. For example, where other generations as students spend 30 percent of their income on rent, it is now at least 50 percent. As a result, this generation can save less. All these things make the problems worse in the long term: young people do not have the security of their own home or a permanent job, and the gap between rich and poor is growing.’
The younger generations are often said to be spoiled. Don’t we just want too much?
‘I often hear this, especially from people from earlier generations. But the real question is: do you think I am spoiled if I, where you could buy a house at 23, have to wait until I am 43 until I have sufficient financial space? I think we should turn the discussion around. We are not saying that we are having a harder time than other generations, we are just saying that the youth is having a hard time.’
The National Youth Council, the National Student Union and the nine other youth organizations that are part of the SER Youth Platform are not alone in this. Although the Dutch youth are among the happiest young people in Europe, the increasing pressure to perform and stress are increasingly taking their toll. In 2021, the suicide rate among young adults increased by 15 percent and according to Unicef 18 percent of teenagers now suffer from psychological complaints, 5 percent more than the global average.
The ongoing corona pandemic is not helping. The Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) calculated in 2021 that 47 percent of young people experienced ‘negative to very negative consequences’ from corona. More than a hundred thousand young people lost their jobs, and due to the closure of education and the catering industry, their social bubble became smaller and smaller.
As long as they don’t beep, they are ignored, said economist Mathijs Bouman about young people. You write in the report: ‘Even if young people do beep, they are ignored.’ Hasn’t it been about this ailing generation a lot lately?
‘That’s because we’ve become more empowered, so there’s more talk about it. But there is a danger that it will stop at talking. We are now also noticing that: everyone is talking about equal opportunities, but in practice little is done.
‘Take the coalition agreement. It is nice that a number of points are touched upon, but structural solutions are needed. The loan system is now being abolished after years of struggle, but only 1 billion euros has been released in the budget for the basic grant. That would mean that the monthly student grant will end up below the basic grant of 2015, while life has become much more expensive. Eliminating the loan system does not solve everything. If there is no fundamentally better alternative, you just change the name.’
Shouldn’t the SER also put its hand into its own bosom? The social partners could ensure a higher minimum wage and fewer flexible contracts.
‘That’s a fair point. We do not just want to point to the government, but also play a role ourselves in setting up and implementing an overarching youth strategy. But in the end we can’t do it without politics. So we’re going to make sure that this time it’s not just beautiful words. Hopefully my successor will be able to present a less depressing report in two years’ time, showing how many opportunities we are creating for the youth.’
Rutte IV is, with an average age of 50, older than the previous cabinet. Do you have faith in the new government?
‘I think and I expect them to take real action now. We cannot continue to pass the problems on. Fortunately, in addition to the older minister, we also have 31-year-old Maarten van Ooijen as State Secretary of VWS and 34-year-old Rob Jetten as climate minister. Hopefully they will soon have the courage to stand up for the next generations.’