Despite Tunisia’s expansive youth demographic, Tunisia’s workforce continues to stagnate forcing young Tunisians to find alternatives.
As you walk through the streets of Tunis, La Marsa, and Gammarth, the tangible effects of the Tunisian revolutions empty promises are etched into your surroundings. The seemingly endless number of youths on the street selling cigarettes, tissues, and more, the countless closed storefronts, and the dotted crumbling infrastructure all signal the failure of Tunisian economic hopes to materialize.
Now fourteen years after the Tunisian Revolution, with economic conditions stagnating, and in some aspects, regressing, Tunisia’s burgeoning young population is beginning to seek other alternatives. In pursuit of employment, higher wages, and greater job security, Tunisians are leaving their home en masse for Europe.
Despite Tunisians aged 15-29 making up roughly 29% of Tunisia’s total population and 43% of the working population, nearly 38% remain unemployed. This stark statistic is the result of non-linear growth between the Tunisian labor market and the Tunisian youth population. While the youth population in Tunisia has steadily grown, the Tunisian labor market has remained stagnant, not allowing young Tunisian professionals to be absorbed into the economy, creating the level of unemployment we see today. The empty economic and social promises made during the revolution have excluded Tunisian youth from general society, specifically youth from low-income backgrounds.
The exclusion of Tunisian youth from social and economic gains has created a sense of hopelessness within the demographic. This sentiment is evident in a recent poll by Sigma Conseil. As they found, over 75% of young Tunisians aged 18-30 expressed a desire to leave the country. This statistic is even higher among Tunisians with higher education.
The voyage of leaving Tunisia has become mystified and Tunisian youth are increasingly encouraged by family members and friends to make the journey if possible. For those fortunate to find academic or work opportunities abroad, they eagerly accept the opportunity. For those less fortunate, they are forced to consider less safe or regulated ways. Many believe the benefits outweigh the risks and cross the Mediterranean by sea and air.
As it stands, more than one million Tunisians currently reside outside the country. 60% of them reside in France, 20% live in Belgium, 15% in Italy, and roughly 9% in Germany. While cultural affinity, geographical proximity, and historical ties have traditionally attracted Tunisians to France, economic opportunities ultimately drive their decision to migrate.
Average salaries are nearly ten times higher, and the work conditions in Europe far exceed the conditions in Tunisia. While the increasingly strict immigration policies implemented by European countries have slowed migration, the incentives still draw yearly, 25,000 Tunisians to Europe. Many of them are either older skilled, highly educated, and trained individuals or less skilled migrants searching for formal or informal jobs that offer appropriate compensation relative to their skills and education.
However, an increasing number of them are Tunisian students hoping to attend school in Europe and obtain a work visa following their education. The extent of Tunisian presence abroad is evident in the volume of remittance sent back to Tunisia by its diaspora. Statistically, in 2022, the personal remittance recorded in Tunisia was 2.81 billion USD.
Given the increasingly dire situation, it falls upon the Tunisian government to seek solutions, a task they have actively pursued. In 2018, the Tunisian government in consultation with the private sector, passed the Startup Act, which provided access to finance, business advice, and networking opportunities to bolster diversification and growth.
More recently, the Tunisian government has collaborated with the E.U. to receive more than 1 billion in aid to bolster its economy and give it time to find various solutions to the problem. While these efforts are important, as academics I have met with shared, the key to keeping Tunisians in Tunisia is collaboration with civil society. Civil society, a cornerstone of Tunisian society has the tools and resources to promote entrepreneurship and attack unemployment. A prime example is the work being done by MASHROU3I, an organization funded and assisted by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, the United States Agency for International Development, the Italian corporation AICS, and the HP Foundation.
MASHROU3I promotes youth employment through entrepreneurship and enterprise development. It has been widely successful in creating more than 5,400 jobs, 747 startups, and providing online course entrepreneurial courses for more than 31,000 Tunisians. Another example is the 2019 collaboration between KfW, a development bank, and the Tunisian Ministry of Finance. The bank, with approval and assistance from the Ministry of Finance, has organized a fund of 20 million euros to support early-stage companies. While collaboration exists, it must continue to be expanded on.
As the exodus of Tunisians escalates, the Tunisian government must persist in collaborating with the E.U., civil society, and other multilateral partners to provide resources for its vibrant youth population and strengthen its economy to create an ecosystem in which Tunisians living in Tunisia can find employment and high wages and Tunisians abroad can return and work and be paid their worth.
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