In Tunisia, the term has long been taboo. In a country that had so much invested in education, speak of "graduate unemployment" sounded like an admission of failure. But the reality is coming up for the authorities: the suicide of a young street vendor has triggered a revolt and unpublished since mid-December, the Tunisians are in the street.Foremost among them young people, driven to desperation by unemployment and social injustice. Mohamed Bouazizi, bachelor of 26 years, had set himself on fire after the authorities had confiscated the fruits and vegetables that he sold to survive. The 5% average annual growth of the Tunisian economy in recent years hides a very tough economic situation for the country's youth: according to an official study conducted by the Tunisian Ministry of Labour in collaboration with the World Bank, if the rate overall unemployment stood at 14% in 2008, one of those 18 to 29 was nearly three times that of adults.
Irony of a system of breath, graduates of higher education are particularly affected: if exact figures are difficult to obtain, followed by a graduating class of 2004 showed that 37% of them were without job three and a half years after graduation. "Tunisia has produced a lot of graduates with a priority given to education, right from independence, said Vincent Guessier, a sociologist at the Institute of Arab and Muslim and author of several works on Tunisia .
In 30 years the country has developed unique university that could learn about other countries at similar stages of development. He found himself in a situation of "overproduction" of graduates - even if I do not this term ... " In an economy heavily supported by the state, a diploma of higher education was once the guarantee of stable employment, often in the public sector or quasi-public (including former state enterprises).
But things have changed with major structural reforms of the post-Bourguiba. By the late 1990s, the labor market has been unable to absorb these graduates, and the situation has worsened in recent years. "The truth is that in our country if you do not have pistons you can not do anything," says a young Tunisian engineer emigrated to Canada.
Even with qualifications, you're not guaranteed a job if you do not give bribes or if you do not know anyone high up. " Many graduates from university courses in the tertiary sector in particular, found themselves downgraded once on the job market. "Here, it is not uncommon to be served at the gas pump, a young holder of a Master in Sociology," said one French trader installed Soussedepuis 2009.
"The cleaning lady is licensed in English, the seller of fruits and vegetables has a doctorate in mathematics and so on ..." Widespread downgrading particularly resented by populations with the new generation was the first to access to higher education: this is particularly true in the central regions, where Sidi Bouzid.
"Often families [this region] into debt for young people be educated and can, in turn, help the family," said Vincent Geisser. "But today, young people returning to the contrary as additional load. They are forced to do odd jobs for unskilled survive. [...] The return to the family is then seen as a humiliation, a personal failure.
C is almost a social death, "says the sociologist. A desperate situation that eventually triggered the uprising three weeks after the procedure of Mohamed Bouazizi, the movement continues and has spread to major cities. The political demands have begun to flourish on the Web and in the street, where talk business "family" - one of the first lady, Leila Ben Ali, accused of orchestrating a widespread bribery - was once taboo.
Driven to desperation by the situation, protesters loudly denounced the stranglehold of power over the economy. "Do not mistake about it," says a young Tunisian student in Paris, protesters are not asking the state to find work but they complain that, on the job market, things are never transparently and fairly.
" "If we are in today's social demands," says the young woman, because corruption, insecurity and a non democratic country led to a sustained mediocrity. " For Vincent Geisser, political frustration accumulated during years of dictatorship is one of the factors behind the sudden burst of movement.
"The state basically said 'you have no freedom, no democracy, but we assure you a social welfare'. This equation has been shattered." Marion Solletty
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