In moments of strength systemic crises like the one crossed following the pandemic, in our country the most bands young of the population are the first to pay and the last to recover. Despite this, the resources that the various governments address to the youngest are increasingly scarce. It went from 1,8 billion of the 2019 Maneuver to 300 million of the 2022 Budget Law, to which are added just over 700 million made available by the Pnrr. The result? The number of students he believes is always higher having to go abroad to create an independent life.
These are some of the main data that emerge from the V Report on the Generation Gap by the Bruno Visentini Foundation presented on March 23 at the Luiss Guido Carli campus in Rome by the president of the Alessandro Laterza Foundation and the scientific co-directors, professor Luciano Monti and professor Fabio Marchetti, both Luiss professors. The event was also attended by Andrea Abodi, minister for Sport and Youth, Tiziano Treu, president of CNEL and Maria Cristina Pisani, president of the National Youth Council.
The generation gap index
The survey on the future of young people, which this year has the title “The generation gap. Generation Z and permacrisis” it was carried out between the beginning of April and the end of May 2022, involving around 5 students between the ages of 13 and 20, from all over Italy and from all educational backgrounds. The analysis shows how the generation gap index – indicator built to detect the obstacles that hinder the achievement of economic and social maturity of the younger generations – in 2021 recorded a slight improvement compared to the surge in 2020, in the midst of the Covid crisis: 141 points against 144. Data which, however, remain far from the pre-pandemic period (134 points in 2019) and are close to those of the recession years (2012).
Faced with these numbers, it is necessary to underline another important evidence: what is now defined as permacrisis “explains asymmetric effects on the different age groups, striking with greater strength than the youth”, say the experts of the Bruno Visentini Foundation, who explain: “among the 43 indicators that make up the 14 domains of the index, the most penalizing ones for young people concern in particular the excessive weight of the pension system on the State accounts, the gender, poverty, public debt, human capital and credit and savings”.
Politics invests less and less in the new generations
Faced with this reality “even for 2022 we continue to record a constant disaffection of the Legislature for measures directly aimed at young people and included in a multi-year strategy”, clearly states the Bruno Visentini Foundation. Numbers in hand, in fact, the 2019 Maneuver contained generational measures for 1,8 billion euros, a figure that was reduced by six times in the 2022 budget, to which however must be added the 700 million made available by the PNRR (less than 2 % of the annual budget). Adding one and the other, the sum of 1 billion euros can hardly be reached.
“I want to draw attention – said Professor Monti – to some of the recommendations that this Report addresses to the government and to the legislator in general. The first concerns the introduction in our country, in the wake of the German and Austrian experience, of the so-called youth check, i.e. the generational impact assessment of all standards introduced into our legal system, so that these do not jeopardize the future of young people. The second recommendation relates instead to the introduction of one strategy for youth policies looking at a time horizon of at least 5 or 7 years".
One out of 4 young people thinks they have to go abroad to fulfill themselves
The survey carried out among 5 Italian students shows that about two thirds of young people are inclined towards one autonomous professional life, as a professional, entrepreneur or self-employed worker, compared to 35% of respondents who state that they prefer a career as an employee. However, there is another very worrying aspect that immediately catches the eye: one in four students claims to see each other in the near future residing in another country European or non-European, unfortunately in continuity with the already high number of young people who leave Italy every year. Finally, it should be noted that slightly more than one out of two students (51,9%) say they want to continue with university studies, of which 49% say they prefer STEM subjects.
Young people and the importance of supplementary pensions
During the presentation of the report, the Professor Marchetti he underlined that “an extremely relevant issue with regard to young people is that of social security. In particular, in a system that is by now decidedly oriented towards a three-pillar system (basic public pension, collective supplementary pension and individual pension savings), the Complementary pension assumes a fundamental importance for young people in order to be able to count on an income sufficient for their life needs in old age. Faced with a situation which sees a low participation of young people in Pension Funds (according to the latest Covip data, only 1,5 million members are under the age of 35 and only 500 of these are young women), it seems urgent to envisage concrete incentives for young people in order to encourage their adherence to the Supplementary Pension (for example, a figurative supplementary contribution could be proposed equal to 50% of the contributions actually paid for the first 5/10 years of membership in a Pension Fund).”
“My presence here today is ataking responsability: I announce, in fact, my commitment to promote a Youth Decree-law, which I have already discussed with the Prime Minister, and which is part of a medium-long term planning policy to address, first of all, the problem of that significant percentage of young people who see their future abroad". said the Minister for Sport and Youth Abodi.
