Like Unemployed Mum and Dad

• by Pavol Stracansky (bratislava)
• Monday, May 03, 2010
• Inter Press Service

They say that tens of thousands of children with parents who have not worked for as long as ten years in some cases have no concept of what working for a wage means, and have come to accept a life of poverty forced to live off scant social benefits payments as 'normal'.

Monika Cambalikova, sociologist at the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava, told IPS: 'This is an extremely alarming trend that helps perpetuate a vicious cycle of long-term unemployment and poverty. Society, government and the third sector must act now to deal with it.'

Eastern Europe has some of the highest unemployment figures in the Western world. Recent forecasts for jobless rates this year are as high as 20 percent in Latvia, 14 percent in Slovakia and 10 percent in Romania and Hungary.

Economists say that there are pockets of staggeringly high unemployment, reaching up to 90 percent in some communities.

But what they argue is most worrying is that in countries with high unemployment rates, a large proportion of those out of work are long-term unemployed -- those who have been without work for more than a year, and in some communities for years on end.

Those most affected by long-term unemployment are usually unskilled workers with little schooling and little or no opportunity, because of their poverty, to improve their education or gain new skills that would help them in the job market.

This creates a poverty trap which can have a profound effect on children.

'There are children growing up now without ever seeing their parents lead a normal working lifestyle for example getting up in the morning, going to work, earning a living and bringing back wages,' Cambalikova told IPS. 'Their experience is of a lifestyle where their family has to provide for itself from social benefits payments.

'There comes a point where these children see all this and no longer view it as an unwanted state but something normal and accepted. They lose the will, or desire, to have things any differently, get used to it and see it as an acceptable survival strategy' for life. They lose all ambition and motivation in work and in life.'

Peter Havlik, deputy director of the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (WIIW) warned that this made it harder for children to break out of their family's poverty trap when they reach working age as they will be unable to find a job themselves.

'There are children growing up not seeing their parents work and we know from research that this has serious consequences for them,' he told IPS. 'It is extremely detrimental. The role of the family in educating their children (about work) is extremely important. These children will themselves have problems trying to get work later.'

Studies have highlighted the serious effects on children of their parents being out of work for lengthy periods.

A report released last month by the non-profit Council on Contemporary Families organisation in the U.S. said that long-term unemployment leading to family poverty raises the risks of a child performing poorly at school by 15 percent, can significantly impair short-term memory and have a devastating effect on motivation in school and in life. Teachers also reported that such children were more likely to suffer behavioural problems, and warned that children who fall into poverty during recessions are three times more likely to be poor as adults than children who do not experience poverty.

Experts say that the problem is most serious in what is already one of Europe's most underprivileged and poverty-stricken groups -- the Roma. One of Europe's largest ethnic minorities, it is also one of its poorest, and unemployment rates in many Roma communities run at up to 90 percent.

Many Roma say that they face job market discrimination and, with education levels among the Roma low, there are few skilled Roma workers.

Havlik said: 'Most people who are long-term unemployed are poor and unskilled, and, especially in the financial crisis, it is very hard for unskilled workers to find jobs, so they cannot get out of poverty. It is a vicious circle.'

But Cambalikova warned that the problem was not confined to Roma communities and was being faced by many low-income families across Eastern Europe regardless of ethnic background.

She said: 'This problem is not an ethnic one and occurs in other parts of society. It also poses even greater threats for the future in that it could spread, and the gap in society between the haves and have-nots will grow.

'This problem is not confined just to Slovakia but also affects poor families and communities elsewhere.'

She said governments, the third sector and society in general must act to help solve the problem, and called for special government measures to provide access to education for children in poor families.

But Havlik warned that there was no quick solution to the problem.

'In countries with high unemployment, such as in the Balkans, unfortunately a large proportion of that is long-term unemployment,' he said. 'The problem is that this has been the case for many years and that means it is systematic and that the situation of long-term unemployment has almost been accepted in some ways, which is itself a serious social problem.

'But there is no simple solution. Policies could be looked for to encourage higher economic growth but in the current economic crisis it would be very hard to put such policies into practice.'

© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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