Neet

Publish date 17-06-2021

by Fabrizio Floris

In Italy there are two million young people who do not study and do not work. They call them "neet" (Not in Education, Employment or Training). They are between 15 and 29 years old, they are not a homogeneous whole, but in Italy what scholars call "the discouraged" prevail, those who have given up looking for a job.
They have young faces, but the experience is made of tiredness, apathy, "the past". They are not upset, they are not violent, they are not aggressive, they are tired, they say they feel old. They are young people who have interrupted their path and it seems they are no longer able to resume the key, not only of work (or study), but of life. They do not have the youthful drive, they are very reasonable, thoughtful, measured, their experiences are made up of personal, family and contextual weaknesses that have led them to a phase of aphasia.

As in the dynamics of the economy, the drive for change can be exogenous or endogenous, they lacked the strength of primary relationships and outside they found difficulties: in school, in the context in which they were inserted. Theirs is a present and ongoing problem, according to a study by the Bruno Visentini Foundation in 2030 there will be a marked worsening of the economic conditions of the new families under 35. The wealth of families will be 20 times less than that of total families. Less money for the young today, less pensions tomorrow for the old. The Increase researchers have collected their stories and explain that "neets" represent only a fifth or a quarter of a more widespread problem which is the exclusion of young people from work.

Millions of young people who find themselves inside a nebula of precarious, poorly paid, fragmented jobs without any possible evolution and learning. They have no political or trade union representatives, in them there is no rebellion or demand, there is no struggle or protest, they feel victims and misunderstood. They are not "borderline", they do not report significant life traumas: an unemployed or layoff parent, a questionable teacher, a weak territorial context, but their characteristic is to have passed through all these mild facts and as for phthalates in food , zero plus zero plus zero equals seven: seven slight facts make a "neet". There is a stratification of fragility in them that wears out any potential for struggle: existence goes on with ups and downs and jolts with only one continuity: staying at home.

The effort of receiving no, of failing becomes, over time, renunciation to avoid another refusal, another deception.
Yet they resist, they do not enter the circuit of exclusion, they go at their own pace, which is not that of their peers, but somehow they proceed, they remain hooked, they cannot afford balances and elegant steps: standing is everything. As far as possible, don't leave them alone.


Fabrizio Floris
NP March 2021

This website uses cookies. By using our website you consent to all cookies in accordance with our Cookie Policy. Click here for more info

Ok