Muslim youths in the labor market

Follow @muslimslaughter

1.   Muslim youth hit worst by the recession

Among articles printed in last week’s special issue of the New Statesman magazine on Islam, is this piece by David Blanchflower (pictured) on the effects of the slow down of economic growth and the problems of underemployment on British Muslims, particularly youth.
He wrote:

‘The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) published a new forecast suggesting that UK growth will be lower than it had predicted....The institute said that unemployment will continue to rise through 2011, reaching 2.9 million (more than 9 per cent), and noted that the labour market has been much weaker than headlines have suggested because of the cuts in hours and decline of full-time jobs. The announcement of further job losses at Shell, following a poor set of results, added to the gloom.

‘That set me thinking about who has been most affected by the recession in the UK. It is well known that young people have been hit especially hard by rising unemployment, as have the least educated and minority groups. Young people without qualifications from minorities are the worst hit. There is also a regional dimension. Unemployment rates are higher in the West Midlands (9.6 per cent) and the north-east (9.8 per cent) than in the south-east (6.2 per cent), East Anglia (6.3 per cent) or the south-west (6.4 per cent).
'Given that this week's New Statesman is a special issue on Islam, it seemed appropriate to examine how British Muslims have been affected by recession.'

Protestations islamiques sous le semi-industrialisme: explication du 'Yan Tatsine. Le problème de l'explication de l'émergence et de la férocité du mouvement social islamique millénaire, le 'Yan Tatsine constitute le thème central de cet article. Après avoir passé en revue plusieurs explications idéalistes généralisées et très répandues, l'auteur examine l'évolution historique d'une institution islamique dans le Nigéria du nord où le haoussa est communément parlé, les étudiants coraniques ambulants (gardawa). Il est prouvé que ni l'idéologie ni la personnalité charismatique du leader, Mohammed Marwa Maitatsine, ne fournissent une explication satisfaisante de l'essor et de la destructivité endémique du 'Yan Tatsine. Afin de démontrer comment les facteurs matériels, sociaux et politiques toujours changeants peuvent fournir une explication satisfaisante des cinq insurrections urbaines depuis 1980, l'auteur décrit le lien entre les institutions islamiques et les procédés capitalistes commerciaux et industriels, particulièrement au cours de la période du boom pétrolier nigérien de 1974-81. En conséquence, le sapement des bases matérielles du gardawa, le remplacement de l'éducation islamique par l'éducation primaire universelle, la transformation de la ville de Kano vers un capitalisme semi-industriel et le rôle médiateur de l'état et ses forces de police abusives sont prouvés fournir une explication matérialiste et, du point de vue des insurgés, une explication rationnelle de leur hostilité envers les élites politiques, les forces de sécurité de l'état et l'ordre social en vigueur. Finalement, l'idéologie anti-matérialiste de Maitatsine est examinée et comparée à celle décrite par E. P. Thompson au XVIIIème siècle qui, selon ses arguments, forme une 'économie morale' pour les producteurs et les consommateurs urbains déplacés.                  

‘Muslims are more than twice as likely to be unemployed than the national average (16.4 per cent, compared to 7.7 per cent). (The unemployment rate among black people is even higher, at 17.9 per cent.) Worryingly, unemployment is especially high among young Muslims under the age of 30 (23 per cent), which is again higher than the UK average for young people (17 per cent), although less than for young black people (29 per cent).

‘The jobless rate for the least educated young Muslims - those with no qualifications - is even higher, approaching 40 per cent. One encouraging sign is that a considerably higher proportion of young Muslims under the age of 25 are students than is the case for non-Muslims (36 per cent and 19 per cent, respectively).

‘It is important that public policy is designed to ensure that Muslims in general, and young Muslims in particular, do not become further marginalised. Joblessness would be much higher among Muslims without the labour-market measures implemented by the Labour government. A lost generation of young Muslims would be very bad indeed, for all of us.’

The National Equality Panel’s report, ‘An Anatomy of Economic Inequality in the UK’, provides a detailed overview of the economic disadvantages suffered by Muslim communities in the UK. In the government’s response to the report, Harriet Harman MP, Minister for Women and Equality, refers to the new legal duty introduced by the government into the Equality Bill as a means to address the problems of socio-economic disadvantage in the UK through positive action:

‘The report of the National Equality Panel shows clearly how inequality is cumulative over an individual’s lifetime and is carried from one generation to the next.

‘In response to the challenges set out in this report, the Government, building on substantial progress to date, will continue to make the choices that prioritise fairness and aspiration. …The scale of the challenge set out in the National Equality Panel report cannot be addressed overnight. It will demand that we continue and sustain our public policy commitment to equality.

‘The work of the National Equality Panel will underpin the response by all strategic public authorities to Clause one of the Equality Bill which places a new legal duty on key public bodies to consider, in all the important decisions they make and all important actions they take, how they can tackle socio-economic inequality.

‘This is a big challenge that requires sustained and focus action. But for the sake of the right of every individual to reach their full potential, for the sake of a strong and meritocratic economy and to achieve a peaceful and cohesive society, that is the challenge that must be met.’