Sandra Medina feels that she is ready to take the next step in her life, but she doesn't see how. At 30 years old and after many comings and goings, she already has a stable job and a partner with whom she shares housing and expenses. And yet, if she wants to start a family or settle down permanently, she needs more income. Her and her partner. "I see that the years go by and no matter how much I remove extras, I do not manage to generate the economic cushion that I need for my plans," she says. Sandra feels that she cannot move from the vital point in which she finds herself.
The feeling of stagnation or feeling trapped in a vital point with no prospect of improving is an increasingly widespread feeling among young people. Having completed training and landed a job, many find that most of their salary is eaten up by rent (if they can become independent). The life promised by following certain steps, such as completing some studies, seems more like a utopia than a reality.
For Sandra Medina, who lives in the city of Barcelona, rent accounts for 40% of her expenses, despite sharing a flat with her partner. He earns 30,000 euros and she earns 23,000 euros gross per year. And even if two salaries enter the house, she warns that she would have to save more to carry out those future plans that she would like to fulfill, such as starting a family, having her own home or being able to spend family vacations like the ones she had with her parents from small. She believes that now would be the time to carry them out to consolidate her professional and personal stability at the age of 30, but she feels that she cannot.
Could they at least earn more? Sandra Medina's boyfriend is looking for new projects after seven years working at the same training academy. Although his current company is growing, he doesn't think he can improve his salary much more. Her company is growing, and he thinks he could get a pay raise. "Of course, little significant," he qualifies. Now they add up to fixed monthly expenses of more than 2,000 euros per month.
Sandra Medina's situation is similar to that experienced by thousands of young people in Spain, as confirmed by the Spanish Youth Council (CJE) in its latest report on emancipation. She points out that even working or completing higher education does not reduce the risk of poverty or guarantee being able to buy a house. Given the situation, they have verified that the average age of emancipation has reached 30 years, the highest figure in the last two decades.
"What you earn is never enough," says Maricarmen Argüelles, who has been working as a teacher for 15 years and earns 1,100 euros net for 26 hours of weekly classes. At 37 years old, she explains that she lives with her parents because she cannot become independent for financial reasons. She believes that the solution would be to have more jobs, but because of her current job, she doesn't have time. "Most of my friends are married or in a relationship with children, that is, if you're not with someone you can't live outside your parents' house, it seems, always sharing expenses," she points out. Faced with the refusal of her school to raise her salaries, she feels the pressure to look for a job in the afternoon. However, in addition to her tiredness, she says that she has health problems that do not allow her to opt for moonlighting.
It is a situation that Ana Martínez knows well. She was lucky to find a job in Melilla finishing her Journalism degree. At the beginning she earned about 700 euros that later became 900. It was then that she decided to go live with her boyfriend and she saw how, for years, most of her salary in rent, food and other basic expenses. Martínez regrets that, by working, she gave up experiences that friends around her have had, such as traveling or living outside of her for a while. But she did it because she thought that after that hard effort, she would later get her reward, like being able to buy a house. About to turn 30, she has returned to live with her parents because she left him with her boyfriend and she could not afford the rent alone.
“Aïda, study what you want, but study”. About to turn 32, Aïda Ollé still remembers these words that her parents used to say to her when she was little. It was a simple, well-marked line that would lead the new generations of the late 20th century to success: Primary, ESO, Baccalaureate, University, Master's, languages, etc. Aïda Ollé completed that journey without fail and now she works in what she likes, as a social integrator in a mental health center and she shares a flat in Rubí with her partner and she hopes to improve professionally as soon as she finishes other studies. However, every year her rent is raised and she feels that she cannot take a step further. How to plan to start a family if life is getting more and more expensive?
"Neither having higher education nor having a job meant at the end of 2022 having economic stability, which dismantles the false myth of meritocracy," underlines the CJE Emancipation Observatory report. Juan Antonio Báez, vice president of the entity, points out that the study carried out shows that "from 2008 to the present we have a loss of purchasing power of around 20% because prices continue to rise and wages have remained practically the same". This loss of purchasing power translates into not being able to opt for future plans that require an investment and the only thing left for the youth is to have to "adapt".
Báez explains that the labor reform and the increase in the minimum wage have had a favorable impact on youth, but that the rent has risen above these improvements. The sociologist Victor Renobell believes that "more than a punctual crisis, it is a change in the way of life." In Spain, says Renobell, various aspects come together, such as culture or the fact that job creation is more focused on the service sector when many young people have a higher education. “There is no white-collar work, as was said before,” he observes.
Faced with the inability to meet expenses such as buying a home, lifestyle has also changed, says Renobell. She points out that there are those who decide to buy the apartment with more people or focus more on leisure. “Today the values are no longer living to work, but working to live”.
The sociologist, coordinator of the degree in Political Science at the International University of La Rioja (UNIR), sees a future in which houses will be 15 square meters or that instead of a home, rooms will be bought, as is already happening. We are heading, according to Renobell, towards Bauman's liquid society, in which everything is volatile and nothing is forever.
To plan or not to plan, that is the question. "I see a generation that is very focused on the 'here and now' that, since it does not see a clear future, prefers to enjoy what it knows it can have right now and not think about what will come," says Sandra Medina, who works at company customer service.
The sociologist Mariano Urraco Solanilla wrote his doctoral thesis on the moment that youth is living and is clear about what is happening: a “short-term” human being is being formed. In addition, he stresses that it is not so much a question of generations but of social class. "Meritocracy is a fiction and, above all, a fallacious argument that legitimizes situations that are not fair at all." And he gives the example that everyone agrees that a position should go to the person with the most qualifications, but no one wonders how they were able to achieve them.
Eudald (not his real name) is 31 years old and believes that the issue of precariousness among young people has become "a kind of absurd cultural battle", and for this reason he considers it a mistake to talk about generations and not social classes. “Our parents have suffered a lot to get to where they are and they have given us everything they had so that we can have a good life. We are not having it, so I think we should put the focus here, instead of arguing about who is more privileged [among the generations] ”, he points out.
"I feel that I am at an age where I would no longer have to be in the phase of 'sending a resume' or of continuing to grow, but rather in a more consolidated moment," explains Eudald, who is self-employed, which means that he depends on the assignments that are made to him. . This puts him in a constant bargaining situation in which he is always the weaker party to any deal. For work he travels a lot and, when he is not away from work, he lives with his mother in Catalonia to save money. He would like to go live with his partner, but even between the two of them they don't have enough income to try. Future plans? "I don't have it," he replies emphatically. He can only think about how he will earn income next month.
“Individuals are being abandoned to their fate with all that this implies at a social and social cohesion level,” observes Urraco. He explains that when there are people who have had to 'make themselves' and look for a life, they will be more reluctant to defend democracy or the system, such as paying taxes. The logic that prevails is that if they have not received help from the State and society, why should they get involved when "they have been completely abandoned".
Urraco believes that this is where the apathy of young people towards politics that is talked about so much arises, since the group understands that politicians do not offer solutions to their problems. From the CJE they point out that just before the elections, "patches that do not solve the problem of young people" appear. “Suffice it to say that young people are to blame for the situation,” exclaims Báez.
For the CJE, the solution to the situation of stagnation of the youth is that there is an agreement between the different political parties to solve the structural problems. However, these age ranges are not well represented: of the 350 deputies in Congress, only eight are under 30 years of age, they say from the CJE. Báez points out that the reading that is taken from this data is that the problems of the youngest will not be solved. He explains that in a macro-survey carried out, they found that it is not that youth are not interested in politics, but that they feel detached because they do not see their problems being resolved.
“I feel that I am entering the most important and decisive years of my life in which decisions are made that are either for the rest of your life or else they will stay with you for a long time,” says Ana Martínez, who believes that her problems would be solved with better wages and working conditions. Sandra Medina is already looking for a house outside of Barcelona with her boyfriend in an area "where we can consider housing and expenses according to what we have and we want to project thinking about the future."
Aïda Ollé would like to own a house and a family, but because of the rental price, she is afraid that she will even have to leave her city to go further away from Barcelona. "I feel trapped," says Ollé, who describes herself as a member of "the frustrated generation." Eudald, for her part, sees that her situation is improving every year and hopes to continue with the good projections thanks to the experience she is accumulating and her contacts. Of course, with a nuance. “I would like to have stability: start on the 1st of each month knowing that I will have X euros with which I can organize myself”, he says.
The sociologist Mariano Urraco does not believe that the solution is in the hands of the State. He argues that it is a bigger dynamic than in Spain it began to be seen from the 1990s. That is where globalization comes into play. Now there are fewer jobs, they are paid less and many times the one available is in other countries, he says. “You have to continually reinvent yourself and that is moving in a vacuum and uncertainty. Living in uncertainty and continuous frustration is very exhausting. So it is normal for this generation to have so many problems on a mental and emotional well-being level, ”he explains.
And what future can be expected in a generation that grows up in these conditions? Urraco alludes to the erosion of the individual's conscience, which the sociologist Richard Sennett said. And that results in him behaving more and more in a selfish and short-sighted way at all levels. "A person who is forced to think like this in terms of work, will also end up thinking like that in terms of personal relationships."
