Facing limited employment prospects, many young Algerians have chosen to rely on themselves.
By Mouna Sadek for Magharebia in Algiers – 30/04/10
In his fine cowboy hat and smoking a cigar, Mourad, 26, stands on the Algiers street like he owns it. He is not the shy, retiring type. "I haven’t studied, but I know I’m going to make it. What matters is knowing how to get around, how to seize an opportunity," he says.
Mourad, along with 5 of his friends, turned some small backstreets into ad hoc parking lots. They work in shifts, night and day.
"We’re lucky being in the center of Algiers, between Mohamed V and Telemely. They’re quite busy districts. There’s no charity here – if someone doesn’t have the money, then they can just go somewhere else," he says.
He calls the operation his "business".
Unemployment, the high cost of living and low levels of pay have demanded creative solutions from young people fighting to survive. They are refusing to give into despair, and proof of their inventiveness can be found in the explosion of untraditional, self-created jobs in Algeria.
Belcourt market has quickly become a temple to what is known as the "informal economy". Market regular Redouane is one young man whose need for cash led him to take creative measures.
But this is not a good night.
"It’s not right," he says. "I spent 2000 dinars on some packets of biscuits so I could re-sell them, and now the police have confiscated all my goods. They won’t let us do our jobs. It’s becoming a police state."
As the oldest of seven children, he feels he has a duty to support his family.
"What do you want me to do? Just sit back and do nothing? A few jobs here and there aren’t going to keep your head above water. As for marrying and starting a family... you don’t even think about that," he says.
His friend Rachid flits between Belcourt market and the Internet cafés.
"My days are really busy," Rachid says. "In the morning, I sell socks in the market, and in the afternoon, with the help of some friends, I download the latest films so I can sell them."
"In the end, you manage to make a bit of money," he says. To find a stable job in Algeria, he adds, “you need money behind you, and friends in the right places".
Even Algerians who already have steady salaries work in the informal economy. One job is not enough to make ends meet.
By day, Mr. Belkacem works in a state-run enterprise in the economic sector. At night, he runs a "black market taxi" service.
"I earn barely 20,000 DA a month at my firm, and they give us a pittance for supporting a wife at home. I had to find something else to pay the bills," he explains. “But even my taxi job doesn’t bring in much money. It ranges from 200 to 1000 dinars a night. There are some days when I come home empty-handed."
This clandestine work is due to a "major upset on the labor market", explains Abdenasser Djabi.
"Even the private and public sectors can end up playing a part in expanding 'unofficial activities'. With the low salaries they pay their workers, they’ll only increase the problem. The labor market has become diversified but precarious. The poor pay encourages that," Djabi adds.
The makeshift economy has also created a class of “nouveaux riche" in Algeria. But not every informal business is run by the books.
"Young people are very different from their parents. They find it hard to accept their parents’ failures and accuse them of not having grasped every opportunity," Djabi says. "They cannot understand that their parents have scruples."
Algeria's makeshift economy first emerged in the 1980's, when people started selling the latest products in the El Fellah market and other urban shopping districts, Mohamed Saib Musette of Algeria's Applied Economic Research Center for Development (CREAD) tells Magharebia.
Some idle urban youths, known locally as hittistes, turned into trabendistes and got involved in various shadowy business dealings in the 1990s, he says. Now that Europe has become a virtually impregnable fortress, the young unemployed are forced to take any job they can get, Musette says.
"This informal sector has some real 'factories', getting both girls and boys embroiled in a pernicious environment; which inevitably leads them to look for a way to escape, and follow the route taken by others excluded from society: the haraga," Musette explains.
The makeshift economy, he continues, was built by what he calls "an ongoing fear of drowning". Algerians go to extreme lengths, breaking rules, laws and social conventions to keep their heads above water.
These problems faced by Algerian youth could prove to be a real "time bomb", according to the National Association for Youth Protection (AASJ).
"The lack of dialogue could lead to a real uprising among young people," AASJ external affairs officer Amine Mouioua says. "That’s something that threatens the whole of Algeria. Anarchy and violence are spreading across all towns in Algeria, including the chic districts."
The AASJ hopes to organize a "national meeting for the unemployed" to find solutions to the problem, she says. Even though unemployment has dropped to 10.2%, women and young people still have difficulties making ends meet.
"When you’re thirty and you can’t afford to buy a coffee, you certainly feel marginalized," Mouioua says. "We’ve got to get rid of this culture of exclusion."
Source: Magharebia.com
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/reportage/2010/04/30/reportage-01.
By Mouna Sadek for Magharebia in Algiers – 30/04/10
In his fine cowboy hat and smoking a cigar, Mourad, 26, stands on the Algiers street like he owns it. He is not the shy, retiring type. "I haven’t studied, but I know I’m going to make it. What matters is knowing how to get around, how to seize an opportunity," he says.
Mourad, along with 5 of his friends, turned some small backstreets into ad hoc parking lots. They work in shifts, night and day.
"We’re lucky being in the center of Algiers, between Mohamed V and Telemely. They’re quite busy districts. There’s no charity here – if someone doesn’t have the money, then they can just go somewhere else," he says.
He calls the operation his "business".
Unemployment, the high cost of living and low levels of pay have demanded creative solutions from young people fighting to survive. They are refusing to give into despair, and proof of their inventiveness can be found in the explosion of untraditional, self-created jobs in Algeria.
Belcourt market has quickly become a temple to what is known as the "informal economy". Market regular Redouane is one young man whose need for cash led him to take creative measures.
But this is not a good night.
"It’s not right," he says. "I spent 2000 dinars on some packets of biscuits so I could re-sell them, and now the police have confiscated all my goods. They won’t let us do our jobs. It’s becoming a police state."
As the oldest of seven children, he feels he has a duty to support his family.
"What do you want me to do? Just sit back and do nothing? A few jobs here and there aren’t going to keep your head above water. As for marrying and starting a family... you don’t even think about that," he says.
His friend Rachid flits between Belcourt market and the Internet cafés.
"My days are really busy," Rachid says. "In the morning, I sell socks in the market, and in the afternoon, with the help of some friends, I download the latest films so I can sell them."
"In the end, you manage to make a bit of money," he says. To find a stable job in Algeria, he adds, “you need money behind you, and friends in the right places".
Even Algerians who already have steady salaries work in the informal economy. One job is not enough to make ends meet.
By day, Mr. Belkacem works in a state-run enterprise in the economic sector. At night, he runs a "black market taxi" service.
"I earn barely 20,000 DA a month at my firm, and they give us a pittance for supporting a wife at home. I had to find something else to pay the bills," he explains. “But even my taxi job doesn’t bring in much money. It ranges from 200 to 1000 dinars a night. There are some days when I come home empty-handed."
This clandestine work is due to a "major upset on the labor market", explains Abdenasser Djabi.
"Even the private and public sectors can end up playing a part in expanding 'unofficial activities'. With the low salaries they pay their workers, they’ll only increase the problem. The labor market has become diversified but precarious. The poor pay encourages that," Djabi adds.
The makeshift economy has also created a class of “nouveaux riche" in Algeria. But not every informal business is run by the books.
"Young people are very different from their parents. They find it hard to accept their parents’ failures and accuse them of not having grasped every opportunity," Djabi says. "They cannot understand that their parents have scruples."
Algeria's makeshift economy first emerged in the 1980's, when people started selling the latest products in the El Fellah market and other urban shopping districts, Mohamed Saib Musette of Algeria's Applied Economic Research Center for Development (CREAD) tells Magharebia.
Some idle urban youths, known locally as hittistes, turned into trabendistes and got involved in various shadowy business dealings in the 1990s, he says. Now that Europe has become a virtually impregnable fortress, the young unemployed are forced to take any job they can get, Musette says.
"This informal sector has some real 'factories', getting both girls and boys embroiled in a pernicious environment; which inevitably leads them to look for a way to escape, and follow the route taken by others excluded from society: the haraga," Musette explains.
The makeshift economy, he continues, was built by what he calls "an ongoing fear of drowning". Algerians go to extreme lengths, breaking rules, laws and social conventions to keep their heads above water.
These problems faced by Algerian youth could prove to be a real "time bomb", according to the National Association for Youth Protection (AASJ).
"The lack of dialogue could lead to a real uprising among young people," AASJ external affairs officer Amine Mouioua says. "That’s something that threatens the whole of Algeria. Anarchy and violence are spreading across all towns in Algeria, including the chic districts."
The AASJ hopes to organize a "national meeting for the unemployed" to find solutions to the problem, she says. Even though unemployment has dropped to 10.2%, women and young people still have difficulties making ends meet.
"When you’re thirty and you can’t afford to buy a coffee, you certainly feel marginalized," Mouioua says. "We’ve got to get rid of this culture of exclusion."
Source: Magharebia.com
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/reportage/2010/04/30/reportage-01.
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