Time.news – They have been called the “Erasmus generation”. Made of those kids who, thanks to educational exchange agreements, were able to travel and see the world. A generation that was soon able to free itself from families, often encouraged and pushed to find autonomy and grow by themselves. Who studied abroad far and wide and who then researched employment solutions by throwing himself on three-year PhDs to continue studying and being able to extend his curriculum with the idea of deepening and specializing, aspiring to the best for himself .
Doctorates who, in the most diverse disciplines, can guarantee a sufficient hard core to affirm their individual and economic autonomy, supported and corroborated perhaps by some other matching and extra jobs: such as doing translations, giving repetitions, starting editorial collaborations either by tour guides or, at worst, babysitting. For girls and boys alike.
Today, however, due to the post-2008 financial crisis first – also known as the ‘Great recession’, or the worst crisis since 1929 -, to the two-year period of Covid-19 then and to the war now, in addition to the economic crisis that does not stop but gallops, girls and girls have become a “generation of return”. But where? At home, with their parents. A phenomenon renamed as “Boomerang generation”. Thus, after a period of independent life they had to retrace their steps at home.
How many
In 2014 the “boomerang generation” was estimated to be in the order of 500 thousand cases while now it can be safely stated that about 70% of the thirty-year-olds are forced to fall back on assistance within the family economy, a form of welfare that is certainly not “comfortable” and virtuous, but still necessary. A fallback. A sort of last resort on which to land, but with the risk of being permanently stranded. Phenomenon that has had a surge during the long lockdown to which we have all been subjected from the end of February 2020 to today.
Except that if some of the adults were able in the best case to “break it down” with smart working, there was no way out for the thirty-year-olds. Many families have been literally overwhelmed by the crisis, so that the children of the “boomers” in crisis who have found themselves becoming “boomerangs” are often those of the dismissed, the redundant or the separated or evicted. Or evicted themselves for lack of sufficient alternatives to be able to guarantee self-sufficiency and pay increasingly high city rents.
Still in 2013, according to the data then released by the national statistics office, over 3.3 million young people between 20 and 34 years old lived with their parents, or 26% of the total of that age group, with an increase of 25 % compared to 1996, when it was estimated that only 660 thousand young people remained in their parents’ home.
And this, despite the fact that since then the slice of the population that falls within that age group has remained almost unchanged. A fact that has gradually expanded in recent years. In fact, according to one of the latest surveys carried out in May last year by the National Youth Council, in collaboration with EURES, on the employment, salary and social security conditions and prospects of the under-35s, the path towards autonomy remains, for many, still a dream tightly closed in the drawer: 50.3% of under-35s always live with their parents, while about four out of ten young people (37.9%) live alone or with their partner.
No children, no home
Among those who can count on a stable job, then, 56.3% created their own family unitcompared to 33.5% of peers who have not yet managed to do so.
So much so that the absolute lack of employment certainties also ends up influencing procreative choices, linked to a wider range of factors: only 6.5% of young people between 18 and 35 years of age say they have children (8.8 % among stable workers), while a third (33%) declare that they do not have any and do not want them even in the years to come.
What is missing, more often, are the basic conditions to be able to start a family without too many risks: only 12% of the under 35s own the house in which they live, for example. One in 10 (11% to be exact) tried to buy an apartment and 7.8% managed to get a mortgage. 40% of young people do not even try to ask because they are aware of the lack of requirements. All this despite agreements, concessions and incentives specifically signed directly with credit institutions to meet the needs of under-30s.
The result is that at the age of about thirty many young people earn less than a thousand euros a month despite working 40 hours a week and sometimes even more. Thus the vast majority of them are unable to adapt to the new social reality and continue to look for ways to achieve the same lifestyle as their parents, but following a plan that no longer works.
A boomerang not only for them but for the whole of society.