A “territorial gap” to which the young people of Murcia are not far from oblivious. Up to 64% of the 81,002 young people between the ages of 15 and 29 who are registered in the capital -among which the floating university population is not counted- live in districts. If this is a social layer that is usually characterized by a lack of its own resources, it is often these generations that suffer especially from the difficulty of accessing public and private services that exist in the peripheral population centers, and they do so, Furthermore, in a greater proportion, given its distribution in the municipal term and its inability to satisfy many of its needs and concerns in its place of residence. This can be drawn from the conclusions offered by the study ‘Youth between crises: sociological diagnosis of the situation of the young population in the municipality of Murcia’, which was presented this Thursday by its authors.
This report was prepared by the Department of Sociology of the University of Murcia, commissioned by the Department of Equality, Youth and Development Cooperation, within the framework of the REACT European Project, through interviews with various working groups in which both representatives of the group under study such as teachers, professionals and other actors who usually work with them. “It is a road map, prepared on the ground, that will help us make decisions in relation to a segment of the population that has suffered the negative impact of a crisis, in this case, almost permanent,” explained the councilor for branch, Teresa Franco, seconded by the researcher Andrés Pedreño.
Thus, in relation to the aforementioned gap, the study particularly cites the lack of mobility alternatives in Murcia, including the lack of bike lanes and the situation of public transport within the municipality, with a service that does not adapt to their needs and that it has progressively worsened with the increase in the cost of travel, the withdrawal of widely used discounts or the elimination of night transport, and all without forgetting the difficulties they encounter in obtaining information on timetables or routes. “They highlight the neglect and isolation that they suffer in many districts, due to the poor connection with the urban center, which prevents them from frequenting it as much as they would like,” says another of the co-authors of the work, Miguel Sánchez, adding that the consequences of these circumstances they go further and directly affect their plans and way of life. “It affects the search for employment, training, leisure, or even insecurity when returning home, especially adolescents and young women with fewer resources,” he concluded.
This problem suffered by the youth of Murcia is only one face of all those detected by the researchers participating in the study. «We have tried to understand the message that they have sent us in a bottle, taking into account that we not only ask the most prepared generation in history to perform more and more, but also to be happy and joyful, with anxiolytics as The only formula to achieve it, ”added Pedreño, adding that mental health has become the main concern of his. In fact, Pedreño went so far as to affirm that, according to data from the Observatory of School Coexistence of the Region of Murcia, in the 2020-2021 academic year there was a “psychic emergency among young people”, with 518 notices due to autolysis protocol in the Region , affecting three out of four young women.
This ‘epidemic’ of mental problems is fueled by the rest of the problems detected by the work team, to which are added, in this order, “the uncertainties and insecurities in relation to fundamental vital aspects such as the workplace, the future or interpersonal relationships; the precariousness and difficulties of access to a job or professional and personal career; and the difficulties to connect with their peers and build intimate and sentimental relationships; closing the list the aforementioned barriers to access services and resources. Eloquent is the fact, in relation to this situation of discomfort, that the Synthetic Youth Development Index prepared by the Reina Sofía Center indicates that the Region suspends young people’s access to employment, education, emancipation and quality of life , with some notes that have receded even further after the pandemic.
However, at least with regard to job insecurity -in which the first affected by a crisis are always women and young people- the researcher Marta Latorre points out that the latest labor reform has reduced temporary employment in these segments of the population, who continue to concentrate, however, a good part of their jobs in the service sector and, mainly, in the hospitality and commerce sectors. This precariousness affects, on the other hand, the problems of young people to emancipate themselves, who have suffered a significant increase in housing prices in the last year -of almost 5% in the Region-, which forces them to share accommodation, and they also come up against insufficient public resources in this area, such as a scarce rental park, and even barriers to access those that already exist.
With regard to education, Isabel Cutillas highlighted that the municipality of Murcia concentrates 31% of the non-university students in the Region and that it is the capital in which a privatization process is especially perceived in this area, since four of every ten of its educational centers are private – 77% subsidized – compared to the three out of every ten that there are on average in the Community.
The researchers highlight the poor numbers of educational dropout among a student body with a 10% immigrant population, and in a system in which a greater incidence in the digital skills of students and teachers is lacking, despite the development of these that brought the pandemic, to the detriment of the socialization of the youngest. The difficulty to reconcile training with a job is also pointed out, especially in the case of families with fewer resources.
The report does not avoid two other aspects: one is the growing impact among young people in the municipality of new addictions such as gambling. In fact, Murcia has 370 salons of this type, one for 4,200 inhabitants. On the other, it addresses sexuality in this population segment and underlines that almost one in four of the care that the Murcia City Council Gender Violence Team provided in 2021 was to women under 30 years of age. All these circumstances, added together, lead this layer of the population to a loss of confidence in the public powers, when it comes to promoting improvements in their quality of life.
Almost 180 new study positions for three locations
One of the shortcomings detected by young people who live in districts is the lack of spaces to be able to study outside the home, such as public study rooms. Currently, the municipality has fifteen classrooms, distributed between the city and districts, and the City Council, through the Department of Education, has approved the implementation of another three. These new projects, two of which have already been completed by Urbamusa and which must be approved by the Governing Board before being sent to Contracting, will allow the addition of 178 new 24-hour reading posts to the existing ones, and will be located in the districts of Javalí Nuevo, with sixty new posts; Monteagudo (with 70) and Cabezo de Torres (with 48). Municipal sources indicated that this means increasing “by more than 20% the current capacity of the municipal network of study rooms.” In the case of Javalí Nuevo, the total investment exceeds 175,000 euros; in Monteagudo of almost 155,000 euros, and in Cabezo de Torres the drafting of the project has not yet been completed. Currently, the Ronda Sur study classrooms are in operation, one of the largest; Aljucer, Farmhouses, Beniaján, Casillas, Cobatillas, El Raal, Garres and Lages, Los Dolores, Los Martínez del Puerto, Rincón de Seca, San José de la Vega, Sangonera la Seca, Sangonera la Verde, Torreagüera and Zeneta. All are accessible 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. The most recent rooms have been opened in the last two years (Aljucer, San José de la Vega, El Raal and Llano de Brujas), they recall from the City Council, and indicate that the ones in Guadalupe, El Esparragal, and Los Ramos are in the pipeline , in districts. Also in the portfolio is the ‘Miguel Hernández’ classroom, which will be located in the second building of the Cárcel Vieja, once its rehabilitation is carried out.
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