Youropia – Youth in Europe

Youropia – Youth in Europe Marta Carmona, Inês Vieira, Jéssica Gomes, José Freitas, Maria Silva, Mariana Freitas, Patrícia Antunes 15th of March 2012

Introduction Objective: • Create a questionnaire and an interview, apply it and treat the resulting information. Themes to be mentioned • The Portuguese youth; • Education; • Employment; • The environment; • Europe: where it comes from, what it is and where it goes.

Project’s Organization

Blog • Link: youropia.wordpress.com

What is the European Union? • EU is a collaborativeeffortbetween 27 European countries to form a mutually beneficial economicandpolicycommunity. itworks to increaseeconomies itworks to spread humanrightsadvancesworldwide. • For a country to join, ithas to followthe rules. • Each country has to pay to be a member. • Countries joinbecausetheybenefitfromthechangesthe EU makes.

How do you describe the current European civilization and what values does it stand for? Dignity Liberties Citizenship Equality Solidarity Justice «Affirm the European ideal in a time where nationalisms, xenophobia and identitary radicalisms are rising (…).»

Questionnaire • We questioned individuals of both genders, from the region of Torres Vedras, in the age group between 13 and 25 years and with different level of qualifications. • Our questionnaire was made via our school website, using the MOODLE platform. • Our objective is to present conclusions regarding the young Portuguese who are in our region today, their lifestyles, with whom they live, what they want and what they do, what they study, what they think and what they feel, what is their culture and what are their major fears and concerns.

Questionnaire • The questionnaire is divided into two parts: one part is related to personal aspects of the respondents and the other part is related to the view that they have of their future and that of Europe. • A total of 119 individuals replied to our questionnaire, which corresponds to approximately 10% of our school population. • We are only going to analyze the questions we consider more relevant, however our entire questionnaire, which is constituted by 50 questions, may be consulted at our blog. • Some of our questions will be compared with details collected using PORDATA (www.pordata.pt), which is a website that collects statistic information on the Portuguese society.

Question 3: Which are your hobbies? • With this answer, we are able to start to characterize the lifestyle of the individuals we questioned. We can understand that even though they enjoy listening to music and surfing the internet, they also value hanging out with their friends and practicing sport.

Question 6: Which sports do you practice?Please note that this question was only answered by individuals who answered “Yes” to question 5, which was “Do you practice sport?” • With this graph, we are able to conclude that the sports which are mostly practiced by the population enquired are football, volleyball, swimming, surf and dancing. • Portuguese population: in general also shows this data (PORDATA, 2010)

Question 7: Rankhowmuchyouworryaboutthefollowingtopics: (Pleaseassign a valuefrom 1 to 4, 1 for minorworryand 4 for major worry) Due to high number of responses possible, this question has been analyzed using three different graphics.

Question 7: Rank how much you worry about the following topics:Due to high number of responses possible, this question has been analyzed using three different graphics. • With the figure presented above, we can conclude that the major worries and fears are their professional future, their family, health for family and friends and loyal friendships.

Question 12 The interaction with the family is extremely important because family transmits the values of education and their life experiences for young people.

Question 14 According to PORDATA: Although higher education have the lowest percentage, this has improved during the last years; The same increase occurred with secondary education.

Question 15 -Verify if family relationships are important in the building of the respondents personality’s and evaluate the family environment.

Question 17 -The Portuguese population is predominantly Catholic because of the tradition. According to the census of 2001, conferring to the Catholic Church a considerable influence on the society, although not as much now as in the past, younger generations don’t execute religious practices because they don’t identify with these practices. However, being present in social ceremonies.

Question 18 + Question 19

Question 21

Question 24 -Interest in politics is low compared with the interest in family, friends, leisure and even religion. -Lack of information is also an important factorbecause young people are less exposed to political information through the media. -The abstention rate is also something to consider. According to PORDATA, abstention has been increasing in the recent years. - According to a study at the Catholic University of Portugal, the Portuguese unhappiness with the way democracy works is evident.

Question 31

Question 32 • We also have the right to be helped medically in the country's public services and if they lose their job, to stay in the country and benefit from its grants. -Most respondents aim to emigrate Crossed by the present crisis and high unemployment rate verified in our country. Working in the EU has advantages: we don’t need any work permits for working in another EU country can reside in the country where we work.

Question 33 Fromthisgraphicwe can concludethatyoungsters are optimistictowardsthecrisisthey are facing. Themeasuresimplementedbythegovernment, althoughrough, are beingfulfilledandthemajoritybelievesthegoalswill be reached.

Question 34 Themajorityofthestudentsfeelthey can have a betterlifeoutside Portugal. This can be related to therecessionthat Portugal isfacingand to theconstantnewsabout de increaseofunemployment, payment’s cuts, thereductionofvacations, the taxes increase, amongmanyothers.

Question 35 The answers to this question are very split, even though the majority thinks Portuguese higher education is recognized abroad.

Question 36 Most students think that Portugal should continue a member of EU. Despite all the problems it might carry, The EU gives us many privileges, such as: free circulation among member countries; free product circulation; the possibility to study in foreign universities (Erasmus) or even to take internships (Leonardo da Vinci).

Question 37 The major part of young people who answered thinks that the institutions that rule our country are rated from reasonable to terrible; however, another big part admits that the government is taking the necessary measures to fight the crisis and that they cannot improve it unless we make sacrifices.

Question 41

Question 42 • The most of the youth population agree with divorces. • According to PORDATA, in 1960 there were 749 divorces, while in 2010, 27556 divorces were held. This raised is partly due to society’s evolution, for example, the radical change of women’s role within the family. Nowadays, everybody can get a divorce, without being judged for it.

Question 43 We picked this question because, just like abortion’s legalization, it has been a very controversial theme. The law that allows these marriages was approved in January of 2010.

Question 50 The majority of the students feel that the quality of political representation of EU is average (between 2 and 3). While a very small part feels that we are very well represented (9 %) or very badly represented (3%).

The experts’ opinion • What Europe awaits the young people? João Tiago Louzeiro, from JSD (portuguese social democraticyouth), says: To valueandacknowledgedifferentpeople, beliefsandcultures’ values. CES (social and economic council, which includes representatives of the government, trade unions and the employers, etc.), study, May 2005: EU awaits youngsters to be optimistic and active

The experts’ opinion • What can we expect for its future? CES study, May 2005: • ambition of full employment, • a highly competitive social market economy • an elevated protection level • an environmental quality improvement • promotion of the economic, social and territorial cohesion • solidarity between the member States • to give the citizens of Europe a space of freedom, safety and justice

The experts’ opinion • How does the crisis affect Europe? CES study, May 2005: «The European economic growth has been slow and (…) a deceleration on the productivity(…)»

The experts’ opinion • At this point, is being abroad an opportunity or a threat to young people? João Tiago Louzeiro (JSD) says: «In education, the exchange of teachers and students can and should be an asset in the relationship between people (…).»

The experts’ opinion • What are the challenges that await us? «The preparation of future widening processes, population aging and the migration phenomenon, the sustained development of the social protection systems, the promotion of gender equality, the impacts of the economic globalization (…) and the cohesion policy (…)» - CES study, May 2005

The experts’ opinion • What are the challenges that await us? CES study, May 2005: Lack of knowledge and low levels of trust in the European institutions • distance between the represented citizens and their representatives.

The experts’ opinion • What interventions can and should be done by the young Portuguese, as citizens of Europe, (professionally and civically) to overcome the crisis? João Tiago Louzeiro (JSD) says: Portugalshould developits links withex-colonies fight for developingtheparticipationof EU in theworld. Álvaro de Vasconcelos says: to putthecitizen in the centre oftheeuropeanconstructionand topreserve theeuropeandiversity.

THANK YOU

Youropia – Youth in Europe