Another ‘Missing Middle’? The marginalised majority of tertiary-educated youth in Portugal during the economic crisis

• Autor(a) principal: Cairns, D.
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Outros Autores: Growiec, K., Alves, N. A.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://ciencia.iscte-iul.pt/public/pub/id/17898; http://hdl.handle.net/10071/8220
• topic: Portugal; Lisbon; Missing middle; Tertiary-educated youth; Economic crisis; Austerity

This article explores the present and imagined future impact of the Portuguese economic crisis among tertiary-educated youth in Lisbon. The results of a quantitative survey and follow-up interviews illustrate that this impact is widespread and multifaceted, ranging from a perceived devaluation of educational credentials and a loss of faith in the local job market to feeling unable to contemplate having a family of one’s own. This evidence suggests that diminished future expectations are prevalent among tertiary-educated Portuguese youth, a situation that has to date attracted surprisingly little attention in terms of research or policy responses. This finding leads us to conclude that we may be witnessing a Portuguese ‘missing middle’ phenomenon, demonstrating a form of youth disadvantage different to that traditionally experienced in countries such as the UK.