It is often proposed that the young unemployed are more likely to engage in political violence, conflicts, and protests. One problem in studying the unemployed – especially in the Global South – are the blurred lines between the unemployed, the employed, and those working in the informal sector. Further, the employed are a heterogeneous group so employment quality might also play an important role. To tackle these issues, this study uses a new quantitative dataset, which covers youth in five Middle Eastern and North African countries: Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, and Tunisia. These data provide considerably more fine-grained information about the employment situations of the respondents than the datasets previously used. The study investigates separately two forms of political participation: in political violence and in demonstrations. The regression analyses show that there is no clear difference between the young unemployed and the young employed in their likelihood to participate in the studied political activities. However, some features related to employment matter. Those whose employment status is ambiguous are substantially more likely to participate in demonstrations and political violence than the employed. Among those who work, those who are dissatisfied with their work and those who work fewer hours participate more often in these activities. Income on its own does not seem to have an effect; however, those who have more assets are more likely to participate, and compared to those who feel themselves middle income, those feeling rich or poor are more likely to engage in political violence and demonstrations. The results suggest that instead of thinking in terms of a dichotomy of the employed and unemployed, more emphasis should be placed on understanding the variety of employment situations and employment quality and their impact on political instability.

中文翻译：

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这不仅仅是关于就业：就业质量对参与部分阿拉伯地中海国家政治暴力和抗议活动的重要性


人们经常提出，年轻的失业者更有可能参与政治暴力、冲突和抗议。研究失业者——尤其是在全球南方——的一个问题是失业者、就业者和非正规部门工人之间的界限模糊。此外，就业人员是一个异质性群体，因此就业质量也可能起着重要作用。为了解决这些问题，本研究使用了一个新的定量数据集，该数据集涵盖了五个中东和北非国家的青年：阿尔及利亚、埃及、黎巴嫩、摩洛哥和突尼斯。与以前使用的数据集相比，这些数据提供了有关受访者就业情况的更精细的信息。该研究分别调查了两种形式的政治参与：政治暴力和示威。回归分析表明，年轻失业者和就业青年在参与所研究的政治活动的可能性方面没有明显差异。但是，与就业相关的某些功能很重要。那些就业状况模糊的人比就业者更有可能参与示威和政治暴力。在工作的人中，对工作不满意的人和工作时间较少的人更频繁地参加这些活动。收入本身似乎没有影响;然而，那些拥有更多资产的人更有可能参与，而与那些认为自己是中等收入的人相比，那些觉得富有或贫穷的人更有可能参与政治暴力和示威活动。 结果表明，与其从就业和失业的二分法来思考，不如更多地强调理解就业状况和就业质量的多样性及其对政治不稳定的影响。