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Deteriorating living conditions and job instability
Salah Edeen El-Jourchi
Tunisian League for Human Rights
The last couple of years have witnessed the emergence of two contrasting trends in Tunisia. On the one hand, the Government is enforcing policies aimed at limiting the negative outcomes of structural adjustment programmes implemented since the early 1980s, while on the other hand, it is becoming increasingly more evident that the adoption of market-oriented policies poses serious threats to the economy.
For several
years now, efforts have been made to eradicate slums, whose residents live below
the poverty line. Yet a growing number of layoffs in the public sector, even
among profitable and stable enterprises, is leading to a lack of social
security, causing social apprehension and fear of unemployment.
Three main
issues dominated the socio-economic scenario in Tunisia in 2003: the
increasingly negative consequences of privatisation, the “hidden”
migration of the young to Europe, and the growth of illegal trade, an issue
related to the migration problem.
Privatisation
Privatisation
in Tunisia has become a taboo subject in that it cannot be discussed or
criticised. Attracting foreign direct investment (FDIs) has become an obsession
with the Government, which believes that FDIs will improve exports. Economists
find that the economic crisis, following years of economic prosperity during the
1990s, is leading the Government to concentrate on privatisation in order to
hide the deficit in the national budget. One of the causes of the deficit is the
decline in the tourist industry in the light of the incidents of 11 September
2001 and the Jarbah terrorist incident,
where 20 people were killed.
The country is
indeed undergoing escalating economic difficulties due to decreasing tax returns
and the detrimental effect to small and medium enterprises resulting from the
implementation of the European-Tunisian agreement within the Euro Mediterranean
Partnership project. This has led to increasing unemployment, diminishing
taxation returns on imports and has affected the competitiveness of local
companies faced with cheaper and better quality foreign goods, owing to which
most of them went out of business.
Fearing a rise
in unemployment, the Government has followed a gradual, rather than speedy,
privatisation policy since the 1980s. But there are increasing pressures from
donors, especially from the World Bank, which has criticised Tunisia’s
privatisation process, considering its policies inappropriate.
However, in the
2003-2004 budget there is an increasing trend in favour of private investment by
local and foreign companies, which will lead to the privatisation of 24 public
institutions during 2004. In addition to these, the Government will allow
privatisation of companies that have traditionally been controlled by the public
sector, such as communications, energy and services. The mining sector,
considered a sector of high strategic value to Tunisia, is also being opened up
to private buyers, who are offered incentives to invest in this area.
In view of the
negative consequences that could result from this process, especially the fear
that transnational corporations might control focal sectors of the economy,
several parliamentarians have requested more incentives and support for Tunisian
investors. They have also questioned the degree of participation permitted in
the mining sector to foreign investors, in order to prevent the damage of
national resources and as a means of preventing potential threats to sovereignty
of the nation.
Since 1987, 176
public institutions changed hands from the public sector to the local and
foreign private investors, involving an estimated EUR 1.76 billion (USD 2.77
billion). As reported in the media, privatisation policies have shifted the
monopoly of public institutions from the Government to the hands of a limited
number of private owners. Subsequently many privatised companies went bankrupt
and were resold. The trade unions have asked the Government to stop privatising
stable and profitable public enterprises, as well as for more transparency in
the privatisation process.
The primary
worry for civil society including trade unions, are the growing layoffs of large
numbers of workers, especially women. This is due to several interrelated
factors including privatisation, new approaches to industrial development,
economic difficulties and the harsh competitiveness that many businesses and
economic institutions are facing.
Many employees
from the textile industry and the coastal areas have organised hunger strikes in
protest against layoffs, the closure of institutions or their sale to the
private sector, without providing workers with any security. Economists note
that Tunisia has reached its ceiling as far as job creation is concerned, and
the problem of unemployment will probably become chronic, thus affecting the
economic and social future of its population.
Hidden
migration and gloomy prospects
Although
official efforts toward decreasing poverty levels have led to significant
improvements in many sectors, there is growing fear and gloom among the young,
especially those from the middle and lower classes, over increasingly limited
prospects for them in their professional and social lives. This explains to a
great extent the trend of hidden migration to European countries on the northern
coasts of the Mediterranean.
Tunisia is a
major departure point for other nationals crossing over to Europe. Most of them
come from the Maghreb and North African countries. Local networks involved in
smuggling illegal immigrants are still uninvolved in human trafficking, but
well-organised Turkish networks are spreading and have succeeded in making
contact with local organisations.
Tunisian youth
refer to migration as “the burning”, a term that refers not only to their
burning their identity documents but to the act of “burning their bridges”, or
getting rid of their past by breaking geographic borders and legal barriers,
including their belonging to a nation that they believe has failed them.
Symbolic as it may sound, burning their documents is the best way of not
revealing their nationality in case they are captured.
Despite the
dangers involved in escaping across the sea to the Italian coast, an attempt in
which hundreds have drowned in recent years, every couple of weeks Tunisians
newspapers have another tragedy to report.
Even though the
Government avoids revealing statistics about the victims, some studies by
researchers in collaboration with civil society organisations (CSOs) reveal that
the main cause for the increase in migration is unemployment. In addition, these
studies show that most migrants come from poor families and have dropped out of
school, although an increasing number of them have university degrees. They all
dream of a “European heaven”, in which both fortune and beauty are combined.
They are under the grip of a culture of hatred and refusal, whereby migration
becomes the only option for escaping fear and suffering. Finally, many perceive
migration as the only way out of becoming involved in criminal activities.
Field research
has also revealed that hidden migration from Tunisia is of an individualistic
nature and not a family or communal affair. It is most prevalent among young men
whose ages range between 19 and 35. Although so far most migrants have been
males, more females are expected to join their ranks in the future. Seventy-five
per cent of migrants are seeking a job, whereas the rest are either pushed by
political reasons or are escaping from crimes they committed, especially crimes
related to the financial sector.
In this
respect, experts agree that this trend will probably grow due to economic
imbalances, both global and local. Globalisation is threatening a greater number
of the Southern population with poverty. Italian researcher Salvatore Palidda
considers that the war declared on immigration holds a tremendous threat for
illegal workers in Europe. He explains that 30% of the Italian economy is based
on the work of illegal immigrants, where double standards expose them to deceit
and abuse. In many cases they are threatened to exposure by their employees in
order to avoid paying them their salaries, obliging them to escape without
asking for compensation.
Civil society
representatives, especially the Association of Human Rights and the trade
unions, have adopted hidden migration as a priority issue. They believe that
dealing with the problem from a national security perspective fails to address
the roots and real causes of the problem, an approach that has already failed to
produce any solutions.
Corruption and
illegal trade
The third issue
that has negatively affected the social, economic and political development of
the country is the combination of corruption and illegal trade. Economists and
social practitioners fear that the quick increase in corruption has made the
population more insecure, since it leads to a situation in which a small group
of people become very wealthy, while the rest of the population become more
exposed to threats to their living conditions and human security.
The negative
effects of illegal trade have even caught the Government’s attention. It is
controlled by large and strong smuggling networks, who have sufficient power and
ability to flood the local market with cheap, untaxed goods, thus threatening
the survival of both private and public companies.
The growth in
illegal trade has been encouraged by the Government’s lack of transparency shown
by the continuous obstacles it has put to making information available to the
public. The situation is compounded by the lack of a free and plural media.
It is worth
noting that while the Government is encouraging the private sector towards
taking a bigger role in the process of development and investment, it is still
trying to monopolise social work and to create obstacles for CSOs. This is
limiting the role of civil society, while keeping all the activity of CSOs under
the control and monitoring of government agencies.
Conclusion
In the light of
the above challenges, all CSOs which are independent of the Government and are
dedicated to development in its wider sense are constantly lobbying in order to
highlight their role as partners and their right to take part in social and
political debates at the local level. There are many factors that must become
part of the debate on the threats to human security, including freedom of
association for CSOs, freedom of the press, freedom to all political parties,
independence of the legal system, as well as clean elections, especially
municipal and parliamentary elections.
In spite of
official efforts towards avoiding social conflict - a major problem during the
1970s and 1980s - what the Government is doing is not enough to protect the
various social groups from deteriorating living conditions and the instability
of jobs which threatens tens of thousands of employees due to privatisation.
In this
respect, it is very beneficial that the Social Watch Network dedicates part of
its work in theory and in practice to create policies and recommendations that
may help individuals increasingly threatened by poverty and unemployment. In
addition, we recommend that Social Watch organise workshops and discussions on
the issues of illegal immigration, which has become a major problem in European
countries. The Five plus Five Summit
was specifically organised to study different approaches to this problem which
affects both shores of the Mediterranean.
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