Three-generation or 'sandwich' households and unemployed young activists
Tuesday, March 4, 2014 @ 5:00 PM
'SANDWICH' families with up to three generations living under the same roof and mostly surviving thanks to the grandparents' pension, with their children, the parents – especially women – taking on more care responsibilities for dependent kids and the elderly is the gloomy picture of the demographic future of Spain, according to the Queen Sofía Centre for Adolescence and Youth in their report, The shadow of the financial crisis: Spanish society from 2018 onwards.
The Centre's panorama of society within five years is one of the youngest in the family either being on the dole or working sporadically on a self-employed basis, with the older members of the three-generation household continuing to vote for the traditional political parties in elections whilst the younger ones, having little faith in these, become more involved in pressure groups and protests, creating a generation of activists.
Unemployment will continue at above 20 per cent, with the average person's buying power being well below that seen prior to the financial crisis in 2007, and an 'inexorable debilitation' of the welfare state leading to a 'social configuration' similar to that of the USA with middle classes becoming fewer and farther between and the gap between rich and poor widening.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com