Refracting unemployment through the lens of national security threat
Correspondent | Friday April 24, 2015 13:28
It has the potential to polarise the nation, thus, should be viewed as a security threat.
The same argument could be applied to development challenges such as abject poverty and income and wealth inequality.
Simply defined, to be unemployed means being involuntarily out of work (also see International Labour Organisation [ILO]’s comprehensive definition of the term). Unemployment manifests in many forms, for example: frictional (temporary unemployment arising from the normal job search process); structural (the result of structural changes in the economy caused by technological progress and shifts in the demand for goods and services); and cyclical unemployment [unemployment caused by a drop in the level of economic activity that occurs during the contraction phase of the business cycle (Edgmand et al., 1996; Economics and Contemporary Issues).
Unemployment exacts costs at micro, meso and macro levels as next illustrated: individual (poverty, lack of spending money; frustration, despair; young people without full-time work; social disillusionment; mental illness etc); families (increased family breakup; homelessness, domestic violence etc); and community [higher and rising crime, loss of income tax from those now unemployed etc] (Manfred Davidmann, 2014; The Social Cost of Unemployment). It can be deduced from the foregoing that unemployment exacts a lot of economic (e.g., see M. Harvey Brenner, 1973; Mental Illness and the Economy) and non-economic costs on society
Unemployment is a serious development challenge in the developing world post the economic crisis. In this regard, the ILO (2015), in ‘The many costs of being one of the long-term unemployed’, argues that ‘the challenge is to ensure job creation continues to keep pace with the growing number of labour market entrants and that these jobs match their expectations and skills profile – the two of which have grown in parallel in recent years.’ Botswana, despite its impressive development indicators (see various UNDP Human Development Reports) is similarly grappling with issues of unemployment. The government has responded with a variety of programmes, for example: Internship Programme, Youth Development Fund, LIMID, Youth Empowerment Scheme, Diamond Hub, Innovation Hub and Economic Diversification Drive. Overall, the fruit from these programmes is yet to be seen for unemployment is rife. As per the latest labour force survey, the official unemployment rate is 18%. This figure assumes worrying proportions on the youth because it stands at 24%. As per the ILO projections, this problem will not go away in Botswana as unemployment rates are projected to be worsen in the future (see World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2015). It is notable that official unemployment rates in Botswana are projected to the north of 18% between 2015 and 2018. In this regard, since the youth are disproportionately unemployed, it can be believably concluded that youth unemployment rates would stay in the 20+ % range.
As stated above, unemployment has the hallmarks of a national security threat. What is a national security threat? To answer, we need to define national security. There is no single universally accepted definition of national security, so, there abound many definitions. In this paper, we adopt Samuel Makinda’s (1998; Sovereignty and Global Security, Security Dialogue) definition: the preservation of the norms, rules, institutions and values of society. Security is multi-dimensional, thus, goes beyond military protection. United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ (OCHA) expanded definition of security calls for a wide range of security areas: economic: creation of employment and measures against poverty; food: measures against hunger and famine; health: measures against disease etc.
Ending, when one adopts the OCHA’s expanded definition of security, it becomes apparent that long-term unemployment is a security threat. In this regard, the xenophobic attacks on foreigners in South Africa are largely an unemployment issue. Some South Africans, unfortunately and erroneously, blame the foreigners for ‘stealing our jobs’.
Thus, while one cannot prophesise the advent of a Hobbesian world in the form of xenophobic attacks on foreigners and other unimaginable acts in Botswana due to the effects of long-term unemployment; it is apparent that unemployment is a security problem. We need to seriously dialogue this issue, together with poverty and income inequality, without raw emotion for our own good.
Professor Emmanuel Botlhale*