Social disinvestment and vulnerable groups in Europe in the aftermath of the financial crisis. The case of older job seekers in Austria

This report is prepared in the framework of the Europe H2020 project ‘Rebuilding an inclusive, value based Europe of solidarity and trust through social investments’ (RE-InVEST). The project aims to evaluate the social investment strategy of the European Commission implemented in 2013 in response to the social damage of the financial crisis in 2008. The RE-InVEST consortium assesses the social damage of the crisis from human rights and capability based approaches with an eye to those vulnerable groups affected the most by the crisis in the 12 countries (and 13 regions) covered by the consortium. The analyses are carried out by the local partners, who consist of NGOs and/or researchers. In comparison to other European countries, Austria has gotten well through the crisis. Mainly the bank­ing sector and exporters – in particular manufacturing trade – have been affected by the crisis. The govern­ment helped the former by bail out policies. The latter has recovered quickly. Unemployment increased only moderately at first, but since 2013 unemployment rates are rising. The group of older unemployed (aged 45 and more) is particularly affected for various reasons: The effect of the demographic trend of an aging society is reinforced by the politics of lifting the retirement age. Further, older unemployed have to search longer for new employment. In sum, these effects lead to an increasing share of older unemployed. For this reason the group was identified as particularly affected by the crisis. The RE-InVEST consortium has jointly developed the PAHRCA-methodology that combines princi­ples of Participatory Action research with Human Rights and Capability Approaches. This qualitative, par­ticipatory research does not generate representative results but rather aims at an in-depth understanding of the economic, social, cultural and political impacts of the crisis on the lives of vulnerable people and giving them a voice in the co-creation of knowledge process between researchers, professionals and target group. In Austria six women and three men aged 45 to 60 years and unemployed despite their qualification par­ticipated in the study. The biographies of K. and L. illustrate the marks of the crisis on individual life courses. The situation of K. was characterised by the close interdependency of private and professional life so that the economic impact of the crisis on her husband’s consultancy firm has far reaching consequences: ‘Our life has been practically devastated. The firm gone, house gone, livelihood gone, son has given up school and I have started from scratch.’ In contrast to that the narrative of L. tells the story of the creeping process of growing pressure and com­petition that was reinforced by the financial crisis and has led to her burnout: ‘Of course for me, 2015 was an utterly miserable year, but in the end I got out well. Sooner or later I would have had to do it anyway, to get out of there before I lost my mind.’ While the biographies exemplify the effects of the crisis in the course of time, the analysis is based on contributions of all participants and is arranged thematically. The financial crisis was perceived by the par­ticipants as a sneaking process that aggravated the situation. For instance, temporary agency workers lost their jobs during the crisis and even though the employment level in the sector recovered soon, their salaries have not reached the pre-crisis level again. The most dramatic change in the lives of the participants was becoming unemployed and having to look for new employment. The new strategic orientation of social investment has not trickled down to Austrian employment policies yet: Participants report that the treatment at the Public Employment Service varies a great deal depending on the clerk in charge of the individual case. Often they have not received the information they wanted. They have had little say in setting up their ‘sup­port agreement’ or in choosing training courses or in determining the volume of their future employment. Many regulations impede pro-active behaviour by the unemployed as the example of visiting other countries shows: Unemployed need to give notice of their traveling and register anew on return – even for one day. Apart from what they call ‘living in standby-mode’ participants suffer the most from deteriorating social contacts and lacking social recognition: They have lost friends and their families are affected as well. They are depressed by the way people ask how they are doing since it is less an inquiry on their well-being than an inquiry on their professional activity. That employment is the foundation of social recognition is also obvi­ous in the derogative way politicians talk about unemployment and the unemployed. However, older unem­ployed do not lack in qualification or enthusiasm, they are simply aged around 50 and are thus judged by enterprises to be close to retirement although politics aims at lifting retirement age. Participants have had support from various parties: their friends and families as well as doctors and psychotherapists. Beyond medical treatment and psychotherapy the latter gave them time and opportunity to recover before their first contact with the Public Employment Service. Finally, participants view all opportunities for actively participating in society as important instances of social recognition and bases of self-respect. In conclusion while the financial crisis has not hit Austria as strong as other countries, it has had effects: Unemployment is on the rise, in particular among people aged 45 and more. Austerity policy has continued and undermined trust in politics and existing institutions. The core idea of the social investment strategy of the European Commission ‑ ‘investing in people’ ‑ has not gotten to older unemployed in Salzburg. They have rather been impeded to invest in lifelong learning and training. Furthermore, legal security is under­mined insofar as the information and support provided by the Public Employment Service varies with the clerk in charge and because integrated case-management of multiple problems is missing. Participants have noticed the development of a culture of competition and distrust. They are concerned about raising inequal­ity and increasing visibility of poverty. However, they also ask if the crisis may be seen as a chance to solve the problems that have been lingering since long