Middle East and North Africa
Before the ‘Arab Spring’, which sparked major political conflicts across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), the region already had some of the highest rates of youth unemployment in the world.
Now, with huge population displacement, countries in MENA absorb the highest rates of asylum seekers worldwide. Young people from host communities, ambitious migrants and refugees are eager to join the workforce, but a lack of jobs can lead youth into poverty, dangerous migration journeys or radicalisation by extremist groups.