Hasret Gültekin KOZAN
Kocaeli

Kocaeli Labour Youth has conducted a survey with 300 students from fifteen faculties into the impact of the crisis on young people at university. The results of the survey show that one in three university students work. Forty per cent of students try to get by on a wage of 1000 lira or less. University students, already burdened by student loans, are also mired in credit card debt.

Kocaeli Labour Youth Provincial Secretary Cemre Kavala assessed the survey results in a statement she made at the Labour Party (EMEP)’s Kocaeli provincial building. The statement was attended by EMEP Provincial Chair Arzu Erkan, independent Kocaeli metropolitan mayor candidate in the 31 March elections, Reyhan Başaran, and members of Labour Youth.

300 STUDENTS FROM FIFTEEN FACULTIES

Stating that the economic crisis was starting to have an increasing influence on all areas of life and youth was bearing its share of this, Kavala said, “We, Kocaeli Labour Youth, conducted a survey to enable us to see the effects of this ever-deepening crisis on youth and to assess youth’s current social and economic life. We questioned our friends studying at Kocaeli University on basic matters such as their social lives, economic situations, health problems and diet. The results to emerge in the survey we conducted with 300 students at fifteen different faculties lays bare students’ living standards in this economic crisis.”

ONE STUDENT IN THREE WORKS AND 60% ARE UNINSURED

Noting the survey results show youth gradually becoming impoverished, Kavala stated that with the effects of the crisis increasing it gets harder with each passing day to be able to take part in college life and graduate. Kavala imparted the following information: “One student in three works in a job. The young people generally started entering working life as of the second quarter of 2018. This also shows that the proportion of young people who are working has risen in conjunction with the crisis. Working conditions, conversely, are more arduous for students. Students have to work in insecure, non-insured and unregistered jobs to enable them to keep their lives going and study. More than half the students who work are uninsured (60%). Our friends who work regularly work for low pay such as 5-10 lira per hour in jobs with 8-10 working hours daily.

Although we are told education is free, the emerging picture shows the truth. We receive no support as we struggle to study and as we work under poor working conditions and try to keep our educational lives going.”

LOAN DEBT, CREDIT CARD DEBT … FUTURE MORTGAGED

Recalling that according to the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions 2019 May hunger and poverty limit study the cost of living for an unmarried employee is 2,625 lira per month, Kavala noted that more than 40% of students were trying to subsist on 1000 lira and less. Kavala commented, “As well as trying to meet such basic needs as accommodation and food with this money, we also try to arrange our social lives in line with this amount. Grants/loans provided by the state make up half of income. Half of students try to meet most of their needs out of this loan. Where the loan does not suffice the first point of recourse is credit cards. We are setting up our futures with debt with both the loans we take and credit card debt that increases by the day. Half of students who get support from their families are able to get 500 lira at most. This incoming support generally suffices to meet accommodation needs. Trying to get by for a month on the rest calls for great sacrifice. This entitles us to spend a mere sixteen lira per day. There is nothing realistic about being able to meet all the needs of one day with sixteen lira.”

“WE CANNOT EAT HEALTHILY”

Saying, “Another result our study has pointed to is that we cannot eat healthily,” Kavala indicated that students try to make do with two meals a day and are unable to consume the requisite food for a healthy diet: “We consume a great deal of cheap food of inadequate nutritious value such as macaroni, pastry and fast food within a carbohydrate-dominated diet because more than half of students cannot buy fruit and vegetables with the money they set aside for food out of their monthly incomes. We have to consume food that is cheaper and immediately filling. As to our protein need, we obtain this from the meals with meat we have in college refectories. Apart from this, monthly meat consumption is negligible.”

ACCOMMODATION RIGHT RESTRICTED

Noting that students also encounter huge problems with one of the basic needs of accommodation, Kavala said, “According to 2017 figures, there are 90,000 students in Kocaeli, home to two state universities. However, the total capacity of the 16 state and 52 private hostels is 20,213 for these students.” Saying the option for students who cannot get the opportunity of staying at a hostel is flat-sharing, Kavala continued, “Rents in İzmit went up in August 2018 from 700 lira to 1500 lira. As to the upcoming period, amounts greater than these will be involved. Students are very restricted when it comes the right of accommodation, a basic need, in the city in which students live in such numbers.”

CANNOT ACCESS CULTURE AND THE ARTS

Also stressing that young people are unable to access culture and the arts, Cemre Kavala commented: “We can only devote 48 lira of our monthly income to purchasing books, magazines and newspapers. The lion’s share of this is made up of necessary materials for education. We can go to the cinema or theatre at most twice a month and, to do so, wait for days on which there is a free ticket for ticket buyers.”

UNITED WE CAN REFUSE TO PAY THE PRICE FOR THE CRISIS

Cemre Kavala said the picture painted by the survey results showed that young people were also being made to pay for the crisis that deepens by the day. Kavala appealed, “That we should not be part of these endless crises and be made to pay for the crisis as is expected of us in this order. Those who make us pay the price act in unity for their own interests. We must also be in unity for our own interests and for a world in which we are not forced to work while studying and education is free. We can only refuse to pay the price for the crisis if we unite.”

Indicating that capital and the government acts in unity and organization for its own interests, Kavala said, “We, too, must unite and organize for our own interests. This is the only way of refusing to pay the price for the crisis. To this end, we must organize around common demands and unite in struggle against this order.” 

(Translated by Tim Drayton)