Report on Invisible Youth in Politics
The aim of this study is to examine why the subgroups of the youth, which came to the fore with the 2023 elections in Türkiye, are ignored and excluded by politics. For this purpose, we first identified the youth groups that political parties and politicians do not produce promises, do not address, or are addressed by a small number of party representatives during election periods, especially in this election period. We realized that some of these groups are deprived of the basic facilities and opportunities necessary to make their problems and voices heard, while others are regularly ignored by politics. In order to further understand this, we discussed the situation of the groups we selected under each section separately.
Within the scope of the report, we have categorized the politically invisible youth groups that we interviewed into two axes: disadvantaged youth in terms of economy and in respect of identity. We have also addressed the groups that vary within the two main categories. Accordingly, under the group of disadvantaged youth in terms of economy, we have established focus groups consisting of permanent employees, contracted employees, and subcontracted employees. Although these groups do not reflect all economically disadvantaged youth, they are the groups where common problems are most evident. It is worth noting that the fact that all the participants live in Istanbul is a significant limitation. The unique elements of the city are also noticeable at various points in the report and should be taken into consideration in the analysis step. In the identity-disadvantaged youth group, we have addressed groups that are ignored by institutional politics and socially marginalized due to their identity. In this context, we established focus groups consisting of LGBTI+ youth, Kurdish youth, Arab youth, and Alevi youth. Since some of the religious minority youths are also ethnically minority, we have tried to evaluate their answers in both contexts. We would be pleased if this study makes even a small contribution to remembering that politically invisible youth also have problems and that they are important components of this society.
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