Ikmal Fawaid

Introduction Roel Meijer The subject of Arab youth has become the focus of growing concern in the Arab world and Europe and has been represented in the most alarmist terms. The facts seem to speak for themselves: the present generation is proportionally the largest in Arab history, its unemployment rate is the highest and the cultural circumstances in which its identity is to be defined are perhaps the most bewildering. The future prospects for contemporary Arab youth seem bleak indeed. While a general sense of alienation is growing among the young, their chances for social, economic and political integration seem to be declining. The theme of this volume, alienation or integration, is framed within the triangle of the main factors that bear upon youth and help form it: the family, the state and the street. It is within this triangle that the contemporary Arab youth has to construct its identity and map its future. Each of these elements has its own specific role to play ...