INTRODUCTION
USAID/BiH commissioned its Monitoring and Evaluation Support Activity (MEASURE II) to assess youth perceptions about various aspects of BiH society. Based on the Mission’s inputs, MEASURE II designed the National Youth Survey (NYS-BiH), a nationally representative survey exploring youth perceptions, attitudes, and experiences on topics such as interethnic relations, political participation, social inclusion, media consumption and digital literacy, migration intentions, and employment. This survey was conducted from June 7 through September 13, 2022. During this period, MEASURE II conducted 3,000 face-to-face surveys with young citizens across BiH, covering 118 municipalities in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) and Republika Srpska (RS), including Brčko District (BD). The key topics and relevant findings are outlined below.
HIGHLIGHTS
Most BiH youth are pessimistic and dissatisfied with the situation in their country, particularly with employment opportunities and corruption. Young people generally feel BiH society does not care about their problems and their trust in public institutions is low. The youth unemployment rate has decreased over the last ten years with a larger share of young people working full-time than in 2018. Low wages prevent them from finding a (good) job and their interest in entrepreneurship is generally low.
The level of civic engagement among young people has increased slightly compared to 2018, but the overall share of those active is still low. Most young people are not interested in political or social topics and are unconvinced that political parties and civil society organizations (CSOs) work in citizens’ interests. The majority of youth are in favor of increasing the presence of young people in political leadership, but they seldom engage with political parties. Political party membership and voting are believed to be the best ways to solve problems.
Youth interest in emigration is lower than in 2018, but those intending to leave are more determined and prepared for departure. Better public services and employment opportunities are the primary attractions toward going abroad. Potential motivators to remain in the country are all work-related: higher salaries, better respect for workers’ rights, and more job opportunities.
Interethnic trust has increased among youth compared to 2018, but it is still relatively low and considerably lower than among the general population. Young citizens trust their own ethnic group considerably more than members of other ethnic groups, and only one-third would have a close relationship with an out-group member. Perceptions of the war in the 1990s vary across different ethnic groups. Which media outlets are followed almost entirely depends upon a young person’s ethnic affiliation, as do visions for the country’s future.
GENERAL ATTITUDES
Respondents identified unemployment (48 percent) and corruption (33 percent) as the key problems facing young people in BiH. When asked to express their level of trust in institutions and organizations (religious institutions, international organizations, CSOs, independent media, public media, and government organizations), youth most commonly ranked trust in religious institutions (42 percent) highest, with the lowest levels in government institutions (17 percent) and public media (15 percent). About three-quarters (81 percent) of youth expect society to protect them against criminal or terrorist activity.
JOB MARKET EXPERIENCES
Nearly half of survey respondents (43 percent) were employed and most employed respondents (90 percent) were formally employed. Fifty-eight percent of respondents earned less than 1,000 BAM in the month before the survey. Half of unemployed respondents were actively looking for a job. Nearly one-quarter of active job seekers (24 percent) looked for a job for more than two years. When looking for a job, almost one-quarter (23 percent) of respondents sought the assistance of friends or relatives or relied on registering at a public employment office. Salary is the most important job factor for 62 percent of youth, followed by working hours (19 percent) and job responsibilities (13 percent). Even though the largest proportion of youth prefer working for the government/public sector (36 percent), many prefer working in the private sector (23 percent). About one-quarter (23 percent) of respondents thought about starting their own business. Youth identify the lack of financial resources (42 percent) and lack of knowledge and experience (19 percent) as the main challenges in starting a private business.
INTERETHNIC RELATIONS
In terms of the importance of different community affiliations, after family and friends, respondents rated their religion the highest (60 percent), closely followed by their ethnic group (56 percent). National (BiH) identity is important to the majority of Bosniaks (59 percent), and considerably less to Serbs and Croats (33 and 28 percent, respectively). More than half (53 percent) of Serbs consider belonging to an entity as important, compared to about one-third of Bosniaks and Croats (35 and 38 percent, respectively). All ethnic groups reported trusting people of their own ethnicity substantially more than people of other ethnic groups. However, the majority of respondents (83 percent) had interactions with other ethnicities, and 34 percent of respondents expressed feeling anxious during such interactions. However, nearly two out of three respondents (62 percent) said they would not mind having people from ethnic groups other than their own as neighbors. In addition, one-third (36 percent) stated they would not mind being in a close relationship with someone belonging to a different ethnicity. Ethnicity predicts respondents’ narratives about the war. In general, young Bosniaks worry more about their people and the possibility of a new war in BiH than young Serbs or Croats and are more prone to be bothered about past grievances. Serbs and Croats are more likely to think that people who took part in the war were doing so out of obligation (72 and 75 percent, respectively) than Bosniaks (65 percent). Fewer Bosniaks assume equal responsibility for the war and equal suffering during the war than Croats and Serbs.
POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
Seventy percent of youth believe democracy is better than any other form of government. However, almost three-quarters (73 percent) of respondents stated that political parties in BiH are working solely for their own political interest. Similarly, only 12 percent of young BiH citizens believe that CSOs work in citizens’ interests. The largest share (37 percent) find that CSOs mainly advocate for issues of self-interest, 26 percent think they mainly serve the interests of their international funders, and 14 percent find that CSOs mostly serve the interests of political parties. About one in five (21 percent) respondents expressed an interest in politics. More than two-thirds (69 percent) said they voted in the 2020 local elections, and 68 percent intended to vote in the 2022 general elections. Among those who openly stated their voting decisions, the largest proportion of respondents planned to vote for the national parties. Prior to voting, about one-quarter (27 percent) of youth from the sample said they reviewed political parties’ programs in detail and followed political news during the pre-election campaign to inform themselves about parties and candidates. Many young people (38 percent) believe that being a member of a political party or group is the most likely way people can solve a problem they have. Voting is believed to be the easiest-to-use method of addressing issues (56 percent).
EMIGRATION AND DIASPORA ENGAGEMENT
One in three respondents (31 percent) expressed thinking about moving abroad, while half stated no current consideration to leave the country but it might be an option in the future. Most respondents have positive attitudes about moving abroad. Seventy percent think that moving abroad would improve their employment opportunities. Higher salaries would motivate 62 percent of those planning to move abroad to change their decision, followed by more respect for workers’ rights (28 percent) and more job opportunities (25 percent).
Regarding their friends and relatives in the diaspora, about one in ten (11 percent) respondents reported receiving financial help from them in the 12 months prior to the survey, with a higher share in RS (16 percent) than in the FBiH (8 percent). Almost half of respondents (46 percent) stated that the diaspora is not involved in resolving BiH’s problems, but they believe the diaspora could contribute and help BiH, primarily by supporting its economic development (32 percent), by facilitating the development of the local communities they originated from, and supporting humanitarian goals (each 26 percent).
MEDIA CONSUMPTION AND DIGITAL LITERACY
Most respondents (78 percent) use social media daily. They are considerably less likely to use internet portals (42 percent), television (31 percent), or other media daily. Less than one-third of respondents expressed trust in information from BiH media: slightly less than one-third said they trust social media, television, and online news sites, while trust in radio and newspapers was even lower (approximately 20 percent). Media outlets followed by respondents differed greatly and were based on ethnic affiliation, with the internet portal Klix.ba being the only outlet used by all ethnic groups.
Facebook and Instagram (each 59 percent) are the most popular social media sites, ahead of communication platforms Viber (51 percent) and WhatsApp (33 percent), TikTok (27 percent), and Twitter (23 percent). A majority of respondents own (95 percent) and use smartphones for different activities—primarily for leisure (94 percent) but also for education (68 percent) and work (66 percent).
SOCIAL INCLUSION
Many young people have negative opinions about vulnerable groups. Almost half (47 percent) of respondents stated they would be moderately to extremely bothered if they had neighbors who were lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI+). Forty-five percent said they would mind having immigrants in their neighborhood, and about one-third (32 percent) did not want to have Roma people as neighbors. More than half of respondents (54 percent) thought that homosexuality or identifying as LGBTQI+ is not natural. Only 14 percent of respondents felt comfortable around nonheterosexual people. Respondents were mainly dismissive regarding same-sex couples—only 15 percent believed such couples should have the right to cohabitate without getting married with equal rights as married couples. Only one in ten respondents believed that same-sex couples should have the right to marry, adopt children, and organize protests. Discriminatory beliefs toward people with disabilities were prevalent. More than half (56 percent) of respondents believed that people with mental illness are weak and that individuals with intellectual disabilities should be institutionalized.
When it comes to the inclusion of women, three-quarters of respondents believed that women should have equal rights and receive the same treatment as men. One-quarter of respondents thought that men make better political leaders than women and that men should have priority access to jobs over women.
