August 12 was International Youth Day. However, in Mexico we can hardly consider it a day of celebration. First, because as a society we have a contemptuous and condescending view of youth: young people are ninis, lazy, the crystal generation and a set of pejorative labels that only denote prejudices about those who also, paradoxically, we never tire of saying are the future of the country.

It should not be a day of celebration because the majority of young people in this country are in one of these three unfortunate situations: 1) 5.2 million are unemployed; 2) 3.8 million are studying (high school) but live in poverty; and 3) 8.3 million are working, but in precarious employment.

Those people we label as ninis, or consider lazy, fragile, are actually young people who are trying to get ahead in very adverse circumstances. More than a problem, they are young people with opportunities: people who were not lucky enough to be born in privileged homes where nothing was lacking and where the possibility of going to university was not the normal path.

Opportunity youth are people who had to start much further back: from poor homes, with access to low-quality schools and the need to work from a very early age. Now they are young people who travel long distances to work for less than 7,000 pesos a month and without social security, work overtime without pay, and often endure abusive work environments. Without considering that most of them have family members – sometimes children – to support.

These people do not lack the desire to work, as is often thought. They are young people who, often for unjustifiable reasons or mere prejudice, have not been given a first decent job opportunity to demonstrate their potential, their creativity and their commitment to a stable job that meets the requirements of the law.

From the Alliance for Youth with Decent Work – a multi-sector, national network that seeks to promote decent work for young people – we have tried to make this reality visible and to encourage employers to open training and decent employment opportunities for young people. The magnitude of the problem, and its consequences, demand responsibility and a shared response.

Employers are responsible for giving young people their first job opportunity (we all had one), especially those who started their life much further back. It is urgent to hire based on merit and skills, not on appearances, zip code or university degrees. But, above all, they must respect labor rights, something that seems to be more the exception than the rule.

The next federal government, since the current one refuses to rectify the course –Jóvenes Construyendo el Futuro could have been a great opportunity, which was wasted– must commit to a youth employability policy that contemplates the components of education, training and the issue of care, without which it will be very difficult to increase the participation of young women in the labor market.

Having a decent job is a constitutional right (Article 123). But in Mexico, as with so many other rights, this right only remains on paper. It is up to all of us to be able to offer a better future to millions of young people in Mexico who, in fact, are the future of the country.

*Technical Secretariat of the Alliance for Young People with Decent Work