Politics on the margins in Tunisia: Vulnerable young people in Douar Hicher and Ettadhamen

This report analyses the findings of interviews with almost 800 young people aged between 18 and 34 living in the deprived neighbourhoods of Douar Hicher and Ettadhamen in Tunis. These two neighbourhoods in the suburbs of Tunisia’s capital Tunis are marked by high unemployment rates, school dropouts and insecurity.

This report is part of a wider project, funded by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which seeks to understand the opinions of young people in Douar Hicher and Ettadhamen.

International Alert carried out the interviews between January and October 2014. In 2015 we published the preliminary findings of the quantitative survey, ‘Experiences and perceptions of young people in Tunisia’. This report provides a more in-depth presentation and analysis of the data provided by both the quantitative and qualitative field studies.

Studying these young people’s relationships with politics allows us to look beyond institutional issues to analyse their political leanings and who played a major role in the protest. This report aims to demonstrate how the social and urban inequalities to which these young people are subjected penetrate every aspect of their lives. They shape their identities and influence the development of their relationships with politics, leaving them excluded from the various forms of representative democracy and marginalised from the legitimate political scene. 

Related publication

Experiences and perceptions of young people in Tunisia: The case of Douar Hicher and Ettadhamen