ABSTRACT

Demographic transitions, whether they involve a growing cohort of youths or elderly persons,1 concern policy-makers (James Midgley 1996). While in the West concerns have been raised about the growing cohort of elderly, in the Arab world, the policy focus has been on the slow fertility decline (Sulayman Al-Qudsi 1996; Jennifer Olmsted 2003), which in turn is linked to extremely high rates of youth unemployment (World Bank 2004d). The enormity of the problem of rising unemployment, occurring when structural adjustment programs are also being imposed, has tended to limit research examining how the elderly in Arab communities are faring. And yet, as I will argue, the well-being of the elderly is directly linked to the question of youth unemployment, since, in most Arab countries, the primary social safety net remains the family.