ABSTRACT
A substantial number of young adults whom we met in this research were perceived as a hardcore of long-term unemployed, lowly qualified young people. Many of them not only shared the experience of being unemployed, but also a common background of serious social and personal problems such as unstable family relations, uncertain living conditions, poor school records, abuse, discrimination, and multiple addictions. The existence of such a category of young people - increasingly referred to as socially excluded - is a common phenomenon in late modernity, but has different structural and cultural implications in different countries.
