As the virus crisis continues, French youth, hard hit, struggle

PARIS (AP) – On a recent night, Leïla Ideddaim waited to receive a bag of food, along with hundreds of other young French people who cannot survive. She saw the chat that accompanied the handout as a welcome by-product, given its intense isolation during the pandemic.

The 21-year-old student of hotel and restaurant management saw her plans turned upside down with the virus crisis. With restaurants and tourist places closed and France under curfew at 6 pm, your career prospects are uncertain. Strange jobs that should keep you going during your studies are hard to find.

“I’m in a fog,” said Ideddaim, who moved to Paris last year and is now struggling to meet his basic and emotional needs.

She is not alone. The long lines of young people waiting for food aid that extend through the neighborhoods of Paris several times a week are a dramatic symbol of the price that the coronavirus has been charging French youth.

The pandemic has devastated economies around the world, pushing vulnerable people further into poverty or putting some in it for the first time. In France, the economic consequences particularly affected young people – and their problems were only compounded by interruptions in their studies and social interactions.

Almost a quarter of young French people cannot find work – two and a half times the national unemployment rate and one of the highest in the 27 nations of the European Union. Many university students now depend on food aid and several organizations have mobilized to meet this need.

The pandemic has led to an increase in mental health complaints that, according to the authorities, are more serious in people without work, financial difficulties and young adults. A hotline dedicated to students saw an increase in the number of calls and young people were referred to psychiatric wards.

As French President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged, “it is difficult to be 20 years old” at the time of the coronavirus.

Other European countries have also noticed a particularly heavy toll on young people. In Belgium, some areas are offering help to students to help them pay for food, rent, transport and psychological help. In Germany, a study by the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf found that about one in three children suffers from pandemic-related anxiety and depression, or has psychosomatic symptoms such as headaches or stomach upset.

For Ideddaim, who has to support himself, the pandemic means a spreadsheet that doesn’t always work. Each month, she needs more than 800 euros ($ 970) for housing, transportation and utilities. She did not get a well-paid internship because the restaurants are closed and the hotels are in a precarious situation.

Instead, an internship at a camp 45 kilometers (28 miles) east of Paris earns 300 euros a month – and eases its isolation. She also earns some money from occasional temporary jobs in shopping centers. Even so, she almost spent all of her savings.

“I prepared a Google spreadsheet and recorded my expenses and fixed costs every month. So I see how much goes in and calculate what I have left and where I can fasten my belt – in food, for example, ”she said.

Ideddaim is just one of many poor students served by Linkee, an organization that has long been collecting and distributing unused food to fight waste, but only recently has turned its attention to students.

Farid Khelef, 28, came from Algeria to study in France. He would not have imagined that one day he would be waiting for food aid.

“Before, I worked as an electrician in parallel with my studies. Because of the health crisis, I have been without a job for almost four months, ”he said while waiting for a Linkee bag.

The organization started offering meals and fresh food to students in October – and its donations twice a week serve about 500 people, compared to 200.

“We are a safety net for all these students … who do not have enough money to buy some food and have no other solution but to get quality food and at the same time find a friendly environment,” said Julien Meimon, the president of the organization.

With a smile, Ideddaim showed his bag full of salad, cauliflower, apple, smoked salmon, yogurt and chocolate. But she goes to the food distribution site more than just for basic sustenance.

“It is a great moral impulse – to know that I will eat well and reach a place with many people and everyone is in a good mood,” she said.

With only three weeks of face-to-face classes since September and being new to the city, she has struggled to create the social connections that are essential to building an adult life.

“It hasn’t been easy to integrate, to find people,” she said. Meanwhile, she enjoys chatting on the phone with her grandmother, who also lives alone, and is looking forward to working this summer at the Biscarrosse spa in the Atlantic – since the restaurants reopen.

Many young people are struggling in the same way. Nightline in Paris, a student hotline, has seen a 40% jump in calls since the country entered its first blockade in March.

Depression among 18- to 24-year-olds jumped from 16.5% in early April to 31.5% in November, during the country’s second blockade, according to France’s national health agency, Sante Publique France.

The authorities realized the problem and, starting this month, asked universities to allow students to return to classes one day a week to help them regain a sense of normalcy. The institutions have also started to provide meals for 1 euro.

There are concerns that the pandemic could have long-term effects on youth. In the UK, the institute of tax studies estimated that young people will have lost more than half a year of face-to-face learning, or more than 5% of their total time in school, by the end of the country’s last national blockade. Missing education could reduce average lifetime income by £ 40,000 ($ 55,325) per student, he estimated.

Ideddaim, who prefers to look on the bright side, said she feels privileged to receive food aid.

“This kind of aid does not exist in many countries and we are fortunate to have it in France,” she said.

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Samuel Petrequin in Brussels, Danica Kirka in London and Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin contributed to this report.

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Follow AP coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic.