Dealing with Social Stigma While Trying to Survive: The Case of Young Welfare Recipients in Quebec Province, Canada

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s43151-025-00173-2

While social science studies have shown that stigmatization processes affect unemployed people, there is little research showing the influence of these institutional and social representations on young people and how they experience this situation. By interviewing 24 unemployed young people on social assistance in the province of Quebec, Canada, this article shows that the participants’ difficulties translate into two hardships. First, financial hardship: the objective living conditions of these young people are characterized by a situation of poverty and involve daily “adaptation”. I show how this situation of poverty is maintained by the configuration of public policies. Second, a social burden: the respondents feel stigmatized and perceived as a “cost” for society because of their unemployment and welfare recipient status, especially in a province that boasts a low unemployment rate. These stigmatizations have an impact on their self-image and their ability to overcome this situation. Finally, this article explores three different ways of addressing these negative representations among the young people interviewed: internalizing, deconstructing and negotiating. We conclude by stressing the importance of taking objective and subjective resources into account in analyzing how the situation of unemployed young people is experienced.