Jordan Times
Sunday, October 18th, 1998
High unemployment not sole cause of poverty — Mamsar
AMMAN (J.T.) — Minister of Social Development Mohammad Kheir Mamsar
yesterday said soaring unemployment should not be held entirely responsible for growing
poverty in the country.
Mamsar, speaking on the occasion of the United Nations' designated International Day for
the Eradication of Poverty, said that even if the labour market were able to absorb the
entire eligible workforce, the poverty rate would remain more or less the same.
“A very real problem facing Jordan is low wages,” said Mamsar. “Salaries
are not enough for most workers to cover their basic needs. Even if we were able to employ
all the unemployed, we will not be able to end or eradicate poverty completely because of
poor wages, which sometimes average JD50-70 [per month].”
Unemployment, estimated officially at 15 per cent but unofficially at 27 per cent, has
been a traditional scapegoat when discussing the country's spiralling level of poverty.
According to Mamsar, the government estimates that 22.2 per cent of the country's 4.5
million citizens live in absolute poverty, defined as those who are partly dependant on
state aid, and an additional 8.8 per cent live in abject poverty, defined as families
without an income earner and entirely dependent on state assistance. But officials, until
recently, blamed a “culture of shame” highly reliant on foreign labour to fill
menial jobs for escalating unemployment.
“It is not a matter of the `shame culture',” said Mamsar, but rather a question
of why people do or do not work. “It's a question of privileges and benefits —
health insurance, transport expenses, social security, job security. People must have
these things.”
Mamsar was speaking at a press conference with UNDP Resident Representative Jorgen Lissner
and the head of the UNDP's Poverty Team, Abla Amawi.
Amawi told reporters that officials have to begin addressing the “appalling working
conditions” of the labour force.
“[No one] can accept, nor be expected to accept the conditions that foreign labourers
are now working in,” she said.
“The idea that [Jordan encourages] a culture of shame is an outrage,” she said.
“If anything, it is a culture of enslavement, not shame. If you look at the situation
of Egyptian labourers in the Jordan Valley or those working in the construction sector,
it's appalling. There is not the slightest notion of the respect for their human rights in
their working condition. No one can accept it.”
However, Mamsar said the idea of enforcing a minimum wage — one proposal put forth by
the recent national conference on unemployment — had not yet garnered much political
support.
“If we raise the minimum wage to JD120, for example,” he said, “the price
of production would increase, and the poor simply cannot tolerate an increase of prices
[on the market].”
Mamsar said available job opportunities do not correspond to qualifications of the
workforce and criticised the high level of expectations instilled in children by parents
regarding their future careers.
“Children are encouraged to be doctors and lawyers and study at [prestigious
universities], although opportunities [in Jordan] are limited,” he said. “It is
wrong to raise our children with unreasonable expectations.”
Mamsar also pointed out that Jordan's youth are bearing the brunt of increasing poverty
and economic recession.
Among the 11 categories of impoverishment identified by the Ministry of Social
Development, children and youth are at the core of five: children from broken homes and
orphans; children who commit crime; drug addicts; unemployed youth; and children under the
age of 18 used to market and sell narcotics and alcohol.
“Children who are exploited to market drugs are a new category,” said Mamsar.
“It is not a widespread phenomenon but it is starting to appear in Jordan.”
A 10-year social safety net package that has been implemented since last year, he said, is
concentrating particularly on children.
Part of the poverty alleviation scheme is a study on the extent of work now being carried
out by the ministry in cooperation with UNDP. Mamsar said the results will be released in
December.