Stigmatisation and Loss of Income As Causes of Social Isolation in Young Adults with Precarious Employment Trajectories

Gallie and Paugam's social exclusion theory argues -based on previous studies such as those of Jahoda et al. on the effects of unemployment in the city of Marienthal in Austria- that the loss of employment leads to a situation of loss of personal connections which results in the social isolation of the unemployed people. According to Gallie and Paugam, this loss of personal connections has two main causes: 1) stigmatisation and distress, and 2) loss of income. The empirical analyses developed by Gallie and Paugam (2003, 2004, 2013) and following analyses have focused primarily on the direct relationships between stigma/distress, loss of income and social isolation, neglecting more complex causal relationships such as the effect of loss of income on stigma, which in turn can further reinforce social isolation. This paper analyses these different effects using qualitative data from hybrid narrative interviews. Specifically, it studies the labour market trajectories of a sample of 100 young adults between 25 and 39 living in the city of Barcelona with a strong presence of unemployment in their trajectories. Although the bulk of the data analysed is qualitative in nature, quantitative data obtained in the hybrid interviews are also analysed, which allows us to develop a more comprehensive and integrated analysis of the trajectories analysed. In this way, the feedback and reinforcing effects of the factors above mentioned could be more easily identified.