What Are Sinkies?

The financial crisis that devastated the world a few years ago and that has not yet finished subsiding brings with it a series of modern phenomena that seem here to stay. One of these concerns the sinkies.

Sinkies are young people who live as a couple, but have ruled out the option of having children. However, this reality does not mean that they do not want offspring, it is simply that, when they put their two salaries together, they are barely able to survive.

The harsh reality of sinkies

This social phenomenon, which appeared recently as such, affects three out of every ten young Europeans. In other words, thousands of people between the ages of 20 and 30 are at serious risk of social exclusion despite having a job.

The term sinkies has been coined by Caritas Europa, in charge of carrying out a study through 17 countries of the Union to investigate this phenomenon and find ways to stop it.

Sinkies is a kind of acronym for a conjunction of English words: Single, Income, No Kids. That is, single with income, but without children, and not necessarily of their own free will, rather out of necessity or obligation due to the circumstances.

The study on youth poverty in Europe

The Caritas report was recently presented at the European Social Summit in which it was stated, after a thorough study, that new generations were having fewer opportunities than previous ones. Added to this is the fact that they live worse than their parents, and even their grandparents in some cases.

This study reveals the difficult situation faced by many young people with  serious problems accessing even the most basic social rights. According to Cáritas, these would be housing, education and social protection.

In addition, it should be noted that the Caritas study makes a clear differentiation between sinkies and dinkies:

• Dinkies was the term that was coined in the 80s to define those couples who, having double pay and earning enough, chose not to have children.
• Sinkies is the term for young couples who, due to their personal and work situation, is not that they do not want to have children, it is that they cannot consider the fact of starting a family because they do not have a stability that allows them to work with that idea.

The medium and long-term effects

According to authoritative voices, the new generations are the first in history to begin to live worse than their parents. Prestigious names such as Joaquín Estefanía denounce this situation.

The problem that something like this offers, as reported by Caritas Europa, is that it involves serious demographic damage in the medium and long term. In other words, the economic future of the old continent appears not very promising, according to Jorge Nuño, secretary general of this institution.

This situation has worsened drastically as a result of the 2008 crisis. Since then, wage levels in Europe have not only stagnated, they have also fallen, creating a universe of high precariousness, something that also increases the risk of vulnerability to poverty .

According to the same study, in the United Kingdom, young millennials between the ages of 21 and 30 have spent an average of 5 years without an increase in their income, but they are forced to struggle with high inflation. In other words, they are objectively poorer every day.

Overqualification

As a result of the words of Jorge Nuño, this generation not only earns less than the previous one, it has also seen its salary reduced, going from mileurismo to receiving an income of around 700-800 euros. Interestingly, this fact occurs in a few generations with extreme overqualification. Cases like those in Greece and Portugal are especially serious, since thousands of young people with university studies can barely access irrelevant and poorly paid jobs.

And in this universe of precariousness and little hope, they are forced to navigate the sinkies, who try to fight their job frustration by emigrating and looking elsewhere for opportunities that they cannot find near their home.

Even so, and finally, these generations find themselves with serious difficulties to have financial autonomy. They lose motivation, barely have access to decent housing and, at times, they can fall prey to populist discourses in the face of hopelessness for a better future.