...Despite the prevalence of war, protest, pandemic and economic crisis, Arab youth, defined as aged 18-24, have embraced realism, not ideology, in their view of the region.... if there is an "-ism" in play here, it’s pragmatism. There is no traction among youth for grandiose schemes of Arab nationalism, Islamism, nonalignment or socialism, as may have been the case decades ago.
The watchwords are instead jobs and anti-corruption, and the hope of a better future: good governance, simply put.
And when asked which state is getting it right, the answer, overwhelmingly, is the United Arab Emirates, while among outsiders, the standing of the United States, while gaining ground, still trails [some other nations] in the hearts and minds of Arab youth…
...The survey took place before the UAE normalized ties with Israel, but the guess here is that that decision is unlikely to dent the positive perception of the Emirates among youth….
That’s from Al-Monitor’s emailed This Week In Review of October 9, article headed “For Arab Youth, the Future is in the Gulf,” summarizing 4,000 interviews —50/50 split, female:male— in 17 nations, the pdf of which is HERE (it does not appear to be a secure site, though.) Al-Monitor’s website and twice-weekly email subscriptions have no paywall, but reading does require registration.
Given that the survey, “dedicated to the Arab world’s over 200 million youth”, includes the original eight from 2008 —Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, KSA, Kuwait, Lebanon, UAE— with the 2011 addition of Iraq, Libya and Tunisia, then in 2013 also Algeria, Morocco and Yemen, the Palestinian Territories in 2014, and Syria and Sudan in 2020, the term “Arab” evidently is meant as a generic for all of the predominantly Islamic near-east and middle-east, i.e., not Arabs alone but also Egyptians, Berbers/Imazighen —“an ethnicity of several nations mostly indigenous to North Africa and some northern parts of West Africa”— and, as regards Sudan (from wik):
Ethnic groups
... Sudanese Arabs are by far the largest ethnic group in Sudan [70%]. They are almost entirely Muslims … The majority of Arabised and indigenous tribes … show less cultural integration...
Sudanese Arabs of Northern and Eastern parts descend primarily from migrants from the Arabian Peninsula and intermarriages with the pre-existing indigenous populations of Sudan, especially the Nubian people, who also share a common history with Egypt...
...Sudan consists of numerous other non-Arabic groups, such as the Masalit, Zaghawa, Fulani, Northern Nubians, Nuba, and the Beja people.
There is also a small, but prominent Greek community...
With the addition of Syria, it’s possible that some Kurdish and even Turkish youth also have responses in the survey. The methodology section may elucidate. In any case, all these are distinctions the significances of which are understood by people who live in the overall region, but which westerners and others outside the overall region may not recognize, so it seems worth a mention here.
The methodology subsection entitled COVID-19 Pulse Survey, states:
...The COVID-19 Pulse Survey interviews were conducted between August 18 and 26, 2020, nearly six months after the completion of the main fieldwork of the 12th Annual Arab Youth Survey to understand the impact of COVID-19 on Arab youth and to validate the findings of the Main Survey.Fieldwork took place shortly after the Beirut explosion, potentially having an impact on the perceptions and attitudes of Lebanese youth...
The pdf is very readably designed. There’s a timeline of key events across 2019 and through the third quarter of 2020, a Top-10 Findings section, starting with a sentence each on [1] Migration, [2] Protests, [3] Corruption, [4] Personal Debt, [5] Jobs, [6] Identity, [7] Gender Rights, [8] Model Nations —“For the 9th year running, the UAE remains the top country to live in and emulate”— [9] Foreign Relations, [10] Digital Generation, and then expanded detail, with expert commentary, across the next 60 pages of the pdf, followed by a page charting “Social, economic and social media indicators 2020”.
Page 73 is an “about us” on ASDA’A BCW, which conducted the survey, and PSB, it’s analytics consultancy arm, BCW global communications, and Proof Communications, another subsidiary.
Of the eight expert commentators listed, including Sunil John, four are women. ASDA'A BCW, was founded by Sunil John in 2020, of whom wikipedia reports that he
earned his bachelor's degree in science (1980) and master's degree in communication and journalism (1982) from Osmania University, Hyderabad [India]. He started his career as an investigative journalist with the Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad, before moving into the public relations sector with the Indian Oil Corporation in Mumbai and then with Thermax in Pune. He moved to Dubai, UAE, in 1994 to join the nascent PR sector in the Middle East region…
...John has been in the communication and public relations business for nearly three decades,[4] including the last 25 years in the Middle East region. John founded ASDA'A in 2000, which merged with the global public relations firm Burson-Marsteller in 2008 to form ASDA'A Burson-Marsteller, majority owned by the $20.7 billion WPP Group, a global communication holding company. After the merger of Burson-Marsteller and Cohn & Wolfe in February 2018, ASDA'A Burson-Marsteller is now ASDA'A BCW.[5] John continues to be a significant shareholder in the firm.
ASDA'A BCW has 8 wholly owned offices and seven affiliates covering 15 countries in the Middle East and North Africa…
[Among recognitions and honors,] John chaired the organizing committee of the 20th Public Relations World Congress held in Dubai from 13–15 March 2012.[32] [He] previously served as the UAE National Chair of International Public Relations Association and vice president of the IPRA Gulf Chapter [and] as a director at DAR Motion Pictures, an India-based movie production and distribution company that has produced a dozen feature films. The Lunchbox, co-produced by John,[33] won the Critics Week Viewers' Choice Award at Cannes Film Festival....[34]
...In 2018, John said that one of the few industries where truth, facts, honesty and evidence are positively thriving is public relations[20] and urged all PR practitioners to adopt the universal PR Compact based on four simple tenets – insist on accuracy, demand transparency, engage in the free and open exchange of ideas, and require everyone to take universal online ethics training.[21]
On brief search with google, the 11th survey, 2019, does not seem to be available online at the moment, redirecting several links googled to the 12th survey. A PRWeek article summarized it on April 30, 2019. I couldn’t find the earlier surveys either. Other searchers and other search engines might be more productive.
I have no opinion to offer other than considering the Arab Youth Survey worthwhile reading at least in summary, for anyone interested in the future of the near-and-middle east and how the region may interface beyond, if youth endeavor and economics are as powerful as generally regarded currently. The ratio of 4,000 respondents for 200million individuals would be something to keep in mind.