Intersektionalität als Mittel zur Befähigung und Einbeziehung junger Menschen mit Mehrfachdiskriminierung – Ein Schritt in Richtung gelebte Gleichstellung

A new trend has come into being in the youth work throughout Europe, which takes into account the complexity and the »intersectional« dimension of young people’s identity as well as the multiplying discriminatory effect generated by the overlapping of such categories as gender, disability, sexual orientation, class, belief and religion, ethnicity, race, etc. In this perspective various initiatives have been focusing, on one side, on the gender dimension of young people belonging to minorities and, on the other side, on the complexity within ethnic groups themselves, exploring the issue of minorities within minority groups. These initiatives aim to foster social inclusion of young women and young people belonging to ethnic groups, such as the Roma community, at different levels (local, national and international) while empowering the target group (young women belonging to ethnic minorities and, e. g., young Roma), as a group and as an individual, to take an active role within their family, community, society and further. Moving from the feminist theories of intersectionality in the U.S. and in Europe, this paper aims to highlight, through the analysis of some activities promoted by SALTO and by other youth NGOs, that youth policies and activities should envisage disadvantaged young people as a dynamic, complex and changing group in order to provide suitable and effective measures of inclusion and empowerment.