Cape Verde’s Youth Face Emigration as Tourism and Conservation Jobs Struggle to Keep Them Home
Young Cape Verdeans, exemplified by hospitality student Jessica Sousa, are training for tourism jobs but many still consider leaving as unemployment stays high and families fracture.
On Sal, a key tourist island of Cape Verde, students such as Jessica Sousa are enrolled in hospitality courses while raising young children, hoping the booming tourism sector will secure their future. Institutions like the TUI Academy, Project Biodiversity and the TUI Care Foundation provide training for limited local jobs, yet youth unemployment sits at 15.9% and a sizable share of adults aged 25 to 35 are idle. NGOs including SOS Children’s Villages and Africa ’70 warn that emigration is fracturing families, noting the prevalence of single-parent homes, teenage pregnancies and related mental-health concerns.
Conservation work protecting loggerhead turtles and hydroponic farms such as Milot Hydroponics, supported by the Field to Fork program, represent emerging employment pathways. Despite these efforts, nearly 700,000 Cape Verdeans live in the United States and Europe, underscoring the need for sustainable jobs to retain the next generation.
Why it matters
Limited jobs push Cape Verde’s young people abroad, endangering the nation’s social cohesion and future development.
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