CASTRIES, St Lucia, — The growing silence among St Lucia’s youth is not apathy, it’s attrition. According to architect and lecturer Dyllan Tony Boulogne, St Lucians are opting out of civic and economic life, not because they don’t care, but because the nation has given them too little to care about.
In his widely read essay, “Locked Out of Opportunity: Why Young St Lucians Are Opting Out,” Boulogne systematically dismantles the popular notion that the island’s younger generation is lazy or indifferent. He describes a generation “disillusioned by design,” stripped of opportunities once available to their parents and grandparents.
“When people believe they can shape their future, they begin to show up to shape their society,” Boulogne writes. But for too many St Lucians, that belief has vanished.
Civic disengagement mirrors economic exclusion
Dyllan Tony Boulogne asserts that civic participation, voting, community involvement, and national pride are not a matter of character, but of economic stake. In the past, when people owned land, built homes, and raised families, they also invested emotionally and politically in the country’s direction.
That social contract is collapsing. In 1979, voter turnout in St Lucia stood at 68%. Through the 1980s and 1990s, it remained above 60%. But by 2001, it had dropped to 52%, and by 2021, it hovered just above 50%, the lowest on record.
“This downward trend is not accidental,” Boulogne writes. “It closely parallels the collapse of economic agency and opportunity for ordinary St Lucians, especially young people.”
From dignity to disconnection: why St Lucians are opting out
Boulogne details how young people once accessed dignity and upward mobility through unskilled and semi-skilled labor. Banana farming, construction, and light manufacturing offered not only income but pride, skill development, and a visible future.
The banana industry, once a cornerstone of the rural economy, began to deteriorate following the loss of preferential trade agreements in European markets. Exports plummeted from over 120,000 tonnes in the 1990s to just 13,734 tonnes by 2018. Agriculture now contributes less than 3% of the island’s GDP.
“Banana farming supported thousands of families,” Boulogne notes. “It helped establish home ownership across rural St Lucia, fostering pride in work and community.”
Construction sector abandoned to foreign hands
Similarly, the construction sector has shifted from a domestic engine of employment to a pipeline for foreign labor. Previously, young men found apprenticeships and careers in building trades. Now, large-scale, foreign-funded projects often import skilled workers due to gaps in local training and certification.
“Many of these projects offer short-term jobs, but when they end, so do the opportunities,” Boulogne writes. “Youth are left with no continuity, no skills transfer, and no sustainable pathway.”
Tourism’s hollow promise
Today’s service-based economy, driven almost entirely by tourism, fails to fill the employment gap. While it generates significant foreign exchange, Boulogne argues that tourism jobs are seasonal, low-wage, and heavily centralized. Many positions demand customer-facing soft skills or formal training unavailable to youth in rural and economically marginalized communities.
Even in prosperous periods, the sector has failed to absorb the growing labor force. “Tourism rarely creates enough jobs to match the need,” he explains. “And even where jobs exist, there is little ownership, little advancement, and even less security.”
Youth unemployment and the brain drain crisis
For more than two decades, youth unemployment in St Lucia has remained between 30% and 40%, with a sharp spike to over 50% during the COVID-19 pandemic. The ripple effect across families and communities has been profound.
“Family networks are tight, and community ties are strong,” Boulogne writes. “So when one in three young people can’t find work, that failure impacts entire villages and generations.”
Those who invest in higher education fare no better at home. In the early 2000s, St Lucia ranked among the top nations globally for brain drain. More than 70% of tertiary-educated St Lucians were living abroad — a staggering figure that reflects the country’s inability to retain its own talent.
“These are not people who ‘don’t care,’” Boulogne insists. “They’re people who saw no space for themselves here and had to leave to find it elsewhere.”
Recent findings have only added to national embarrassment. A 2025 global IQ report placed St Lucia near the bottom of global rankings, intensifying concern over investment in education and future competitiveness (IQ Rankings Shame St Lucia).
A dangerous disconnect and a call to action
Boulogne warns of a growing and dangerous disconnect between civic engagement and economic inclusion. People begin to care about policies and governance when they’re personally invested, when they own, build, and pay into the system. But when jobs are insecure, land is unattainable, and housing is unaffordable, the nation begins to feel like it belongs to someone else.
“What we are witnessing is not laziness or lack of patriotism. Its withdrawal is rooted in exclusion.”
According to Boulogne, some youth flee. Others stay and retreat inward. The result: a democracy stripped of its future leaders, its most innovative minds, and its creative energy.
Rebuilding from the ground up
Still, Dyllan Tony Boulogne’s vision is not fatalistic. He calls for a new approach to national development, one that prioritizes economic agency, not just economic statistics.
He advocates for revitalizing agriculture through innovation and land access; for strengthening construction through vocational training; and for building an ecosystem that supports entrepreneurship, cooperatives, and community ownership.
“Don’t wait for a seat at the table,” he challenges young people. “Build new tables. New institutions. New networks of power.”
Young people, he says, must move from the margins to the center not by invitation, but by necessity.
“We are not lazy,” reclaiming the narrative
“We are a generation locked out of the systems we were told to build,” Boulogne declares. “It is time to unlock our future by organizing, innovating, and shaping the nation ourselves.”
He closes with a warning and a hope: “When people believe they can shape their future, they begin to show up to shape their society.”
Read Dyllan Tony Boulogne’s full essay, “Locked Out of Opportunity: Why Young St Lucians Are Opting Out,” on LinkedIn. Boulogne is an architect and lecturer, and his commentary continues to resonate with a growing audience both at home and across the Caribbean diaspora.
For more reporting on youth, reform, and national development, follow Unitedpac St Lucia News.
