Excluded and victimized” “

“The Rom appear to be the most vulnerable group and the most exposed to racism in the European Union. They suffer discrimination in the sectors of work, housing and education and are regularly the victims of acts of violence”. The 2005 Report of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, a specialized agency of the EU based in Vienna, presented on Wednesday 23 November, draws up a long list of problems relating to the acceptance of foreigners and less protected categories in the member countries of the EU. It then recommends a series of “good practices” for integration. Rom and immigrants the main victims. The European Monitoring Centre, which began its work in 1998, “has as its main mission that of furnishing objective information and data to the Community and to member states” on phenomena of racism, xenophobia and anti-semitism, with the aim of “defining actions aimed at combating such phenomena”. The EUMC gathers data in collaboration with the national authorities, “studies the evolution of the phenomena” and has “the task of formulating strategies against racism” and fostering the integration of immigrants and ethic and religious minorities. “Other groups, apart from the Rom – says the Report, which refers to last year and hence to the EU in the phase of enlargement from 15 to 25 members – are subject to discrimination”; they include “workers from Africa, the Middle East and Latin America”. Moslem groups “have to cope with particularly difficult situations in many member states. In the same way new immigrants from Russia or the Ukraine may be subjected to discrimination”. The research of the EUMC examines problematic experiences in the labour market, in the provision of housing, and in the field of schooling. “The Report clearly shows that we still have a lot to do”, explains Anastasia Crickley, chairperson of the EUMC board of directors. “Some states are actively working to combat discrimination and exclusion, but others are very slow in applying the key legislation” promoted by the EU against racism. Not all States are collaborating. “Migrants and minority groups are over-represented among the more underprivileged working categories. Segregation in housing is particularly evident in some countries. Similarly, the rate of school success and the level of education shown by migrants and minorities are clearly lower than those of the majority population”. The EUMC Report interprets the data gathered and the cases described to explain how exclusion is taking on various characteristics in the 25-member Europe: that of discrimination in the workplace, that of a higher level of failure at school, and that of “deliberate acts of maltreatment and violence” (it is enough to recall the arson attacks on buildings especially inhabited by immigrants that have taken place in France and in Germany in recent months). “The new legislative provisions adopted by the EU have shown some positive effects – explains Beate Winkler, director of EUMC -. On the other hand, we have ascertained that the majority of EU member states lack the indispensable data to monitor the impact of social and economic policies on ethnic minorities”. Problems of work, housing and schooling. “The concrete examples of discrimination in the EU – say the staff of the EUMC – range from the slum housing” reserved for immigrant families to the “segregation of foreign children in ‘specialized educational institutes’, and the discriminatory attitudes of employment agencies that second the wishes of employers and do not propose any jobs to immigrants”. The Report also presents precise figures relating to xenophobic attacks, placing Great Britain at the top of the league table: in the period 2003/2004 the UK registered over 52,000 cases of this type, followed, at a distance, by Germany and France. In Eastern Europe, where the population is more homogeneous, the cases of xenophobia diminish, with the exception of those directed against the “gipsy population”. Some “good practices”. The EUMC makes a number of recommendations to member states: “Fully applying the anti-discriminatory legislation of the EU”; “ensuring that national strategies for employment involve the objective of improving the situation of migrants”; eliminating “bad habits”, such as “the exclusion of certain categories from the assignment of public housing”; “acting in such way that access to education be guaranteed to everyone”; and “developing legislation and provisions in the field of penal law on racist episodes, so as to create a proper basis for policies of protection of the victims and the dissuasion of the perpetrators”.