The figures of “no” to the others

Racism and discrimination are growing in Europe. It’s a problem – confirmed by various sources – that is combined with the rise of immigration from third countries and some socio-cultural transformations in the various countries of the Old Continent. It’s a phenomenon that the European Year for Equal Opportunities is forcefully denouncing. DISCRIMINATORY ATTITUDES GROWING. The newly established European Agency of Fundamental Rights, an independent body of the EU, with its seat in Vienna, which this year took the place of the European Observatory on Racism and Xenophobia, recently published its first Report on discriminatory attitudes in the 27 member countries of the EU. Presented to the European Parliament, the bulky document (172 pages of texts and tables) is published on the Agency’s website http://fra.europa.eu. The Report, which refers to the data for 2006, “analyses the level of discrimination in such sectors as the workplace, the real-estate market, rented accommodation, and education”, “condemning the lack of proper information on the racist violence perpetrated in a large part of the countries of the EU”. According to the experts of Vienna, “of the eleven States that provide sufficient data for the evaluation of the degree of violence attributable to racism, eight have shown a growing trend of violence: Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Poland, UK and Slovakia”. Only in the Czech Republic, Austria and Sweden “has a reversal of trend been registered”. But the Agency notes that “for the other 16 States the relevant information is either insufficient or lacking altogether”. The Report, which refers to the data for 2006, “analyses the level of discrimination in such sectors as the workplace, the real-estate market, rented accommodation, and education”, “condemning the lack of proper information on the racist violence perpetrated in a large part of the countries of the EU”. According to the experts of Vienna, “of the eleven States that provide sufficient data for the evaluation of the degree of violence attributable to racism, eight have shown a growing trend of violence: Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Poland, UK and Slovakia”. Only in the Czech Republic, Austria and Sweden “has a reversal of trend been registered”. But the Agency notes that “for the other 16 States the relevant information is either insufficient or lacking altogether”. WORK, HOUSING AND SCHOOLS: A “CONCRETE” RACISM? The Agency’s Report on discrimination against foreigners (“Report on Racism and Xenophobia in the Member States of the EU”) deals in a specific way with the sectors of employment and housing: “The statistics demonstrate that in the majority of EU States the level of the unemployment of immigrants and minorities is significantly higher than that of the rest of the population”. It’s no accident that a research project conducted in Sweden “has revealed that a name that sounds Arab considerably reduces the chances of obtaining a job”. The different treatment reserved for immigrants is also ascertainable from the market of rented accommodation, “in particular in relation to advertisements that prevent foreigners from being eligible”. Discrimination is also registered in the school sector: “Though theoretically the majority of member states guarantee secure access to education – points out the Report – the fact is that some minorities have to come to terms with quite a different reality. For example the holding centres for asylum-seekers are often situated far from the towns in which schools are located”. The Report further points out that “half of the Rom (gipsy) pupils in the Czech Republic attend schools reserved for mentally retarded children or children with special needs”.EVER MORE FOREIGNERS IN THE UNION. But the question of discrimination is increasingly connected with that of immigration in the EU. For this reason the EU institutions are keeping the development of the situation under close observation, and insisting on the need to integrate foreigners. “Immigration continues to be the main motor of demographic growth in the EU”, says the latest annual Report on immigration and integration, published by the Commission at the beginning of September. Some two million immigrants from “third countries” are estimated to enter the countries of the EU each year and the foreign citizens now officially resident in the EU have reached almost 20 million, i.e. 4% of the total population. These figures were at the centre of a recent high-level Conference on legal immigration, held by the Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council in Lisbon. The Report analyses the measures taken to admit citizens from third countries, reviews the political developments and helps to reinforce the measures of integration. “Realizing the full potential of immigration is possible – according to the Commission – only if we give to immigrants the opportunity to integrate in the society and the economy of their host country”. PARTICIPATION AND CITIZENSHIP. Integration is considered the best antidote to the emergence of xenophobic and racist positions and to prevent conflicts between EU citizens and new arrivals. The document contains information on the creation of the EU legislative framework for integrating foreign workers and their families and announces “the commitment of the Commission to formulating new measures to develop this framework, for example by examining how participation and citizenship can promote the process of integration”.