RIGHTS-EU: Racism a Daily Reality for Migrants – Report

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Greta Hopkins

BRUSSELS, Dec 19 2001 (IPS) - Racism is alive and well in the European Union, with migrants and people from ethnic minorities earning less compared to the majority population and finding it much harder to get jobs, according to the latest report from the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC).

“Even when someone from an ethnic minority has the right qualifications, they find it harder to get a job,” said Bob Purkiss, Chair of the EUMC Management Board, at the presentation of the Centre’s Annual Report 2000 on Tuesday.

“Most people only notice the problem of racism in Europe when something shocking is reported in the press. But for many people it is a problem they have to face day to day,” he said.

In addition to discrimination in employment, the report points to a large increase in reports of racist attacks and threats from France, Germany, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

The report noted that the riot in El Ejido, Spain at the beginning of 2000, where hundreds of Spanish people attacked the Moroccan immigrant population, was one of the most serious examples of racial violence that year.

The EU monitoring centre recorded a clear increase in physical violence against Muslims after the Sep 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, especially in Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

EUMC Director Beate Winkler points out that the figures can be misleading, as those countries that have the most efficient data collection systems also have the highest rate of reporting.

“Unfortunately, the Netherlands, which has one of the best systems for compiling data in the EU, recorded a striking increase in racist incidents last year,” she said.

Purkiss agrees that reporting is a problem: “If you don’t know where to complain, or if the police themselves are racist, then victims will not report racist attacks,” he said.

Finland has a particularly high level of under-reporting (80- 100 percent), he noted, but that all EU member states have reporting problem.

A good performer is the United Kingdom, which recorded around 55,000 cases of race-related crimes in the year 2000, after the introduction of a new and better reporting system. This was not because the number of racist incidents increased in real terms, argues Purkiss, but because monitoring improved and people felt more able to report.

“We are trying to convince those (EU) member states that are afraid of statistics to improve their monitoring systems. If you can’t measure something you can’t manage it,” he said.

Purkiss said that on a personal level, he has more faith in evidence compiled by Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) than in official government statistics.

The EUMC report is not only based on official figures but also on NGOs reports and victim studies. Winkler says that the Internet plays an important role in disseminating racist material and consolidating networks.

According to the report, the number of racist websites in Germany more than doubled from 1999 to 2000 and the music scene was reported as even more central for right-wing extremist groups in 2000.

“It is very important to monitor racism in the media and in music, because they can influence people on an emotional level,” she said.

For his part, Graham Watson, chair of the European Parliament’s committee on civil rights, said his fellow Euro-parliamentarians had enthusiastically welcomed the report. The British legislator is concerned that the old consensus on race issues in the European Parliament has broken down since the events of Sep 11.

Unfortunately, the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington have led some EU governments to introduce laws that will only lead to further ethnic division and discrimination, he said. The United Kingdom, for example, has introduced emergency legislation enabling the police to detain foreigners suspected of terrorism without trial.

Watson was also clear about his views on a controversial move by the Corinthian local government in Austria, headed by Joerg Haider, to ban bi-lingual signposts.

“There is only one dangerous language, and that is the language of racism. When racism gets into government, at any level, that is very dangerous,” he warned. But Watson still believes in the power of the European legislative model.

“The European Union is unique in the world, because it has chosen to move forward with a ‘rights-based’ approach. The European Convention on Human Rights and the Charter of Fundamental Rights are key examples. We in Europe know more clearly than some how racism leads to the ethnic cleansing that has soaked much of the twentieth century in blood,” he said.

Winkler also praises the European Union for its innovative legislation on equal opportunities. “The EU is at the forefront in anti-discrimination legislation. The directives on race and equality in labour markets have already had positive results in the member states,” she said.

Winkler says there have generally been positive developments in the area of intercultural dialogue in the European Union.