ENAR Vision
Full equality, solidarity & well-being for all
Combat racism and discrimination
Benefits of a diverse & racism-free Europe for European
society and economy
How it all started…
ENAR established in 1998
Purpose
We are an NGO partner that interacts with EU institutions
Give a European dimension to the fight against racism
Our work: Influence the European political
agenda
Monitor
EU policy developments, lobbying & advocacy, meet key
EU officials in all EU institutions, alliances with other actors in
Europe
There are 5 main groups that we focus on:
Roma - 78% of Roma in Slovakia and 73% in the Czech Republic
experience discrimination when looking for a job.
People of African Descent and Black Europeans - In the UK, Black
people are at least six times more likely to be stopped and searched
than a white person.
Muslims - 1 in 3 Muslim in the EU experience discrimination at least
once in the last 12 months. In France, 85% of Islamophobic acts target
women.
Jews - 2 in 3 Jewish people consider anti-Semitism to be a major
problem in the EU
Migrants - In Greece 154 incidents of racist violence – mainly physical
attacks - committed against refugees and migrants in 2012.
Shadow reports
It highlights the ways in which racism impacts on people of African
descent and Black Europeans in 20 EU countries (Austria, Belgium,
Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece,
Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands,
Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom), primarily covering
the period of 2014 - 2015.
The report discusses the most significant issues faced by Black people
in many areas of their lives such as education, health, housing,
employment, criminal justice and public life. Research findings, case
studies of racism and related discrimination and policy analysis are
included in this report.
What is clear from this report is that there are significant disadvantages
and barriers erected through the prism of racism that impact on the life
chances and outcomes of Black people.
Who are we talking about?
Key findings – Political context
National responses to the so called ‘migration crisis’ and changes to
migration and integration policies are impacting both people of
African descent who are recent migrants as well as Black Europeans
with a migration background.
Political discourse, that is often racist and Islamophobic, is
predominantly framed in the context of anti-immigration and targets
migrants that are both Black and Muslim (Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland,
Germany, the Netherlands and Spain).
Taking into account that Somalis are the biggest black (and Muslim)
group in Finland, there has never been a single representative from
this group elected to parliament.
Key findings - Media
Austria, Bulgaria, Estonia, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK
report the use of the N-word.
Since the more high profile public debates on Black Pete in the
Netherlands, the Dutch Complaints Bureau for Discrimination on the
Internet reported an increase in reports of racist remarks towards
people of African descent.
A report published in June 2015 by Ofcom, the UK communications
regulator, revealed that the proportion of Black audiences who report
being portrayed negatively by broadcasters stood at 51%. And this is
partly to do with the lack of diversity of the executive level staff.
In France, only 3.2% of the executive staff at France Télévisions is
non-White and less than 1% of Le Monde’s journalists are non-White.
Key findings – Workforce and Employment
In Austria, 19% of black people felt like they have been treated disrespectfully
by health sector employees. 6% say that they have heard health service
employee say openly racist things to them.
In Austria, a study showed that while 37% of people with Austrian names are
invited to job interviews this is true for only 18.7% of people of Nigerian origin,
despite the same levels of qualification.
In the UK, applicants with an African or Asian sounding surname need to send
approximately twice as many job applications as those with a traditionally British
name to get an interview.
In Lithuania, a poll found that 1 in 5 respondents said they would not want to
work with Black people.
In Sweden, 1 in 4 people of African descent with a university degree are in lowskilled jobs, as they were unable to get a job which matched their qualifications
Key findings – Employment and Intersectionality
In France, a CV testing experiment showed that women with a Senegalese
sounding name had 8,4% of being called for an interview when applying for a job,
compared with 13,9% for men with a Senegalese sounding name and 22,6% for
women with a French sounding name.
A report on ethnic minority female unemployment in the UK pointed to
shockingly high levels of unemployment and disadvantage in the employment
sector for Somali women, who face triple hurdles of being female, Muslim and
Black.
Key findings – Racial profiling and Criminal Justice
Logirep, the largest social housing landlord in France was found guilty of racial
profiling and discrimination in May 2014.
And of course there continues to be reports of disproportionate ethnic profiling
of Black people by the police, legal and justice officials in Bulgaria, Cyprus,
Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal,
Sweden and the UK.
Black people are particularly exposed to police violence as reported in Belgium,
Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden and the UK.
Racist crimes that target Black people have been linked to far right groups in
Bulgaria, Greece, Italy and Sweden.
Other countries report that visible minorities are at higher risk of experiencing
violence (Finland, Ireland).
Key findings – Education
In the Netherlands, students of African descent, despite higher scores in the
CITO test (taken by pupils at the age of 12 and determining what level of
education the pupils may proceed to) were under-evaluated by teachers.
In the UK a study shows that being Black and male has a greater impact on
numeracy levels than having a learning disability.
In Germany, children’s books play a major role in introducing negative
stereotypes of Black people.
As reported in Italian schools, colonialism has very little space in the curriculum
or history textbooks for junior high schools.
In Lithuania there are several examples of Black teenagers being bullied.
In Italy a 14 year old student of Nigerian origin was attacked outside his school
by two pupils in the same school and racially insulted.
In Ireland a young teenage boy was racially abused by a nun, calling him a
monkey and suggesting that he could climb trees.
Conclusions
There are several forces at play that work to reinforce structural power relations that ultimately lead to
inequalities and disadvantage for minority groups.
In the course of this research we have not been able to identify a single national or European policy
developed to address racial inequalities and discrimination experienced by Black people.
Instead we find that Black people continue to be rejected, alienated and discriminated against. Based
on the findings included in this report it is fair to ask, do European societies care for Black people at all?
If so, there is little evidence to suggest that this is true.
The lack of data on this group and in relationship to racial equality must not be used to justify inaction.
Equality data collection must start to take place across Europe to ensure that we know more clearly
where discrimination occurs and how to develop the policies required to shift age-old White supremacist
thinking handed down from generation to generation.
It is also important to recognise that structural and institutional racism must be addressed in order to
fully dismantle racism. Discrimination in employment, housing, education, health, political participation
and criminal justice are parts of an interconnected system.
To ensure that opportunities and outcomes for Black communities improve and come up to par with
those of the majority, in parallel with shifting power structures, these policies should be sustainable,
monitored and evaluated.
Recommendations
Recognise the devastating impact of racism on people of African descent and Black Europeans and
adopt an EU Framework for national strategies or policy objectives to combat Afrophobia and promote
the inclusion of people of African descent and Black Europeans.
All nation states need to collect disaggregated equality data, standardise and create comparable data
sets across Europe. The data must be systematically and regularly collected based on selfidentification, analysed and made publicly available, in accordance with data protection standards.
Establish process and outcome indicators of policies combating racial discrimination and set achievable
targets for greater social inclusion of Black people in EU Member States.
Develop national anti-racism strategies that address the specific challenge of Afrophobia. Following the
development of these strategies, the specific and comparative situation of people of African descent/
Black Europeans in areas such as education, housing, health, employment, policing, security and
justice systems should be assessed, in line with international and European standards.
National plans and policies should involve communities at all stages of their development, from early
stages until full implementation and assessment through the setting up of steering groups, sounding
boards, expert groups or similar relevant bodies.
National plans and policies should allocate specific actions and objectives in a certain timeframe to
responsible institutions. Implementing bodies should have sufficient leverage, human and financial
resources for the entire implementation period.
To name a few…
Stephen Lawrence
Oury Jalloh
Zyed Benna
Philomena Essed’s words are very
true, she says:
“Probably the only common European
experience among many if not all Afrodecedents is their exposure to (…) racism and
systematic discrimination, regardless of
country, socio-economic conditions, gender,
age, or level of education.”
ENAR is calling for...
•
The development of a EU framework for national
strategies on improving the lives of black people in
Europe and this framework would follow the model of
the EU framework for Roma (National Roma Integration
Strategies – NRIS)
• The European Union can adopt and implement
strategies to address racial disparities in our societies
that include distinct and explicit plans for people of
African descent taking into account global legacies of
enslavement, colonialism and racism.