EU: 'visible' minorities suffer multiple discrimination

A new survey published on Wednesday shows that across Europe people belonging to 'visible' minorities such as Africans and Roma are more likely to suffer multiple discrimination - meaning that they are being discriminated against on more levels than other minorities.

The first EU-wide survey ever to be carried out also found that socio-economic factors such as living with a low income increased the levels of discrimination.

The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) published its findings on multiple discrimination, at the European Union agencies exhibition - ‘The way ahead’, held at the European Parliament this week.

The results of the FRA survey shows that one out of four ethnic minority or immigrant respondents in the EU had felt discriminated against on two or more grounds during the 12 months preceding the survey.

Having an ethnic or immigrant origin emerged as the most significant ground for experiencing discrimination among the respondents who were surveyed.

Speaking about the findings FRA Director Morten Kjaerum said; "Many men and women are still facing discrimination in the European Union - when at work, trying to find somewhere to live, or when they enter a shop. For example, when a North African Muslim woman is denied access to a female doctor in a hospital, she faces a problem not just because she is a Muslim or not just because she is a woman, but because she is a Muslim woman.

Most European courts deal only with one ground of discrimination per case. This means that victims of multiple discrimination find it harder to present their case in a court and be compensated for all the different types of discrimination suffered. Introducing the concept of ‘multiple discrimination' into legislation could as well help to better match the law and a person's every-day complex experiences of discrimination."

The EU-wide survey on discrimination of immigrants and minorities, EU-MIDIS, the FRA interviewed 23,500 people with an ethnic minority or immigrant background in all 27 EU Member States.

The survey found that peoplefrom ethnic minorities are on average almost five times more likely to experience multiple discrimination than those from the majority of the population.

It states that: ‘Visible minorities' - those who generally look different from the majority population - feel discriminated against more often and across a larger number of grounds as compared to other minorities. For example, people of African origin and Roma are more likely to experience discrimination than former Yugoslavians, those with a Russian background, and Central and East Europeans.

‘Gender and age can have an impact on how likely a person is to suffer discrimination: for example, young ethnic minority/immigrant men tend to report high levels of discriminatory treatment.

‘Some 46% of respondents who experience discrimination on different grounds were concentrated in the lowest income quartile recorded for their EU Member State’.

Winsome-Grace Cornish

Main picture: Recent gathering of the Pan Africanist Movement International -  Lleida, west Catalonia, Spain. They are “calling on the oppressed throughout Catalonia to join together to work around services for freedom, democracy and equality”