Why this report
The EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) recently published the “Second European Union Minorities and Discrimination Survey”, which collects the main results of research based on surveys completed by 25,500 respondents with different ethnic backgrounds in all 28 EU member states. The aim of this research is to study the different forms of discrimination of racial or ethnic minorities.
The first research was carried out in 2008, after the EU's adoption, in 2000, of a legislation of “equal treatment irrespective of racial or ethnic origin, as well as legislation establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation irrespective of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation”.
This research from 2008 revealed for the first time comparable statistical data on discrimination across the EU. This latest report includes data collected between 2015 and 2017.
The survey takes into consideration several settings where discrimination might take place: in employment and barriers to employment; “education, housing, health, and when using public or private services; on experiences of police stops, criminal victimisation (including hate crime); on awareness of rights and redress mechanisms; and on societal participation and integration, including trust in public institutions and level of attachment to the country of residence”.
The overall results show that discrimination in the EU is still widespread, and for this reason member states should take steps in order to eliminate it.
Discrimination in Italy
With regard to Italy, the minority target groups that were taken into consideration were members of minority groups from sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and North Africa.
The data from Italy shows that 37% of the interviewees from sub-Saharan Africa and 20% of North Africans felt discriminated because of their skin colour in the last five years, and 32% of South Asians felt discriminated because of their ethnicity. Generally, men felt more discriminated than women because of their skin colour while more women than men felt discriminated because of their ethnicity. Some 10% of sub-Saharan Africans felt discriminated because of their religion.
Discriminations also involve second generations of foreign backgrounds, in fact 29% of women and 19% of men of sub-Saharan background, 37% of women and 31% of men with a North African background and 21% of the group of South Asian background experienced some form of discrimination. These results are commented by the report as being “relatively high rates of discrimination”. With regard to discriminations in the access to an employment, the report points out that 23% of the interviewed people with North African background report a form of discrimination while looking for a job.
Complaints to the authorities
Another problem raised by the report is the low number of complaints filed to the authorities on incidents of discrimination (only 9% of sub-Saharan Africans and 18% of North Africans reported the discrimination to the authorities); moreover, and even more worryingly, a very low number of interviewees of all backgrounds knew of the existence of any organisation offering support to victims of discrimination or the existence of any equality body in Italy.
Harassment
Harassment is a form of discrimination defined by the Racial Equality Directive of 2000 as an “unwanted conduct related to racial or ethnic origin [that] takes place with the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of a person and of creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment”.
Data from FRA's research suggest that in Italy, 30% of the interviewees of sub-Saharan background, 33% of North Africans and 29% of South Asians experienced at least one episode of harassment in the past 12 months.
Police stops
With regard to police stops, among the interviewees from sub-Saharan Africa, 28% was stopped by Italian police at least once in the five years before the survey; 60% of those who were stopped perceived the stop as ethnic profiling. Among immigrants from North Africa, 32% were stopped at least once in the five years before the survey and 71% of the stopped perceived the stop as ethnic profiling. With regard to immigrants from Asia, 22% were stopped at least once in the five years before the survey and 46% of the stopped perceived the stop as ethnic profiling. With regard to identity checks in Italy, 96% of stopped sub-Saharan Africans and 92% of stopped North Africans were asked to provide ID cards, passports or residence permits.
Education and work
With regard to Italy, the report highlights low levels of upper secondary education among those interviewed. Specifically, 42% of sub-Saharan Africans, 30% of North Africans and 29% of South Asians who were interviewed said they had not received any upper secondary education. Moreover, it appears that, among those who completed the lowest secondary education, 67% of North Africans and 66% of South Asians do not pursue any higher education.
In the field of employment, it was observed that 70% of immigrants with a North African background and 67% of immigrants with a South Asian background were involved in a paid working activity in the four weeks preceding the survey. The report estimates that by using this method, the employment rate reported for the general population is lower than that of these groups.
For sub-Saharan African respondents, critical in order to find a job seems to be language proficiency, in fact 72% of those who have sufficient language proficiency are engaged in paid work while only 22% of those with insufficient language skills are engaged in a working activity.
Conclusion
The report offers a very interesting starting point for further researches and supplies comparable data across the EU that could be used to take action in order to tackle the different forms of discrimination that are faced by the immigrant population.
