Le istituzioni locali e il mondo associativo per la costruzione di una rete in materia di cooperazione, cultura di pace, integrazione multietnica, promozione dei diritti umani e della solidarietà fra i popoli.
Racism in Europe: bad behaviour and good practices
According to the Report on Racism and Xenophobia in the Member States of the EU conducted by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA),ethnic discrimination is very strong in all the spheres of daily life: from school to job and accommodation search.
“Bad” behaviour- The Report shows that in the 2004-2007 period the Community anti-discriminatory directive of the year 2000 foreseeing sanctions against racial discrimination and attentive monitoring of their applications was applied only in 7 out of 27 Member States of the EU. The situation seems to be better in these 7 countries, even though there is increase in racial crimes in particular in Germany, France, Ireland, Poland, Slovakia, Finland, and Great Britain. The scarce superficial data – ineffective monitoring was registered in all the countries – observes that the numbers of unemployed immigrants and representatives of minorities are evidently higher compared to the native population. In Sweden a research has shown that a candidate with an Arabic name has less chances for being hired. The situation in housing is quite similar: advertisements of rent offers describe a profile of a candidate belonging to the same ethnic group. What concerns schools, Roma children are mostly victims of racial prejudice: in many countries, like the Check Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Greece, and Italy, they are put in classes together with children with mental health problems with little possibility of integration and leaning. Moreover, in several countries, including Italy, there is no date showing effective application of sanctions against racist and discriminatory attitudes. For example, though in our country 867 accusations and 282 cases were brought before the tribunals for the two-year period 2005/2006, there is no data on sanctions applied. Therefore it is quite probable that the “punishment” was limited to recommendations and moral pressures, with little credibility and very little deterrent effect.
Good practices- Despite the negative data on the European situation, the Report presents useful suggestions for politicians, managers and civil society in order to improve the situation of immigrants and minorities. Various initiatives are put into effect in Slovakia and Germany to promote their access to the labour market: information, consultancy and assistance both for immigrants and employers in order to improve their education and to orientate them toward prevention of ethnic conflicts within the firm. Guides on rules of behaviour towards foreigners and with specific tests are distributed among several companies in the Netherlands and Spain, while France, Belgium and Sweden have introduced the use of anonymous CV. The norms that guarantee the respect of religions allowing to wear turbans and veils have been applied at the Swedish police and Austrian army, while so called “Rooms of silence” exist in the Deutsche Bank, where believers of all the religions can pray. What concerns the Roma, various hiring policies, training courses and working inclusion in social field were tested in Bulgaria, the Check Republic and Finland, while in Barcelona Roma women are employed as monitors during the lunch breaks at the schools with high percentage of Roma children, thus supporting both of them. Italy is an example of good practices in housing with the Lombardy project “Sucar Plaza” (“Beautiful Square” in the Sinti language) aiming to guarantee decent accommodation for the Roma and Sinti. In legislative field, new programmes of financing of European projects are foreseen for the 2007/2013 period, while since April 2007 the framework decision of the Council of Europe on racism and xenophobia is already in force. The decision provides effective criminal sanctions that are proportionate and dissuasive for such crimes as creation of racist groups, as well as insults, threats and incitement of ethnic hatred. Now the matter depends on their application.
