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Racial Discrimination in Europe Since the beginning of this 21st century, Europe has become seriously confronted with expanding racial discrimination and xenophobia following massive migration. Actually, these two phenomena were directly proportional to the growing momentum of international labor migration in Western European countries, which resulted from the end of the Cold War and the ensuing process of economic globalization.Yet, we know that with the ever-widening gap between the rich and poor countries (the latter being fettered by rapid population growth, environmental degradation, armed conflicts, etc.) that grievous process of globalization led many people from developing countries to assaulting the "European fortress" in search of better job opportunities and a haven of peace.Of course, this mass migration did not fail to cause deep feelings of insecurity among European populations traditionally agreed to racist and xenophobic ideas.Indeed, as globalization spreads out, so does the accompanying process of economic and social inequality and precariousness, which generates frustrations, xenophobic sentiments, and a proneness to a scapegoat attitude toward immigrants.A. Sivanandan, director of the Institute of Race Relations, referring to that coupling of globalization with racism, is quite right to speak of xeno-racism.According to him, "It is racism in substance but "xeno" in form. It is not just directed at those with darker skins from the former colonial territories but at the newer categories of the displaced, the dispossessed, and the uprooted, who are beating at Western Europe"s doors — the Europe that helped to displace them in the first place."Now, before proceeding further, let us promptly shed some light on our key concepts: race, racism, and xenophobia
Racism in the UK It is widely spread that racial and xenophobic violence against ethnic minorities — especially the Africans, Caribbeans, and Asians — is an old phenomenon in the UK. Not going back very far, we can easily remember the predicament of the 1950s and 1960s black migrant workers, when native politicians were whipping up racial animosity. Then, racial harassment — from racist remarks to physical aggressions — could be witnessed everywhere in public life: on the streets, at work, in playgrounds, classrooms, shops, etc. During the previous decade, a British Crime Survey indicated that in 1991, at least 18 percent of all crimes against ethnic minorities were racially motivated. Then, in 1997, a Human Rights Watch report on racist violence in the UK noted that the UK has one of the highest levels of racially motivated violence and harassment in Western Europe and the problem is getting worse. Today, numerous judiciary reforms to remedy the situation are being initiated. One of those reforms aims at issuing an antiracist legislation that complies with the European Convention on Human Rights with regard to confronting the discrimination in employment, housing, and social services. Yet, the racist and xenophobic acts are commonplace in Great Britain. The situation is getting worse, especially after the creation of a number of new "racially aggravated offenses" with the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. Ironically, a report by the government"s Migration Impact Forum concluded that "migrants in the UK work harder than British workers, pay more tax, and contribute six billion pounds to the UK economy." By that time, the substantially populated African-Caribbean areas, where those violent uprisings took place, registered increasing harassments and physical attacks by white racists on black people. Actually, for the latter, things have changed for the worse. Nowadays, besides other numerous blatant discriminatory practices, a young black man is six times more likely than his white counterpart to be a victim of "stop-and-search" humiliation and to be caught up in the criminal justice system, according to a paper that was presented in theUniversity of Warwick, Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations.
Records of British Racism According to a British Crime Survey, there were 280,000 racially motivated incidents in 1999, and 98,000 of these (i.e. 35 percent) were against black, Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi people (who comprise 7 percent of the population). Those at greatest risk to racial attack are Pakistanis and Bangladeshis (at 4.2 percent), Indians (at 3.6 percent), and Blacks (at 2.2 percent), all this compared with 0.3 percent for the white people. In 2001, grievous uprisings in Bradford and Oldham derived from harassment by the police force or from racial crimes against Africans or Asians, which resulted in dozens of victims. Actually, between 2000 and 2001, the British police recorded 25,100 racially aggravated incidents, of which 12,455 were of racially aggravated harassment, 4,711 of racially aggravated common assault, and 3,176 of racially aggravated injuries in England and Wales. Yet, it must be noted that in this obnoxious social atmosphere, xenophobia stems from within all social groups. Lots of Whites fall victims of racist attacks, whether aggressive or retaliatory. According to a British Crime Survey, in 2004, 92,000 white people said they had also fallen victims of racially motivated crimes. The BBC also reported that the latest crime statistics show that race-hate crimes increased by almost 600 percent in London in the month after the July 7 bomb attacks, compared to the same period last year, with 269 more offenses allegedly "motivated by religious hatred" reported to the Metropolitan Police Service. But, much more alarming are the racially motivated attacks committed daily in the UK. On the soaring number of attacks on ethnic minorities, we learn from the British government — namely, the British Ministry of Justice — that 41,000 such offenses were committed between 2005 and 2006, a rise of 12 percent over the previous year. The statistics confirm anecdotal evidence from immigrant groups that ethnic minorities have been increasingly targeted in recent years, with the Muslim community under particular pressure since the 9/11 attacks.
Irish Racism Although lacking a tradition of ethnic minority immigration due to historic poverty, Ireland started experiencing a rise in xenophobic and racist attitudes with the Celtic Tiger (a name for the period of rapid economic growth in Ireland, which began in the 1990s and slowed in 2001). These attitudes reduce to verbal and physical abuses against African and Asian immigrants. Among the most tragic cases of racial aggression is the murder of Zhao Liu Tao in January 2002. Aged 29, that Chinese student — beaten to death by a group of Irish youths — was the first race-hate victim in Ireland. The second victim, Leong Ly Min, is another Chinese who succumbed later that year in mid-August after being lynched by an Irish gang who had been racially abusing him. As for Northern Ireland, an official report stated that racist attacks are at 16.4 percent per 1000 of the minority population, while in England and Wales, the figure is 12.6 percent. Furthermore, because of the severity of its racist and xenophobic acts (intimidation, assaults, general harassment, vandalism, house burning, etc.), North Ireland has been labeled by the Guardian the "race-hate capital of Europe." Another BBC report stated in 2002 that one in four Scots admitted that they are strongly or slightly racist. In the coming part, we will be moving on to racial discrimination in other European countries, namely, France, Greece, Finland, Denmark, and Germany. What do you think of the statistics of racially motivated incidents in the UK and Ireland? Have you been through a similar incident in these countries? Sources: Racist Violence: Nowhere to Turn, Update, HUMNAN RIGHTS WATCH, July 1997 http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/update.html#uk Alan Travis, "Migrants are a boon to UK economy, says study," guardian, 17 Oct. 2007 http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,330994146-115620,00.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/england/london/7050020.stm
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