Tag Archives: Europe

Race + Color + Ethnicity

Slovakia & Czech Republic News | Roma

Slovakia and the Czech Republic criticized for poor efforts at integrating Roma citizens
  • The Council of Europe’s Human Rights Commissioner highlighted educational segregation and high drop-out rates in Slovakia as evidence of the failure of Slovakia’s anti-discrimination measures.
  • Many Slovak Romas live in squalid conditions in illegal settlements, with only 17% entering secondary education according to a 2010 UN survey.
  • A report by the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance also pointed to ethnic segregation in Czech schools as inhibiting integration and lowering opportunity for Czech Romas.

“Although Slovakia’s anti-discrimination framework is comprehensive, it provides a differing degree of protection for various vulnerable social groups and must be reformed to close all protection gaps.”

Read more:
“European human rights watchdog slams Roma segregation in Slovakia, Czech Republic” (Reuters)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

UK Feature | LGBT British Asian

At the Intersection: Queer & British Asian

The UK has made major strides in LGBT political rights in recent years, but the social acceptance of gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals has struggled to keep up. DESIblitz takes to the streets to survey British Asian perspectives on their community’s evolution regarding LGBT rights. Tackling religion, education, and the factors at work in the cultural politics of immigration and integration, interviewees present the complexity of acceptance and homophobia in British Asian families.

Read more:
“Is being Gay acceptable in British Asian society?” (DESIblitz)

(Image Credit: via DESIblitz)

Race + Color + Ethnicity

UK News | Racial Minorities

Investigation finds London’s Metropolitan police force took no disciplinary action on more than 200 racial discrimination complaints over year
  • The Met received 245 complaints of racial discrimination by police officers between March 2014 and February 2015, with five resulting in managerial action and the rest being dismissed.
  • Complaints were often dismissed as “poor communication,” although five officers received three or more allegations of discrimination.
  • The police force is looking to address fraught relations with London’s ethnic minority communities as only 11% of its ranks come from minority backgrounds while 40% of London’s population does.

“[The Met is] shown to be effectively immune from any accountability. We need a truly independent body that carries the confidence of the communities affected by police abuses of power. The police cannot be trusted to investigate themselves.”

Read more:
“No racial discrimination complaints against Met police upheld” (The Guardian)
“Met chief admits institutional racism claims have ‘some justification’” (The Guardian)

(Image Credit: Oli Scarff/Getty Images, via the Guardian)

Race + Color + Ethnicity

U.K. Research | Ethnic Minorities

Sports Participation Among Minorities in Wales

Sports Wales recently conducted a study of Black, Asian, and ethnic minority participation in sports in Wales and found disproportionately low levels of engagement. The research found that ethnic minorities were less likely to participate as players or as volunteers, administrators, or spectators, causing concern because of the traditional conception of athletics as an inclusive cultural activity.

4.5%

Percentage of Wales’s population that is of a minority ethnic background

Lower incomes, limited time, limited mobility, limited facilities, racism, and language barriers

Reasons study cites for lower levels of participation

£3 million

Amount of funding earmarked for tackling inequality in sports (with £1.5 million specifically targeting racial and ethnic inequality)

Read more:
“Black and ethnic minorities face barriers to sport, report says“ (BBC)
“BAME communities in Wales face sporting barriers” (The Voice)
Calls 4 Action: Black and Minority Ethnic Pupils – what do we know? (Sports Wales)

Age, Gender, Ideology + Affiliation

Netherlands News | Women & Youth

European court rules brothel owners in Amsterdam must share language with sex workers
  • The European Court of Justice ruling sided with the city of Amsterdam, which blocked the application of a brothel owner to run a Red Light District window rental space because the owner could not communicate in the language of some of the workers.
  • The business owner had his business plan denied because he rented to Hungarian and Bulgarian immigrant workers who did not speak Dutch and whose languages the owner did not speak.
  • The court cited the safety of women, human trafficking vulnerability, the prevention of sex work by minors, and pimping deterrence as justifications.

Read more:
“Court: Amsterdam brothel owners must speak prostitutes’ language” (The NL Times)
“Double Dutch barred in Amsterdam brothels” (AFP, via Yahoo! News)

(Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons/LeDeuxAlpe, via The NL Times)

Race + Color + Ethnicity, Religion + Belief

Hungary News | Muslims & Roma

Muslims and Roma bear brunt of anti-immigrant rhetoric in Hungary
  • Anti-immigrant sentiment fueled by xenophobic government rhetoric has led to harassment and assault of Hungary’s established minority populations, including Muslims and Roma people.
  • Politicians have drawn parallels between migrants and its own Roma population, painting the Roma minority as a situation to be “handled.”
  • While Muslims began immigrating to Hungary after World War II, the Roma have been present in the land now known as Hungary since the Middle Ages.

“I wish the government would think more carefully before starting campaigns like this. … It’s our wives who get spat on and have their veils ripped off in the street.”

Read more:
“Hungary’s minorities bear brunt of anti-migrant rhetoric” (Reuters)

(Image Credit: Leonhard Foeger/Reuters)

Nationality + Migration, Race + Color + Ethnicity

Germany News | Arab Immigrants

Germany prints constitution in Arabic for new arrivals
  • Germany has printed an initial 10,000 copies of an Arabic translation of the first 20 articles of its constitution to help support the integration of the more than 800,000 expected to find refuge in the country by year’s end.
  • Adopted in 1949, the “Basic Law” outlines the most critical political and social features of Germany’s democracy, including secular governance, freedom of religion, and other basic individual freedoms.
  • German Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel also noted refugees would have to accept the sexual and gender equality and the prohibition on anti-Semitism in the country.

Read more:
“Germany prints its constitution in Arabic for refugees” (Deutsche Welle)
“Germany prints its constitution in Arabic for refugees to learn” (Reuters)
Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany

(Image Credit: Lukas Barth/Reuters)

Nationality + Migration

France News | Refugees & Migrants

French riot police use tear gas to evacuate and dismantle Calais refugee camps
  • French police raided and dismantled camps housing more than 400 refugees and migrants in the port city, calling the camps “illegal settlements.”
  • While France has announced plans to build a permanent camp next year, those currently in the area–including many attempting to make their way to Britain–have set up makeshift camps for shelter.
  • BuzzFeed News has included video of the police launching tear gas at individuals and their tents.

Read the full story at BuzzFeed News.

(Image Credit: Philippe Huguen/AFP/Getty Images, via BuzzFeed News)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

Europe News | LGBT Refugees

European LGBT groups provide assistance to LGBT and other refugees
  • As Germany has become the destination for many refugees and migrants, the Lesbian and Gay Federation has opened a center in Berlin for LGBT refugees.
  • LGBT groups and individuals in Macedonia, Slovenia, Hungary, and elsewhere have also provided support and services to refugees passing through, including LGBT refugees fleeing violence in Syria and Iraq.
  • Syrian gay man Subhi Nahas spoke to ISIS’s persecution of gender and sexual minorities at a U.N. Security Council meeting in August, calling on more active response to provide escape for LGBT individuals from the region.
“For my compatriots who do not conform to gender and sexual norms, the 11th hour has already passed. …They need your help now.”
Read the full story at the Washington Blade.
(Image Credit: Jure Poglajen, via The Washington Blade)
Race + Color + Ethnicity

Spain & Netherlands News | Black

Spain and the Netherlands look to phase out blackface Christmas traditions
  • Madrid authorities announced that they will cast an actual black person in the role of Balthazar this year rather than continue the tradition of blackening the face of a white person.
  • In The Hague, education officials announced that elementary schools will no longer engage in the “Black Pete” tradition, which paints Santa’s helpers in blackface.
  • While cities across Spain are increasingly abolishing holiday blackface, the Netherlands has seen staunch resistance, with a majority of its citizens rejecting the idea that Black Pete is a racist practice.

“This change is much more than just anecdotal. … Given the increasingly large community of colour in our city, it seems absurd that this role continues to be represented by a person with their face blackened.”

Read the full story at the Guardian.

(Image Credit: Peter Dejong/AP, via The Guardian)

Nationality + Migration

Finland News | Refugees

Finland sees hundreds of refugees entering across Swedish border as it prepares to accept thousands more
  • More than 500 crossed the border in a day as the country has already seen the arrival of 11,000 asylum seekers.
  • Finland has agreed to take in thousands more in agreement with a proposed European refugee distribution plan, with most refugees making it to Finland having arrived from Iraq.
  • The government has reduced refugees’ cash stipend to €316 for a single adult (without meals) and is preparing to cut social integration benefits.

“I think our economic situation has become a smaller problem than the challenge from the refugees… We are monitoring the situation hour by hour.”

Read the full story at Reuters.

(Image Credit: Jussi Nukari/Lehtikuva/Reuters)

Gender, Religion + Belief

U.K. News | Muslims

London’s Islamophobia Uptick

Image Credit: YouTube, via BuzzFeed
Image Credit: YouTube, via BuzzFeed

With reported Islamophobic incidents in the city having increased by 70% over the last year, London’s Muslims share stories of the harassment they have faced at work, in school, on public transportation, and in many of the other areas of public life. From threats to name-calling to “jokes,” four Muslims share their stories of Islamophobic harassment with BuzzFeed News, including three women who share how the intersection of gender further compounds vulnerability.

Read the full feature at BuzzFeed News.

Nationality + Migration

France Feature | Migrant Youth

Video

Jump-starting the Future for Unaccompanied Migrant Minors in France

A specialized department of the refugee advocacy and services organization France Terre Asile, the Centre d’accueil et d’orientation pour les mineurs isolés étrangers (Reception and Orientation Center for Unaccompanied Foreign Minors) provides meals, lodging, and education for unaccompanied youth of foreign origin aged 14 to 18 to facilitate adjustment and integration into French society. Agence France-Presse profiles a few of the youth and the work being done at the center.

View the AFP video on YouTube (in French).

Nationality + Migration

Czech Republic News | Refugees & Migrants

Missteps in the Czech Republic’s handling of migrants draw ire
  • Czech police have discontinued numbering migrants by pen at the Breclav train station after human rights and Jewish advocacy groups expressed outrage.
  • Authorities said the numbering, which critics said had resonance with Holocaust-era practices, had been an attempt to keep from separating families.
  • Despite having had only a fraction of the asylum requests received by larger European countries, the Czech Republic has experienced a surge in anti-immigrant (largely anti-Muslim) sentiment.

“This incident shows how certain countries in Europe have been hit completely off guard. … The image of labeling refugees brings historical images of the Second World War to mind, and the police and border guards should understand the requirement under international conventions to treat migrants with the dignity they deserve. Countries can’t punish people for being migrants.”

Read the full story at the New York Times.

(Image Credit: Igor Zehl/CTK, via Associated Press)

Nationality + Migration

U.K. News | Refugees

U.K. announces it will take in thousands of refugees
  • A spokesperson for the U.N. refugee office reported that Britain will be offering refuge for 4,000 Syrian refugees.
  • The announcement comes as PM David Cameron has come under fire for the his reticence to take in refugees.
  • The Syrians who arrive will be offered resettlement as millions pour out of the country torn apart by conflict driven by pro-Assad forces, rebel factions, the Islamic State, and the defense against IS.

Read the full story at Reuters.