Over the past months, the Participa City partner organizations have collected different “critical incidents” – real-life situations in which people either experienced discrimination based on their ethnic or cultural background themselves, or witnessed discriminatory behaviour towards others. The analysis of the critcal incidents has revealed that discrimination and racism are widespread across a variety of areas of life in Europe. Our participants submitted reports pertaining to many subjects, including incidents within the domains of education, the housing market and the labour market. The critical incidents showed that mostly people with migrant backgrounds and ethnic minorities are affected by discrimination and racism with specific country-related differences.
In the education sector, people reported discriminatory behaviour towards students with a migrant background, where their abilities were either not acknowledged or they were subjected to prejudices and racist stereotyping. Participants highlighted structural shortcomings in the school system, as well as a lack of awareness among teachers and insufficient support for professionals fighting for diversity in school contexts. Overall, education was emphasized as a highly relevant area of life in which many critical incidents could be observed and where anti-discrimination efforts are very much necessary.
Critical incidents reported in the context of the housing market mainly concerned the appearance and the name of individuals belonging to ethnic or cultural minorities, and the prejudices they encountered when searching for apartments. People with names that are not typical of the majority ethnic group in the country concerned often experience discrimination, such as landlords preferring tenants with ‘non-exotic’ names and appearances.
This kind of prejudiced stereotyping leads to minority groups being disadvantaged and facing barriers to access in their societies.
An area of life, where the collected critical incidents also evolved around prejudiced behaviour, is the labour market. People belonging to ethnic and cultural minorities face disadvantages when looking for a job or during interviews. Here, again, their names and appearances lead to biased and discriminatory behaviour by recruiters. Participants highlighted the fact that, despite being highly qualified, people with migrant backgrounds are often overlooked and discriminated against in favour of applicants belonging to the majority ethnic group. Critical incidents also showed that people were disadvantaged even when their level of education and qualifications were higher than those of the other applicants.
The overall analysis of the collected critical incidents revealed that many people belonging to ethnic or cultural minorities continue to experience discrimination and are often confronted with discriminatory behaviour and blatant racism. Their experiences are not limited to specific subjects, but are prevalent throughout the entire social lives. Clearly, our societies have a lot of work to do, and anti-discrimination efforts are required at various levels. Based on this assessment, the Participa City partnership will develop acting recommendations to help confront discriminatory behaviour. These recommendations will be centred around the individual level of people involved in critical situations and on the broader societal level.
Our aim is to help prevent racism and discrimination across the Participa City partner countries and we are passionate about making a real change in our societies!