Racism in Europe
Encyclopedia
The article describes the state of race relations and racism
in Europe
. Racism of various forms is found in every country on Earth. Racism is widely condemned throughout the world, with 170 states signatories of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination by August 8, 2006. In different countries, the forms that racism takes may be different for historic, cultural, religious, economic or demographic reasons.
(a former UN secretary general) had concealed facts about his war-time military service with the Wehrmacht
. Nevertheless Waldheim was elected President. Controversy again erupted in 2000 when Jörg Haider
's far-right Freedom Party
entered into coalition with the conservative Austrian People's Party
having gained 27% of the vote. Progress has been made with settling the disputes and compensation for Jews and others whose property and assets were seized during the Nazi era, with a deal completed in 2001. Elections in 2002 saw a significant drop in support for the Freedom Party, with the party subsequently splitting into opposing factions. Jörg Haider
, before his death in a car crash on the 11th October 2008, led the "Alliance for the Future of Austria
".
Bulgarian nationalists are also wary of the country's large Turkish
minority because of their perceived ambitions for greater power in Bulgaria and potential separatism in areas where Turks predominantly live. The forced assimilation campaign of the late 80s and early 90s directed against ethnic Turks resulted in the permanent emigration
of some 300,000 Bulgarian Turks
to Turkey. During this period, Turks were forced to change their names to Slavic Bulgarian ones and Turkish culture was heavily suppressed. Muslim Bulgarians (ethnic Bulgarians practicing Islam) were also targeted as Islam was seen as a "foreign "Turkish element" that stood against Bulgarian interests.
The National Union Attack
or Ataka, a party widely considered fanatically xenophobic, surprisingly won 10% of the popular vote at the recent 2005 elections. A bit under 20% also voted for the far right Bulgarian political party Attack National Union for the recent European Elections.
In regards to the ethnic Macedonian minority in Bulgaria: The Bulgarian president told the Council of Ministers in Strasbourg on April 22 that there was no Macedonian
minority in Bulgaria. Expressions of Macedonian
culture were frequently suppressed: on May 5, police arrested fifteen ethnic Macedonians
to prevent a cultural celebration. On October 9, however, the Bulgarian president signed the Council of Europe Framework Convention on the Protection of National Minorities, signaling a new commitment to uphold minority rights.
invaded a large part of the island with the official explanation that it was in order to maintain peace and save Turkish Cypriots.
More recently, large-scale immigration to the South has resulted in a growing atmosphere of racism and xenophobia, occasionally spilling into violent incidents. The NGO KISA
has been set up to combat this development.
. Amnesty International
has previously criticized the anti-drug police readiness to act against foreign citizens. Several tourists claimed that they were allegedly beaten and harassed by staff in a prison. However the Regional State Prosecutor for Copenhagen found no basis for a case. The right-wing movement in Denmark criticized departments of the European Union
that claimed that there is racism in Denmark.
In relation to the ongoing gang war in Denmark, non-ethnic Danish gangs criticized the government for taking the side of Danish biker gangs, due to the law that criminals of non-Danish citizenship are deported.
(1147) the Jews in France were subject to frequent massacres. The Crusades
were followed by expulsions; in 1396, 100,000 Jews were expelled from France. Jews in Western Europe generally were forced, by decree or by informal pressure, to live in highly segregated ghetto
s.
In the colonial age, the French also displayed negative sentiments toward North Africans and blacks. French violent behavior in its colonies induced a strong resentment from local populations. The fact that Algerians, a formerly colonized population, formed the bulk of late-twentieth century immigration has raised delicate issues, which are exacerbated by the high crime rates and social decay.
France is home to Europe’s largest population of Muslims, about 5,000,000 (8%), as well as the continent’s largest community of Jews, about 650,000. Over the last several years, anti-Jewish violence, property destruction, and racist language has been wildly increasing. Jewish leaders perceive an intensifying anti-Semitism in France, mainly among Muslims of Arab
or Algerian heritage.
In 1998 the Council of Europe's European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) made a report stating concern about racist activities in France and accused the French authorities of not doing enough to combat this. The report and other groups have expressed concern about organizations like Front National (France)
. In a recent Pew Survey
, 47% of the French deem immigration from Eastern Europe to be a bad thing. A small minority shows signs of Anti-Semitism. Roughly 11% had an unfavorable view of Jews and 8% felt that US policy was most influenced by the Jews.
, and also a major area for development of race-biology, many of these theories virulently racist See above. Anti-Semitic campaigns in this period took on a definitely "racial" valence, as definitely distinct from a religious one.
The period after losing World War I
led to an increased use of Anti-Semitism and other racism in political discourse, for example among the right-wing Freikorps
, emotions that finally culminated in the ascent of Adolf Hitler
and the Nazi Party in 1933. The Nazi racial policy and the Nuremberg Laws
against Jews represented the most explicit racist policies in Europe in the twentieth century. During later phases of the Second World War, the Nazis began their genocide: the Holocaust
, a systematic murdering of six million Jews
, Gypsies, homosexuals (see homophobia
), disabled people
and other "undesirables". On the Eastern Front, the Nazi SS soldiers also had orders to shoot all Soviet prisoners of war who had "Mongolian features."
In the post-World War II
era, German reconciliation with its Anti-Semitic past has been a painful experience. A depleted population of young males during WWII and the German economic miracle showed that a recovering economy needed more factory laborers, the West German government recruited immigrants from mainly Turkey in the second half of the 20th century. Recent concerns about racism have centered around immigrants (Ausländer), who encounter prejudice when seeking jobs and apartments, or can even experience direct violent attacks by some right-wing groups. This pattern is similar to what is happening in some other European countries.
The immigrants came in two waves. The first wave of immigrants came in the early 1950s, the so called Gastarbeiter (Guest Workers). They were almost exclusively requested and welcomed by the German government and companies as work-force increase to the growing and booming economy. These well trained working people were literally exchanged by their native countries for economical incentives and came mainly from countries such as Turkey
, Italy, Greece and Yugoslavia
to West Germany
; and Vietnam
, Mongolia
, Angola
and Mozambique
to East Germany. Initially, the Gastarbeiter were expected to remain on limited contracts or work-permissions, and then eventually leave. Many of these contracts were extendent and family reunions were granted resulting in children born and raised in Germany. These second generation "Gastarbeiters" were now granted different rights (the right to live indefinitely in Germany - Aufenthaltsberechtigung) from their parents permission to reside for a limited, but for indefinitely extendible time (Arbeitserlaubnis). Problems of integration arose when these second and third generation "Gastarbeiter" remained citizens of other countries in which these generations had never lived and were increasingly culturally, socially and economically alienated.
Starting from the 1980s, the second wave of immigrants into Germany were the Asylbewerber (Asylum Seekers) from war torn and conflicted areas such as Iraq
, Morocco
, Somalia
, Sri Lanka
, Argentina
and Lebanon
among others. Germany was not prepared and in denial of being a land of migration since at least the 1960s when the first children were being born to Gastarbeiter. By the 2000s, an estimated 3 to 5 million Turks lived in Germany, concentrated in Kreuzberg
, Berlin
and inner-cities or industrial urban areas in the western regions.
Despite the 1950s immigrants of European origin adapting to German culture, it proved to be a different case for Turks and other non-Europeans who held on a cultural identity held to be "exotic" and "alien" by some Germans from that of their own. A failed integration of the first generation and failed German planning assisted in a general sense of not-belonging and the development of ghetto neighborhoods, creating and enabling racism.
In November 2010, Prime Minister Angela Merkel
publicly remarked that multiculturalism
in Germany has failed. Many Germans criticized her bold move to break a previously held post-WWII taboo
on even peacefully expressing an opposition to multiculturalism in a racially diverse Germany, where a fifth (18-19%) of Germans in 2010 are foreign-born. More conservatives are openly questioning the tolerance of immigrants and their behavior.
against some countries strong oppositions in the Paris Peace Conference
.
Although not a prosperous welfare state in its own right, Greece has become the focus of Third World illegal immigrants, if only the first port of call by such immigrants in their attempts to move on to Western Europe. Many of these immigrants, mainly from Africa
, India
and Pakistan
, have faced racist abuse from the locals. Attacks on them by Greek right-wing groups have happened repeatedly in Athens, often with the silent consent of the Greek city police.
. The English imposed laws forbidding land ownership, the Penal Laws, and later restrictions on freedom of religion (persecution of Roman Catholics following the Protestant Reformation in England), and denial of the right to vote or hold office. Casual racism was also evident in inaction during The Great Famine, leading to approximately 1 million deaths and the exodus of over 2 million people. The Plantations of Ireland
, run by English colonists, were a direct precursor to the overseas British Empire. In cases of wars and rebellions, such as the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland
, Irish Rebellion of 1798
and the Irish War of Independence
of 1919-1921, many war crimes, massacres and atrocities were committed by British forces or (British-supported) Protestant paramilitaries. There were also retaliatory massacres of settlers and their descendants, such as in Co. Wexford following the 1798 rebellion. It is estimated that as much as a third of the entire population of Ireland
perished during the civil wars
and subsequent Cromwellian conquest in the mid-17th century. Since the Irish Rebellion of 1641
, Ireland had been mainly under the control of the Irish Confederate Catholics
.
The Cromwellian reconquest of Ireland was extremely brutal.
The reconquest would today
be called a war crime
. William Petty
, who conducted the first scientific land and demographic survey of Ireland in the 1650s (the Down Survey
), concluded that between 400,000 and 620,000 people had died in Ireland between 1641 and 1653, many as a result of famine
and plague
.
While the dominant narrative of Irish history was discrimination against the native Irish population in favour of English and Scottish settlers, this evolved into dividing the population by religion, such that adhering to the state religion was equated to ethnic group. Over time, this created two broad-brush groups, Catholic and Protestant. Violence between the local communities became the dominant expression of racism and ultimately led to creation of two States on the island. While Northern Ireland's systems favoured the Protestant majority, the Irish Free State, nominally a republic, also became more polarized after its formation. Following establishment of the Irish Free State, attacks on Protestant families in border areas, as well as the Roman Catholic Church's Ne Temere
policy that all children of religiously mixed marriages were to be raised as Catholics, effectively decimated the non-Catholic population in what is now the Republic of Ireland, falling from over 10% in 1900 to under 4%.
The Shelta or Irish Travellers, a nomadic ethnic group once speaking their own language have also experienced persecution in past and modern times, in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland
.
Following independence in 1921 there was traditionally very little immigration
by non-whites to the Republic of Ireland due to historic poverty
, though in recent decades growing prosperity in the country (see: Celtic Tiger
) attracted increasing numbers of immigrants, mainly from Eastern Europe, China and Africa. Also the absence of colonialist baggage has meant that foreign people are not drawn to Ireland by "mother country" factors that have affected other European countries. Descendants of Irish people
who emigrated in the past also started moving to the country. Most immigrants have settled in Dublin and the other cities. Though these developments have been somewhat tolerated by most, there has been a steady rise in racist attitudes among some sections of society. A 2001 survey found that 51% of Irish people surveyed considered the country inherently racist and 60% of those in the 25 to 34 age-group considered "racism" to be an Irish trait. In 2005, Minister of State for Overseas Development, Conor Lenihan famously advised Socialist politician Joe Higgins to "stick with the kebabs" - referring to his campaigning on behalf of Turkish contract workers who had been paid less than the statutory minimum wage. The Minister later retracted his remarks and apologized. A 2008 EU-MIDIS survey of attitudes to minorities in the 27 EU States found that Ireland had the most racist attitudes to black Africans in the entire EU.
While most racist abuse in Ireland is verbal, violent hate crimes regularly occur. In 2000, a white English man was stabbed and seriously injured when defending his Jamaican-born wife from racist abuse by a group of adult men. In 2002, a Chinese man Zhao Liu Tao (29) was murdered in Dublin in what was described as the Republic of Ireland's first racially motivated murder. Later that year Leong Ly Min, a Vietnamese man who had lived in Dublin since 1979, was mortally wounded by two assailants who had been racially abusing him. In February 2008, 2 Polish mechanics, Pawel Kalite (29) and Marius Szwajkos (27) were attacked by a group of Dublin youths and died outside their home after each being stabbed in the head with a screwdriver. In 2010, 15-year old schoolboy Toyosi Shitta-bey, born in Nigeria but brought up in Dublin, was killed by two brothers (aged 23 and 38) close to his West Dublin home while returning from the National Aquatic Centre.
Several issues relating to immigration gained publicity in the early years of the century. After 1997 and prior to 2005 any baby born in the Republic was entitled to Irish citizenship due to stipulations in the Good Friday agreement. This led to claims that many pregnant women from Africa (overwhelmingly from Nigeria), having discarded their identification documentation, were travelling to Ireland expressly to give birth and thus allow their child to gain Irish citizenship. This became known as citizenship tourism. Following these alleged abuses of the loophole in the Irish Constitution a referendum on the issue was held. The referendum was duly carried and the loophole was closed.
The large majority of Irish people support their country's membership of the European Union, but growth in unemployment was paralleled by a rise in more visible resentment of migrants from either inside or outside the Union. There are several "anti-racism" groups active in the Republic, as well as those seeking tighter immigration laws such as the Immigration Control Platform
.
Fine Gael
Mayor of Naas Darren Scully resigned on 22 November 2011 over comments on live radio about the "aggressive attitude" of "black Africans". Former Labour
TD
Moosajee Bhamjee
, Ireland's first Muslim
TD, said Scully's remarks represented the "beginning of official racism" in Ireland and described them as "enlightenment" for the "small neo-Nazi following in this country".
got 694 requests to judge if a treatment legislation law had been broken. By far the most cases concerned age discrimination
(219), race discrimination
followed (105) and lesser number of sex discrimination
cases. THE CGB brought out 261 judgements; 46 per cent of the cases where declared discrimination.
Racism in Romania has been growing since the fall of communism in 1989. Groups like Noua Dreaptă
and all sorts of people constructed a barricade against the Romani people, who are seen as thieves and uneducated people. Also, P.R.M. (The Greater Romania Party
- Partidul Romania Mare), a party considered to be racist, antisemitic and xenophobic, has programs against the Roma and Hungarian minorities. In 2004, PRM scored 13.2% in the elections.
, Spanish Inquisition
imposed pureza de sangre ("racial purity") against Jews and Muslims. The Discovery of the New World
also led to the famous Valladolid Controversy, in which Bartolomé de Las Casas
opposed Sepúlveda
's denial of the existence of "Indian souls". See Eduardo Galeano
's The Veins of South America . Spain has attracted mixed race mulatto (African and Caucasian) and mestizo (European and American Indian) persons from its (ex) colonies since the end of the 17th century.
Racist abuse aimed at black footballers has been reported at Spanish football league matches in recent years. This has led to protests and UEFA fines against clubs whose supporters continue the abuse. Several players in the Spanish league including Barcelona striker Samuel Eto'o
and Espanyol goalkeeper Carlos Kameni have suffered and spoken out against the abuse. In 2006, Real Zaragoza player Ewerthon
stated : "the Spanish Federation have to start taking proper measures and we as black players also have to act.
Sweden was also the first country in the world to open an institute for race-biology research in the Swedish town of Uppsala. The institute recommended the sterilization by force of the mentally ill, physically disabled, homosexuals and ethnic minorities, which was allowed by Swedish law until 1975. Although Sweden is often referred as having been passive regarding WW2, 100 Swedes voluntarily joined the Nazis and participated in the Waffen-SS. There were divisions comprised partly of Swedish volunteers such as the SS Panzer-Division Wiking and the SS Panzergrenadier-Friewilligen Division Nordland European Network Against Racism
in Sweden claims that in today's Sweden there exists a clear ethnic hierarchy when ethnic Swedes are at the top and non-European immigrants are at the bottom.
Sveriges Radio
reported that the punishments for driving under the influence of alcohol tended to be harsher for immigrants than for Swedes; while over 50% of immigrants were sent to jail for driving under the effect of alcohol, only less than 30% of ethnic Swedes were sent to jail with the same level of alcohol found in blood. There has been evidence that the Swedish police used "Neger Niggerson" as a nickname for a criminal in a police training; this was published in Swedish media. Lately however, many incidents of racial attitudes and discrimination of the Swedish police have led for the first time to the control of racial attitudes of police students under police education A recent research done by the Swedish Confederation for Professional Employees (TCO) found that people with foreign background have much lower chances of finding a job that is appropriate for their education, even when they have grown up in Sweden and got their education in Swedish institutes.
In 2007, there were a total of 3,536 hate crimes (defined as crimes with an ethnic or religious motive) reported to the police, including 118 cases of anti-Semitic agitation. Racism in Sweden is reported to appear within Swedish health-care services as well. A nurse at a Stockholm suburb hospital lost his job after complaining on racial attitudes of the hospital staff to patients with immigrant background. Staff was cited saying "go back to Arabia", "the patient is screaming because it's in his culture", "send him to Auschwitz
" and more.
Swedish social services have reported on racism in Swedish hospitals as well. A study of statistics Sweden (SCB) reveals that segregation is widespread for Swedish immigrants when there are large differences in the fields of education, housing, employment and politics between immigrants and ethnic Swedes. Sweden has been criticized by the UN human rights council for an increasing number of hate crimes which seldom resulted in criminal charges, when more hate crimes are Islamophobic, anti-Semitic, and homophobic, with an increasing amount of racist propaganda appearing on the internet and in Sweden's schools, for failing to provide adequate health care and education to immigrants, asylum seekers and undocumented migrants and the ongoing discrimination of the Roma and Sami minorities in Sweden.
Swedish national television (SVT) has reported on a new research done in Sweden which identifies that job seekers with a Swedish name have 50% higher chances to be called for an interview than job seekers with middle-eastern names. The research enlightens that there is not much difference between foreign-born job seekers and job seekers born in Sweden if both don't have a Swedish name; this indicates that ethnic discrimination is the main cause of the variations.
or Confederatio Helvetica is a nation composed of four subcultural groups: German-speaking (63.7%), French-speaking (20.4%), Italian-speaking (6.5%) and Romansh-speaking (0.5%) (Source: Federal Population Census 2000). With this diversity and its history of neutrality
, Switzerland has been seen as a safe refuge for those genuinely fleeing from persecution, and this is backed up by statistics. Switzerland has seen an increase in refugees in recent years, (particularly from Africa), who have claimed asylum directly in Switzerland. In 1992, the federal refugee office registered some 7,000 black Africans requesting asylum. In the first nine months of 2002 the number was 17,000.
The vast majority of asylum seekers are believed by many Swiss politicians to be economic immigrants rather than genuine asylum seekers. Furthermore, the SVP or Swiss People's Party
has significantly increased its share of the vote in recent years on a perceived "anti-immigrant" platform. It is best known for opposing Swiss membership in international organisations such as the EU and United Nations
and for its campaigning against perceived flaws in the immigration, asylum and penal laws.
Swiss "Confederation Commission Against Racism" which is part of the Swiss "Federal Department of Home Affairs"http://www.edi.admin.ch/ published a 2004 report, Black People in Switzerland: A Life between Integration
and Discrimination
http://www.edi.admin.ch/ekr/dokumentation/shop/00019/00142/index.html?lang=de (published in German, French, and Italian only). According to this report, discrimination based on skin colour in Switzerland is not exceptional, and affects immigrants decades after their immigration.
Swiss people voted a new parliament in 2007, giving the right-wing Swiss People's Party
a consolidated grip on power. UN Human Rights
are fearful of the xenophobia that characterized Switzerland, and condemned laws that target the country's immigrants as unjust and racist. The Swiss People's Party
which has the largest number of seats in the Swiss parliament and is a member of the country's coalition government, drew worldwide condemnation with an ad campaign depicting three white sheep kicking a black sheep off a Swiss flag. The poster is, according to the United Nations, the sinister symbol of the rise of a new racism and xenophobia in the heart of one of the world's oldest independent democracies. According to Pascal Sciarini, professor of political science at the University of Geneva
, the People's Party's recent electoral success is down to its tough line on foreigners, and it is now a prisoner of this strategy: "They have to keep the fires burning, and that means they have to come up with new ideas and at the same time harden their stance," he said. Although Switzerland has Europe's toughest naturalisation laws - foreigners must live for 12 years in a Swiss community before they can apply, and being born in Switzerland brings no right to citizenship -, Swiss People's Party
passed a new naturalisation procedure in 2007, called Democratic Naturalisation in this new procedure foreigners must often be approved by the entire voting community, in a secret ballot, or a show of hands. A report, from Switzerland's Federal Commission on Racial Discrimination, into the new process of naturalisation says the current system is discriminatory and in many respects racist, and recommends far-reaching changes. It criticises the practice of allowing members of a community to vote on an individual's citizenship application. Muslims, Jews
, Buddhists and people from the Balkans
, Africa
, and Asia
are the most likely to be rejected, the report points out. It cites the case of a disabled man originally from Kosovo
. Although fulfilling all the legal criteria, his application for citizenship was rejected by his community on the grounds that his disability made him a burden on taxpayers, and that he was Muslim. Swiss People's Party
claims that Swiss communities have a democratic right to decide who can or cannot be Swiss. In addition, the report said "Official statements and political campaigns that present immigrants from the EU in a favourable light and immigrants from elsewhere in a bad light must stop", according to the Swiss Federal Statistics Office in 2006, 85.5 percent of the foreign residents in Switzerland are European http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/fr/index/themen/01/07/blank/data/01.html. The United Nations
special rapporteur on racism, Doudou Diène
, has observed that Switzerland suffers from racism, discrimination
and xenophobia
. The UN envoy explained that although the Swiss authorities recognised the existence of racism
and xenophobia, they did not view the problem as being serious. Diène pointed out that representatives of minority communities said they experienced serious racism and discrimination, notably for access to public services (e.g. health care), employment and lodging.http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/front/UN_envoy_calls_racism_in_Switzerland_a_reality.html?siteSect=105&sid=6382785&cKey=1137401626000&ty=st
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6992670.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6980766.stm
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. Racism of various forms is found in every country on Earth. Racism is widely condemned throughout the world, with 170 states signatories of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination by August 8, 2006. In different countries, the forms that racism takes may be different for historic, cultural, religious, economic or demographic reasons.
Austria
This complacency was tested in the 1986 presidential race when it emerged that Kurt WaldheimKurt Waldheim
Kurt Josef Waldheim was an Austrian diplomat and politician. Waldheim was the fourth Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1972 to 1981, and the ninth President of Austria, from 1986 to 1992...
(a former UN secretary general) had concealed facts about his war-time military service with the Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
. Nevertheless Waldheim was elected President. Controversy again erupted in 2000 when Jörg Haider
Jörg Haider
Jörg Haider was an Austrian politician. He was Governor of Carinthia on two occasions, the long-time leader of the Austrian Freedom Party and later Chairman of the Alliance for the Future of Austria , a breakaway party from the FPÖ.Haider was controversial within Austria and abroad for comments...
's far-right Freedom Party
Freedom Party of Austria
The Freedom Party of Austria is a political party in Austria. Ideologically, the party is a direct descendant of the German national liberal camp, which dates back to the 1848 revolutions. The FPÖ itself was founded in 1956 as the successor to the short-lived Federation of Independents , which had...
entered into coalition with the conservative Austrian People's Party
Austrian People's Party
The Austrian People's Party is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Austria. A successor to the Christian Social Party of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it is similar to the Christian Democratic Union of Germany in terms of ideology...
having gained 27% of the vote. Progress has been made with settling the disputes and compensation for Jews and others whose property and assets were seized during the Nazi era, with a deal completed in 2001. Elections in 2002 saw a significant drop in support for the Freedom Party, with the party subsequently splitting into opposing factions. Jörg Haider
Jörg Haider
Jörg Haider was an Austrian politician. He was Governor of Carinthia on two occasions, the long-time leader of the Austrian Freedom Party and later Chairman of the Alliance for the Future of Austria , a breakaway party from the FPÖ.Haider was controversial within Austria and abroad for comments...
, before his death in a car crash on the 11th October 2008, led the "Alliance for the Future of Austria
Alliance for the Future of Austria
The Alliance for the Future of Austria , abbreviated to BZÖ, is a conservative liberal political party in Austria. The party has sixteen seats in the National Council....
".
Bulgaria
Racism in Bulgaria has been geared towards the Romani people who are perceived to be of different racial and ethnic background. However, not all Bulgarians are racist towards the Roma, and it varies with an individual's upbringing, education, area where they lived, and other factors.Bulgarian nationalists are also wary of the country's large Turkish
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
minority because of their perceived ambitions for greater power in Bulgaria and potential separatism in areas where Turks predominantly live. The forced assimilation campaign of the late 80s and early 90s directed against ethnic Turks resulted in the permanent emigration
Muhajir (Turkey)
Muhacir is a term of Arabic origin in Turkish language, used across ethnicities, and that corresponds to people whose ancestors migrated from formerly Muslim territories , considered lost to the non-Muslims : the Balkans Muhacir (sometimes maacir in colloquial Turkish) is a term of Arabic origin...
of some 300,000 Bulgarian Turks
Turks in Bulgaria
The Turks in Bulgaria number 588,318 people and constitute 8.8% of those who declared their ethnic group and 8.0% of the total population according to the 2011 Bulgarian census. 605,802 persons or 9.1% of the population pointed Turkish language as their mother tongue. They are also the largest...
to Turkey. During this period, Turks were forced to change their names to Slavic Bulgarian ones and Turkish culture was heavily suppressed. Muslim Bulgarians (ethnic Bulgarians practicing Islam) were also targeted as Islam was seen as a "foreign "Turkish element" that stood against Bulgarian interests.
The National Union Attack
National Union Attack
The National Union Attack is a nationalist political party in Bulgaria. At the last legislative elections, 5 July 2009, it won 9.4% of the popular vote and 21 out of 240 seats...
or Ataka, a party widely considered fanatically xenophobic, surprisingly won 10% of the popular vote at the recent 2005 elections. A bit under 20% also voted for the far right Bulgarian political party Attack National Union for the recent European Elections.
In regards to the ethnic Macedonian minority in Bulgaria: The Bulgarian president told the Council of Ministers in Strasbourg on April 22 that there was no Macedonian
Macedonians (ethnic group)
The Macedonians also referred to as Macedonian Slavs: "... the term Slavomacedonian was introduced and was accepted by the community itself, which at the time had a much more widespread non-Greek Macedonian ethnic consciousness...
minority in Bulgaria. Expressions of Macedonian
Macedonians (ethnic group)
The Macedonians also referred to as Macedonian Slavs: "... the term Slavomacedonian was introduced and was accepted by the community itself, which at the time had a much more widespread non-Greek Macedonian ethnic consciousness...
culture were frequently suppressed: on May 5, police arrested fifteen ethnic Macedonians
Macedonians (ethnic group)
The Macedonians also referred to as Macedonian Slavs: "... the term Slavomacedonian was introduced and was accepted by the community itself, which at the time had a much more widespread non-Greek Macedonian ethnic consciousness...
to prevent a cultural celebration. On October 9, however, the Bulgarian president signed the Council of Europe Framework Convention on the Protection of National Minorities, signaling a new commitment to uphold minority rights.
Cyprus
Cyprus has a long history of inter-ethnic conflict between Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot citizens. Following independence, these resulted in a series of escalating incidents of violence, mostly practised by the Greek Cypriot majority against the Turkish Cypriot minority group,and a military action by the Turkish army in 1968. In 1974, TurkeyTurkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
invaded a large part of the island with the official explanation that it was in order to maintain peace and save Turkish Cypriots.
More recently, large-scale immigration to the South has resulted in a growing atmosphere of racism and xenophobia, occasionally spilling into violent incidents. The NGO KISA
KISA (NGO)
The Movement for Equality, Support, Anti-Racism , is a Cypriot Non-Governmental Organisation. It was founded in 1998 in response to changes in Cypriot society, which saw large waves of immigration from Eastern European and Third World countries....
has been set up to combat this development.
Denmark
Countries outside Europe criticized Denmark for statements in relation to the Muhammad cartoons controversyJyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy
The Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy began after 12 editorial cartoons, most of which depicted the Islamic prophet Muhammad, were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on 30 September 2005...
. Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
has previously criticized the anti-drug police readiness to act against foreign citizens. Several tourists claimed that they were allegedly beaten and harassed by staff in a prison. However the Regional State Prosecutor for Copenhagen found no basis for a case. The right-wing movement in Denmark criticized departments of the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
that claimed that there is racism in Denmark.
In relation to the ongoing gang war in Denmark, non-ethnic Danish gangs criticized the government for taking the side of Danish biker gangs, due to the law that criminals of non-Danish citizenship are deported.
France
In the Second CrusadeSecond Crusade
The Second Crusade was the second major crusade launched from Europe. The Second Crusade was started in response to the fall of the County of Edessa the previous year to the forces of Zengi. The county had been founded during the First Crusade by Baldwin of Boulogne in 1098...
(1147) the Jews in France were subject to frequent massacres. The Crusades
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...
were followed by expulsions; in 1396, 100,000 Jews were expelled from France. Jews in Western Europe generally were forced, by decree or by informal pressure, to live in highly segregated ghetto
Ghetto
A ghetto is a section of a city predominantly occupied by a group who live there, especially because of social, economic, or legal issues.The term was originally used in Venice to describe the area where Jews were compelled to live. The term now refers to an overcrowded urban area often associated...
s.
In the colonial age, the French also displayed negative sentiments toward North Africans and blacks. French violent behavior in its colonies induced a strong resentment from local populations. The fact that Algerians, a formerly colonized population, formed the bulk of late-twentieth century immigration has raised delicate issues, which are exacerbated by the high crime rates and social decay.
France is home to Europe’s largest population of Muslims, about 5,000,000 (8%), as well as the continent’s largest community of Jews, about 650,000. Over the last several years, anti-Jewish violence, property destruction, and racist language has been wildly increasing. Jewish leaders perceive an intensifying anti-Semitism in France, mainly among Muslims of Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
or Algerian heritage.
In 1998 the Council of Europe's European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) made a report stating concern about racist activities in France and accused the French authorities of not doing enough to combat this. The report and other groups have expressed concern about organizations like Front National (France)
Front National (France)
The National Front is a political party in France. The party was founded in 1972, seeking to unify a variety of French far-right currents of the time. Jean-Marie Le Pen was the party's first leader and the undisputed centre of the party from its start until his resignation in 2011...
. In a recent Pew Survey
Pew Research Center
The Pew Research Center is an American think tank organization based in Washington, D.C. that provides information on issues, attitudes and trends shaping the United States and the world. The Center and its projects receive funding from The Pew Charitable Trusts. In 1990, Donald S...
, 47% of the French deem immigration from Eastern Europe to be a bad thing. A small minority shows signs of Anti-Semitism. Roughly 11% had an unfavorable view of Jews and 8% felt that US policy was most influenced by the Jews.
Germany
In the nineteenth century, Germany became one of the major centers of nationalist thought, with the Völkisch movementVölkisch movement
The volkisch movement is the German interpretation of the populist movement, with a romantic focus on folklore and the "organic"...
, and also a major area for development of race-biology, many of these theories virulently racist See above. Anti-Semitic campaigns in this period took on a definitely "racial" valence, as definitely distinct from a religious one.
The period after losing World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
led to an increased use of Anti-Semitism and other racism in political discourse, for example among the right-wing Freikorps
Freikorps
Freikorps are German volunteer military or paramilitary units. The term was originally applied to voluntary armies formed in German lands from the middle of the 18th century onwards. Between World War I and World War II the term was also used for the paramilitary organizations that arose during...
, emotions that finally culminated in the ascent of Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
and the Nazi Party in 1933. The Nazi racial policy and the Nuremberg Laws
Nuremberg Laws
The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 were antisemitic laws in Nazi Germany introduced at the annual Nuremberg Rally of the Nazi Party. After the takeover of power in 1933 by Hitler, Nazism became an official ideology incorporating scientific racism and antisemitism...
against Jews represented the most explicit racist policies in Europe in the twentieth century. During later phases of the Second World War, the Nazis began their genocide: the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
, a systematic murdering of six million Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
, Gypsies, homosexuals (see homophobia
Homophobia
Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...
), disabled people
Disability
A disability may be physical, cognitive, mental, sensory, emotional, developmental or some combination of these.Many people would rather be referred to as a person with a disability instead of handicapped...
and other "undesirables". On the Eastern Front, the Nazi SS soldiers also had orders to shoot all Soviet prisoners of war who had "Mongolian features."
In the post-World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
era, German reconciliation with its Anti-Semitic past has been a painful experience. A depleted population of young males during WWII and the German economic miracle showed that a recovering economy needed more factory laborers, the West German government recruited immigrants from mainly Turkey in the second half of the 20th century. Recent concerns about racism have centered around immigrants (Ausländer), who encounter prejudice when seeking jobs and apartments, or can even experience direct violent attacks by some right-wing groups. This pattern is similar to what is happening in some other European countries.
The immigrants came in two waves. The first wave of immigrants came in the early 1950s, the so called Gastarbeiter (Guest Workers). They were almost exclusively requested and welcomed by the German government and companies as work-force increase to the growing and booming economy. These well trained working people were literally exchanged by their native countries for economical incentives and came mainly from countries such as Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, Italy, Greece and Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
to West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
; and Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
, Mongolia
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...
, Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
and Mozambique
Mozambique
Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...
to East Germany. Initially, the Gastarbeiter were expected to remain on limited contracts or work-permissions, and then eventually leave. Many of these contracts were extendent and family reunions were granted resulting in children born and raised in Germany. These second generation "Gastarbeiters" were now granted different rights (the right to live indefinitely in Germany - Aufenthaltsberechtigung) from their parents permission to reside for a limited, but for indefinitely extendible time (Arbeitserlaubnis). Problems of integration arose when these second and third generation "Gastarbeiter" remained citizens of other countries in which these generations had never lived and were increasingly culturally, socially and economically alienated.
Starting from the 1980s, the second wave of immigrants into Germany were the Asylbewerber (Asylum Seekers) from war torn and conflicted areas such as Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
, Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
, Somalia
Somalia
Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...
, Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
and Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
among others. Germany was not prepared and in denial of being a land of migration since at least the 1960s when the first children were being born to Gastarbeiter. By the 2000s, an estimated 3 to 5 million Turks lived in Germany, concentrated in Kreuzberg
Kreuzberg
Kreuzberg, a part of the combined Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Mitte since 2001, is one of the best-known areas of Berlin...
, Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
and inner-cities or industrial urban areas in the western regions.
Despite the 1950s immigrants of European origin adapting to German culture, it proved to be a different case for Turks and other non-Europeans who held on a cultural identity held to be "exotic" and "alien" by some Germans from that of their own. A failed integration of the first generation and failed German planning assisted in a general sense of not-belonging and the development of ghetto neighborhoods, creating and enabling racism.
In November 2010, Prime Minister Angela Merkel
Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel is the current Chancellor of Germany . Merkel, elected to the Bundestag from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, has been the chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union since 2000, and chairwoman of the CDU-CSU parliamentary coalition from 2002 to 2005.From 2005 to 2009 she led a...
publicly remarked that multiculturalism
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...
in Germany has failed. Many Germans criticized her bold move to break a previously held post-WWII taboo
Taboo
A taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom that is sacred and or forbidden based on moral judgment, religious beliefs and or scientific consensus. Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society...
on even peacefully expressing an opposition to multiculturalism in a racially diverse Germany, where a fifth (18-19%) of Germans in 2010 are foreign-born. More conservatives are openly questioning the tolerance of immigrants and their behavior.
Greece
On April 11, 1919, Greece supported the racial equality proposalRacial Equality Proposal, 1919
The Racial Equality Proposal was a Japanese proposal for racial equality at the Paris Peace Conference.-The proposal:After the end of seclusion, Japan suffered unequal treaties and demanded equal status with the Powers. In this context, the Japanese delegation to the Paris peace conference proposed...
against some countries strong oppositions in the Paris Peace Conference
Paris Peace Conference
Paris Peace Conference may refer to:* Paris Peace Conference, 1919, negotiated the treaties ending World War I* Paris Peace Conference, 1946 July 29 to October 15, 1946See also...
.
Although not a prosperous welfare state in its own right, Greece has become the focus of Third World illegal immigrants, if only the first port of call by such immigrants in their attempts to move on to Western Europe. Many of these immigrants, mainly from Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, have faced racist abuse from the locals. Attacks on them by Greek right-wing groups have happened repeatedly in Athens, often with the silent consent of the Greek city police.
Ireland
Ethnic hatred in Ireland has a long history. For almost eight centuries of Irish history the most evident segregation in Ireland was the suppression of the indigenous Irish people by a succession of English and Norman rulers, beginning with the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169Norman Invasion of Ireland
The Norman invasion of Ireland was a two-stage process, which began on 1 May 1169 when a force of loosely associated Norman knights landed near Bannow, County Wexford...
. The English imposed laws forbidding land ownership, the Penal Laws, and later restrictions on freedom of religion (persecution of Roman Catholics following the Protestant Reformation in England), and denial of the right to vote or hold office. Casual racism was also evident in inaction during The Great Famine, leading to approximately 1 million deaths and the exodus of over 2 million people. The Plantations of Ireland
Plantations of Ireland
Plantations in 16th and 17th century Ireland were the confiscation of land by the English crown and the colonisation of this land with settlers from England and the Scottish Lowlands....
, run by English colonists, were a direct precursor to the overseas British Empire. In cases of wars and rebellions, such as the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland
Cromwellian conquest of Ireland
The Cromwellian conquest of Ireland refers to the conquest of Ireland by the forces of the English Parliament, led by Oliver Cromwell during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Cromwell landed in Ireland with his New Model Army on behalf of England's Rump Parliament in 1649...
, Irish Rebellion of 1798
Irish Rebellion of 1798
The Irish Rebellion of 1798 , also known as the United Irishmen Rebellion , was an uprising in 1798, lasting several months, against British rule in Ireland...
and the Irish War of Independence
Irish War of Independence
The Irish War of Independence , Anglo-Irish War, Black and Tan War, or Tan War was a guerrilla war mounted by the Irish Republican Army against the British government and its forces in Ireland. It began in January 1919, following the Irish Republic's declaration of independence. Both sides agreed...
of 1919-1921, many war crimes, massacres and atrocities were committed by British forces or (British-supported) Protestant paramilitaries. There were also retaliatory massacres of settlers and their descendants, such as in Co. Wexford following the 1798 rebellion. It is estimated that as much as a third of the entire population of Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
perished during the civil wars
Wars of the Three Kingdoms
The Wars of the Three Kingdoms formed an intertwined series of conflicts that took place in England, Ireland, and Scotland between 1639 and 1651 after these three countries had come under the "Personal Rule" of the same monarch...
and subsequent Cromwellian conquest in the mid-17th century. Since the Irish Rebellion of 1641
Irish Rebellion of 1641
The Irish Rebellion of 1641 began as an attempted coup d'état by Irish Catholic gentry, who tried to seize control of the English administration in Ireland to force concessions for the Catholics living under English rule...
, Ireland had been mainly under the control of the Irish Confederate Catholics
Confederate Ireland
Confederate Ireland refers to the period of Irish self-government between the Rebellion of 1641 and the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in 1649. During this time, two-thirds of Ireland was governed by the Irish Catholic Confederation, also known as the "Confederation of Kilkenny"...
.
The Cromwellian reconquest of Ireland was extremely brutal.
The reconquest would today
Presentism (literary and historical analysis)
Presentism is a mode of literary or historical analysis in which present-day ideas and perspectives are anachronistically introduced into depictions or interpretations of the past...
be called a war crime
War crime
War crimes are serious violations of the laws applicable in armed conflict giving rise to individual criminal responsibility...
. William Petty
William Petty
Sir William Petty FRS was an English economist, scientist and philosopher. He first became prominent serving Oliver Cromwell and Commonwealth in Ireland. He developed efficient methods to survey the land that was to be confiscated and given to Cromwell's soldiers...
, who conducted the first scientific land and demographic survey of Ireland in the 1650s (the Down Survey
Down Survey
The Down Survey, also known as the Civil Survey, refers to the mapping of Ireland carried out by William Petty, English scientist in 1655 and 1656....
), concluded that between 400,000 and 620,000 people had died in Ireland between 1641 and 1653, many as a result of famine
Famine
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including crop failure, overpopulation, or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality. Every continent in the world has...
and plague
Black Death
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...
.
While the dominant narrative of Irish history was discrimination against the native Irish population in favour of English and Scottish settlers, this evolved into dividing the population by religion, such that adhering to the state religion was equated to ethnic group. Over time, this created two broad-brush groups, Catholic and Protestant. Violence between the local communities became the dominant expression of racism and ultimately led to creation of two States on the island. While Northern Ireland's systems favoured the Protestant majority, the Irish Free State, nominally a republic, also became more polarized after its formation. Following establishment of the Irish Free State, attacks on Protestant families in border areas, as well as the Roman Catholic Church's Ne Temere
Ne Temere
Ne Temere was a decree of the Roman Catholic Congregation of the Council regulating the canon law of the Church about marriage for practising Roman Catholics....
policy that all children of religiously mixed marriages were to be raised as Catholics, effectively decimated the non-Catholic population in what is now the Republic of Ireland, falling from over 10% in 1900 to under 4%.
The Shelta or Irish Travellers, a nomadic ethnic group once speaking their own language have also experienced persecution in past and modern times, in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
.
Following independence in 1921 there was traditionally very little immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
by non-whites to the Republic of Ireland due to historic poverty
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
, though in recent decades growing prosperity in the country (see: Celtic Tiger
Celtic Tiger
Celtic Tiger is a term used to describe the economy of Ireland during a period of rapid economic growth between 1995 and 2007. The expansion underwent a dramatic reversal from 2008, with GDP contracting by 14% and unemployment levels rising to 14% by 2010...
) attracted increasing numbers of immigrants, mainly from Eastern Europe, China and Africa. Also the absence of colonialist baggage has meant that foreign people are not drawn to Ireland by "mother country" factors that have affected other European countries. Descendants of Irish people
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
who emigrated in the past also started moving to the country. Most immigrants have settled in Dublin and the other cities. Though these developments have been somewhat tolerated by most, there has been a steady rise in racist attitudes among some sections of society. A 2001 survey found that 51% of Irish people surveyed considered the country inherently racist and 60% of those in the 25 to 34 age-group considered "racism" to be an Irish trait. In 2005, Minister of State for Overseas Development, Conor Lenihan famously advised Socialist politician Joe Higgins to "stick with the kebabs" - referring to his campaigning on behalf of Turkish contract workers who had been paid less than the statutory minimum wage. The Minister later retracted his remarks and apologized. A 2008 EU-MIDIS survey of attitudes to minorities in the 27 EU States found that Ireland had the most racist attitudes to black Africans in the entire EU.
While most racist abuse in Ireland is verbal, violent hate crimes regularly occur. In 2000, a white English man was stabbed and seriously injured when defending his Jamaican-born wife from racist abuse by a group of adult men. In 2002, a Chinese man Zhao Liu Tao (29) was murdered in Dublin in what was described as the Republic of Ireland's first racially motivated murder. Later that year Leong Ly Min, a Vietnamese man who had lived in Dublin since 1979, was mortally wounded by two assailants who had been racially abusing him. In February 2008, 2 Polish mechanics, Pawel Kalite (29) and Marius Szwajkos (27) were attacked by a group of Dublin youths and died outside their home after each being stabbed in the head with a screwdriver. In 2010, 15-year old schoolboy Toyosi Shitta-bey, born in Nigeria but brought up in Dublin, was killed by two brothers (aged 23 and 38) close to his West Dublin home while returning from the National Aquatic Centre.
Several issues relating to immigration gained publicity in the early years of the century. After 1997 and prior to 2005 any baby born in the Republic was entitled to Irish citizenship due to stipulations in the Good Friday agreement. This led to claims that many pregnant women from Africa (overwhelmingly from Nigeria), having discarded their identification documentation, were travelling to Ireland expressly to give birth and thus allow their child to gain Irish citizenship. This became known as citizenship tourism. Following these alleged abuses of the loophole in the Irish Constitution a referendum on the issue was held. The referendum was duly carried and the loophole was closed.
The large majority of Irish people support their country's membership of the European Union, but growth in unemployment was paralleled by a rise in more visible resentment of migrants from either inside or outside the Union. There are several "anti-racism" groups active in the Republic, as well as those seeking tighter immigration laws such as the Immigration Control Platform
Immigration Control Platform
The Immigration Control Platform is an Irish political grouping, which has run candidates in the 2002 and 2007 Irish general elections...
.
Fine Gael
Fine Gael
Fine Gael is a centre-right to centrist political party in the Republic of Ireland. It is the single largest party in Ireland in the Oireachtas, in local government, and in terms of Members of the European Parliament. The party has a membership of over 35,000...
Mayor of Naas Darren Scully resigned on 22 November 2011 over comments on live radio about the "aggressive attitude" of "black Africans". Former Labour
Labour Party (Ireland)
The Labour Party is a social-democratic political party in the Republic of Ireland. The Labour Party was founded in 1912 in Clonmel, County Tipperary, by James Connolly, James Larkin and William X. O'Brien as the political wing of the Irish Trade Union Congress. Unlike the other main Irish...
TD
Teachta Dála
A Teachta Dála , usually abbreviated as TD in English, is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas . It is the equivalent of terms such as "Member of Parliament" or "deputy" used in other states. The official translation of the term is "Deputy to the Dáil", though a more literal...
Moosajee Bhamjee
Moosajee Bhamjee
Moosajee Bhamjee is a former Irish Labour Party politician. He was Ireland's first Muslim Teachta Dála .Moosajee Bhamjee was born in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa in 1947. His father emigrated from India in 1906 and had set up a hardware shop there...
, Ireland's first Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
TD, said Scully's remarks represented the "beginning of official racism" in Ireland and described them as "enlightenment" for the "small neo-Nazi following in this country".
Netherlands
In 2006 the Dutch Equal Treatment CommissionDutch Equal Treatment Commission
The Dutch Equal Treatment Commission is an independent organisation that was established in 1994 to promote and monitor compliance with this legislation. The Commission also gives advice and information about the standards that apply. Everyone in the Netherlands can ask the Commission for an...
got 694 requests to judge if a treatment legislation law had been broken. By far the most cases concerned age discrimination
Ageism
Ageism, also called age discrimination is stereotyping of and discrimination against individuals or groups because of their age. It is a set of beliefs, attitudes, norms, and values used to justify age based prejudice, discrimination, and subordination...
(219), race discrimination
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
followed (105) and lesser number of sex discrimination
Sexism
Sexism, also known as gender discrimination or sex discrimination, is the application of the belief or attitude that there are characteristics implicit to one's gender that indirectly affect one's abilities in unrelated areas...
cases. THE CGB brought out 261 judgements; 46 per cent of the cases where declared discrimination.
Romania
Racism in Romania has been growing since the fall of communism in 1989. Groups like Noua Dreaptă
Noua Dreapta
Noua Dreaptă is an ultra-nationalist organization in Romania and Moldova, founded in 2000.-Beliefs:The group's beliefs include militant nationalism and strong Orthodox Christian religious convictions...
and all sorts of people constructed a barricade against the Romani people, who are seen as thieves and uneducated people. Also, P.R.M. (The Greater Romania Party
Greater Romania Party
The Greater Romania Party is a Romanian radical right-wing, ultra-nationalist political party, led by Corneliu Vadim Tudor. The party is sometimes referred to in English as the Great Romania Party....
- Partidul Romania Mare), a party considered to be racist, antisemitic and xenophobic, has programs against the Roma and Hungarian minorities. In 2004, PRM scored 13.2% in the elections.
Slovenia
Gypsies have become the main target of Slovenian racists in the 21st century as the population is otherwise extremely homogeneous.Spain
At the end of the ReconquistaReconquista
The Reconquista was a period of almost 800 years in the Middle Ages during which several Christian kingdoms succeeded in retaking the Muslim-controlled areas of the Iberian Peninsula broadly known as Al-Andalus...
, Spanish Inquisition
Spanish Inquisition
The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition , commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition , was a tribunal established in 1480 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms, and to replace the Medieval...
imposed pureza de sangre ("racial purity") against Jews and Muslims. The Discovery of the New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
also led to the famous Valladolid Controversy, in which Bartolomé de Las Casas
Bartolomé de Las Casas
Bartolomé de las Casas O.P. was a 16th-century Spanish historian, social reformer and Dominican friar. He became the first resident Bishop of Chiapas, and the first officially appointed "Protector of the Indians"...
opposed Sepúlveda
Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda
Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda was a Spanish humanist, philosopher and theologian. In 1533 and 1534 he wrote to Desiderius Erasmus from Rome concerning differences between Erasmus's Greek New Testament , and the Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1209...
's denial of the existence of "Indian souls". See Eduardo Galeano
Eduardo Galeano
Eduardo Hughes Galeano is a Uruguayan journalist, writer and novelist. His best known works are Memoria del fuego and Las venas abiertas de América Latina which have been translated into twenty languages and transcend orthodox genres: combining fiction, journalism, political analysis, and...
's The Veins of South America . Spain has attracted mixed race mulatto (African and Caucasian) and mestizo (European and American Indian) persons from its (ex) colonies since the end of the 17th century.
Racist abuse aimed at black footballers has been reported at Spanish football league matches in recent years. This has led to protests and UEFA fines against clubs whose supporters continue the abuse. Several players in the Spanish league including Barcelona striker Samuel Eto'o
Samuel Eto'o
Samuel Eto'o Fils is a Cameroonian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Russian team Anzhi Makhachkala. He is also the current captain of the Cameroon national team.Eto'o trained at Kadji Sports Academy...
and Espanyol goalkeeper Carlos Kameni have suffered and spoken out against the abuse. In 2006, Real Zaragoza player Ewerthon
Éwerthon
Ewerthon Henrique de Souza is a Brazilian international football player who plays for Terek Grozny. His position is forward or winger...
stated : "the Spanish Federation have to start taking proper measures and we as black players also have to act.
Sweden
According to the report Racism and Xenophobia in Sweden by the Board of Integration, Muslims are exposed to the most religious harassment in Sweden. Almost 40% of the interviewed said they had witnessed verbal abuse directed at Muslims.Sweden was also the first country in the world to open an institute for race-biology research in the Swedish town of Uppsala. The institute recommended the sterilization by force of the mentally ill, physically disabled, homosexuals and ethnic minorities, which was allowed by Swedish law until 1975. Although Sweden is often referred as having been passive regarding WW2, 100 Swedes voluntarily joined the Nazis and participated in the Waffen-SS. There were divisions comprised partly of Swedish volunteers such as the SS Panzer-Division Wiking and the SS Panzergrenadier-Friewilligen Division Nordland European Network Against Racism
European Network Against Racism
The European Network Against Racism is a coalition of over 600 EU NGOs working to promote equality of treatment within the member states...
in Sweden claims that in today's Sweden there exists a clear ethnic hierarchy when ethnic Swedes are at the top and non-European immigrants are at the bottom.
Sveriges Radio
Sveriges Radio
Sveriges Radio AB – Swedish Radio Ltd – is Sweden's national publicly funded radio broadcaster. The Swedish public-broadcasting system is in many respects modelled after the one used in the United Kingdom, and Sveriges Radio - like Sveriges Television - shares many characteristics with...
reported that the punishments for driving under the influence of alcohol tended to be harsher for immigrants than for Swedes; while over 50% of immigrants were sent to jail for driving under the effect of alcohol, only less than 30% of ethnic Swedes were sent to jail with the same level of alcohol found in blood. There has been evidence that the Swedish police used "Neger Niggerson" as a nickname for a criminal in a police training; this was published in Swedish media. Lately however, many incidents of racial attitudes and discrimination of the Swedish police have led for the first time to the control of racial attitudes of police students under police education A recent research done by the Swedish Confederation for Professional Employees (TCO) found that people with foreign background have much lower chances of finding a job that is appropriate for their education, even when they have grown up in Sweden and got their education in Swedish institutes.
In 2007, there were a total of 3,536 hate crimes (defined as crimes with an ethnic or religious motive) reported to the police, including 118 cases of anti-Semitic agitation. Racism in Sweden is reported to appear within Swedish health-care services as well. A nurse at a Stockholm suburb hospital lost his job after complaining on racial attitudes of the hospital staff to patients with immigrant background. Staff was cited saying "go back to Arabia", "the patient is screaming because it's in his culture", "send him to Auschwitz
Auschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...
" and more.
Swedish social services have reported on racism in Swedish hospitals as well. A study of statistics Sweden (SCB) reveals that segregation is widespread for Swedish immigrants when there are large differences in the fields of education, housing, employment and politics between immigrants and ethnic Swedes. Sweden has been criticized by the UN human rights council for an increasing number of hate crimes which seldom resulted in criminal charges, when more hate crimes are Islamophobic, anti-Semitic, and homophobic, with an increasing amount of racist propaganda appearing on the internet and in Sweden's schools, for failing to provide adequate health care and education to immigrants, asylum seekers and undocumented migrants and the ongoing discrimination of the Roma and Sami minorities in Sweden.
Swedish national television (SVT) has reported on a new research done in Sweden which identifies that job seekers with a Swedish name have 50% higher chances to be called for an interview than job seekers with middle-eastern names. The research enlightens that there is not much difference between foreign-born job seekers and job seekers born in Sweden if both don't have a Swedish name; this indicates that ethnic discrimination is the main cause of the variations.
Switzerland
The Swiss ConfederationSwitzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
or Confederatio Helvetica is a nation composed of four subcultural groups: German-speaking (63.7%), French-speaking (20.4%), Italian-speaking (6.5%) and Romansh-speaking (0.5%) (Source: Federal Population Census 2000). With this diversity and its history of neutrality
Neutral country
A neutral power in a particular war is a sovereign state which declares itself to be neutral towards the belligerents. A non-belligerent state does not need to be neutral. The rights and duties of a neutral power are defined in Sections 5 and 13 of the Hague Convention of 1907...
, Switzerland has been seen as a safe refuge for those genuinely fleeing from persecution, and this is backed up by statistics. Switzerland has seen an increase in refugees in recent years, (particularly from Africa), who have claimed asylum directly in Switzerland. In 1992, the federal refugee office registered some 7,000 black Africans requesting asylum. In the first nine months of 2002 the number was 17,000.
The vast majority of asylum seekers are believed by many Swiss politicians to be economic immigrants rather than genuine asylum seekers. Furthermore, the SVP or Swiss People's Party
Swiss People's Party
The Swiss People's Party , also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre , is a conservative political party in Switzerland. Chaired by Toni Brunner, but spearheaded by Christoph Blocher, the party is the largest party in the Federal Assembly, with 58 members of the National Council and 6 of...
has significantly increased its share of the vote in recent years on a perceived "anti-immigrant" platform. It is best known for opposing Swiss membership in international organisations such as the EU and United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
and for its campaigning against perceived flaws in the immigration, asylum and penal laws.
Swiss "Confederation Commission Against Racism" which is part of the Swiss "Federal Department of Home Affairs"http://www.edi.admin.ch/ published a 2004 report, Black People in Switzerland: A Life between Integration
Racial integration
Racial integration, or simply integration includes desegregation . In addition to desegregation, integration includes goals such as leveling barriers to association, creating equal opportunity regardless of race, and the development of a culture that draws on diverse traditions, rather than merely...
and Discrimination
Discrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
http://www.edi.admin.ch/ekr/dokumentation/shop/00019/00142/index.html?lang=de (published in German, French, and Italian only). According to this report, discrimination based on skin colour in Switzerland is not exceptional, and affects immigrants decades after their immigration.
Swiss people voted a new parliament in 2007, giving the right-wing Swiss People's Party
Swiss People's Party
The Swiss People's Party , also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre , is a conservative political party in Switzerland. Chaired by Toni Brunner, but spearheaded by Christoph Blocher, the party is the largest party in the Federal Assembly, with 58 members of the National Council and 6 of...
a consolidated grip on power. UN Human Rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
are fearful of the xenophobia that characterized Switzerland, and condemned laws that target the country's immigrants as unjust and racist. The Swiss People's Party
Swiss People's Party
The Swiss People's Party , also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre , is a conservative political party in Switzerland. Chaired by Toni Brunner, but spearheaded by Christoph Blocher, the party is the largest party in the Federal Assembly, with 58 members of the National Council and 6 of...
which has the largest number of seats in the Swiss parliament and is a member of the country's coalition government, drew worldwide condemnation with an ad campaign depicting three white sheep kicking a black sheep off a Swiss flag. The poster is, according to the United Nations, the sinister symbol of the rise of a new racism and xenophobia in the heart of one of the world's oldest independent democracies. According to Pascal Sciarini, professor of political science at the University of Geneva
University of Geneva
The University of Geneva is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland.It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin, as a theological seminary and law school. It remained focused on theology until the 17th century, when it became a center for Enlightenment scholarship. In 1873, it...
, the People's Party's recent electoral success is down to its tough line on foreigners, and it is now a prisoner of this strategy: "They have to keep the fires burning, and that means they have to come up with new ideas and at the same time harden their stance," he said. Although Switzerland has Europe's toughest naturalisation laws - foreigners must live for 12 years in a Swiss community before they can apply, and being born in Switzerland brings no right to citizenship -, Swiss People's Party
Swiss People's Party
The Swiss People's Party , also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre , is a conservative political party in Switzerland. Chaired by Toni Brunner, but spearheaded by Christoph Blocher, the party is the largest party in the Federal Assembly, with 58 members of the National Council and 6 of...
passed a new naturalisation procedure in 2007, called Democratic Naturalisation in this new procedure foreigners must often be approved by the entire voting community, in a secret ballot, or a show of hands. A report, from Switzerland's Federal Commission on Racial Discrimination, into the new process of naturalisation says the current system is discriminatory and in many respects racist, and recommends far-reaching changes. It criticises the practice of allowing members of a community to vote on an individual's citizenship application. Muslims, Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
, Buddhists and people from the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, and Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
are the most likely to be rejected, the report points out. It cites the case of a disabled man originally from Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
. Although fulfilling all the legal criteria, his application for citizenship was rejected by his community on the grounds that his disability made him a burden on taxpayers, and that he was Muslim. Swiss People's Party
Swiss People's Party
The Swiss People's Party , also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre , is a conservative political party in Switzerland. Chaired by Toni Brunner, but spearheaded by Christoph Blocher, the party is the largest party in the Federal Assembly, with 58 members of the National Council and 6 of...
claims that Swiss communities have a democratic right to decide who can or cannot be Swiss. In addition, the report said "Official statements and political campaigns that present immigrants from the EU in a favourable light and immigrants from elsewhere in a bad light must stop", according to the Swiss Federal Statistics Office in 2006, 85.5 percent of the foreign residents in Switzerland are European http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/fr/index/themen/01/07/blank/data/01.html. The United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
special rapporteur on racism, Doudou Diène
Doudou Diène
Doudou Diène of Senegal was United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance in 2002—2008....
, has observed that Switzerland suffers from racism, discrimination
Discrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
and xenophobia
Xenophobia
Xenophobia is defined as "an unreasonable fear of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange". It comes from the Greek words ξένος , meaning "stranger," "foreigner" and φόβος , meaning "fear."...
. The UN envoy explained that although the Swiss authorities recognised the existence of racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
and xenophobia, they did not view the problem as being serious. Diène pointed out that representatives of minority communities said they experienced serious racism and discrimination, notably for access to public services (e.g. health care), employment and lodging.http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/front/UN_envoy_calls_racism_in_Switzerland_a_reality.html?siteSect=105&sid=6382785&cKey=1137401626000&ty=st
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6992670.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6980766.stm