EUROPE

Summer 2007

by Bashy Quraishy

The European economy relies on a steady flow of immigrant labour, but society in most EU countries is in denial about the newcomers’ role and permanence. Bashy Quraishy, President of the European Network against Racism and Member of the EU Commission’s High Level Group on Integration, sets out his formula for tackling ethnic minority problems that are widespread, deeply rooted and much neglected

Europe has in recent decades been viewed by many people in the developing world as a blessed continent of ample opportunity. This partly reflected its ties with former colonies and partly its efforts to put its imperialist past behind it.

From 1945 until the mid-1970s, and particularly during the rapid expansion of European industry from 1960 until 1975, the importing of cheap labour was a marked feature of all western industrialised countries. Employers were looking for flexible labour units and temporary foreign workers matched this need to the letter. In the beginning, these people were called guestworkers, but contrary to most people’s expectations, they stayed on and became immigrants. Beside the early arrivals, a sizeable number of refugees from war torn countries also found safe haven in Europe. Most of these groups have actively tried to become socio-economically, politically and culturally part of the societies they live in. Many have acquired citizenship, even though they may also have kept strong ties to their homelands. Slowly but surely, these people established themselves as Europe’s ethnic and religious minorities.

But as time passed, their circumstances changed, and so too did both the labour market and in many European countries the political climate. Along with socio-cultural marginalisation, unemployment among these ethnic minorities increased dramatically. Populist political parties found these powerless groups an easy target to blame for ills that ranged from a country’s economic woes to cultural disharmony. Surveys in the last few years by organisations ranging from the OECD to Eurobarometer among ethnic minorities with non-white and non-European backgrounds say they find themselves on the outer edges of society, with little prospect of stable employment, good housing, social acceptance, higher education or even equal participation in leisure activities.

Terrorist attacks like 9/11 and the Madrid and London bombings have driven a further wedge between native European populations and people with an Islamic background. If that were not enough, the EU’s enlargement and the availability of willing cheap labour from eastern Europe has further complicated the issues surrounding integration.

The term integration comes from the Latin inte-gratus, meaning a wholeness where the single parts retain their relative independence. The American Encyclopaedia describes integration as "A process which brings different cultures and races together, and is based on equality, justice and equal protection under the law." This can be taken to mean that successful integration rests not only on minorities but also to a large extent on the shoulders of the majority in any society. The majority has all the power, while minorities have either to obey or rebel.

A bird’s eye view of the European continent today, I believe, is that it is moving towards being a United States of Europe, but without the participation of its ethnic minorities. The experience that they have is that their integration into society in different European countries has failed miserably. And the last 10 years, from the mid-1990s onward, have been the most painful of all. First, because ethnic minorities have realised that society in most European countries have never fully accepted their existence as permanent and equal elements, and secondly because society throughout Europe is trying to force an unwelcome assimilation process onto these ethnic minorities. It is unwelcome because Europeans have failed to understand the basic fact that as long as the majority public opinion holds on to its Euro-centric beliefs it can never accept a non-European, non-white, non-Christian person as an equal member of society.

In Europe today it is not just first generation immigrants and refugees who face discrimination. Their children, who usually have an excellent command of the local language and may also have high qualifications, often cannot even get a job interview, let alone employment. Ethnic youths are routinely refused entrance at dance halls and discotheques, and ethnic minorities are likely be condemned to bad housing in socially deprived areas.

The situation is such that political parties in a number of EU countries are beginning to suggest spreading minorities throughout different housing areas by the use of quotas. The same approach is already happening with schools, where many countries now practice spreading minority communities’ children to public schools outside their neighbourhood regardless of the free choice of schools guaranteed by law in not a few of them. It may be part of well-intentional efforts to improve integration but the right of minority children to learn their own mother tongue in school, which is guaranteed by international human rights conventions and EU directives, has been abolished in many EU countries.

Police forces, airport authorities, social services, hospital staff, businesses and tax authorities all practice minority discrimination to some degree. This socio-economic marginalisation has been sapping the will and motivation of ethnic minorities, with many, especially the youth, turning their backs on local society in despair and in protest. In a few cases, sadly, they fall prey to extremist groups.

The one-way integration process being imposed does not help the integration but instead causes “disintegration”. Minority youth riots in British cities like Bradford in 2003 and in Paris last year are clear indicators of worse to come. Although ethnic minorities make up only 5-10% of the population in any given European country, they get a great deal of negative attention in the media. The debate is often emotional and responds to waves of public feeling. There is an absence of objective and balanced debate on integration issues, and meanwhile all political decisions in European society take place without the involvement of minorities.

It’s a gloomy picture, but there is still time to turn the tide of failed integration through a goal-oriented policy at EU level that is proactive not reactive. But unfortunately every time Europe experiences some sort of event or crisis involving ethnic minority groups, society reacts with a flurry of proposals, community meetings, projects, reports, ministerial committees and media discussions. And then, once the situation calms down, Europe falls back into its normal slumber. And on EU level we should not take lightly the fact that governments in all too many EU countries depend on and co-operate with far-right political parties. Denmark is a good example of this trend, for the help of the Danish People’s Party, the present government has turned Denmark from one of Europe’s most open societies, into the most restrictive and xenophobic state in the EU. The speedy integration argument that won the day there was to close the borders as a first step. But the sad reality is that this “fortress” solution failed to deliver conditions for ethnic minorities and instead has created an atmosphere of conflict.

Many EU policy approaches have recognised that measures against racism and discrimination are an important element of any integration strategy, but also that the complex framework surrounding EU policies on integration means they are failing to address the issue. A determined integration strategy demands that the EU must stand to force member states to implement all clauses of the Union’s anti-discrimination strategy directives of 2000. They offer the sort of legal protection that can enable minorities to gain a foothold in the jobs market. It is obviously essential that they should do so as it’s the only way to break out of the present vicious circle; unemployment causes dependency on state benefits, social exclusion, poverty and de-motivation, all of which make people unemployable. To emphasis this point, the EU Commission issued a Communication in mid-2003 on immigration, integration and employment, and in late 2004 the European Council adopted the 11 Common Basic Principles (CBP) that became the basis of a framework for action at both national and EU levels. Whether that will translate into a Plan of Action that the EU’s member states will implement still remains to be seen.

There are two ways of looking at integration barriers. One is from the majority’s point of view, the other from the minorities’ side. If society in European countries really wishes to achieve two-way integration at local level, it must first stop demanding and start listening. It is imperative that majority representatives sit down with minorities and discuss with an open mind and an open heart, all the problems it has created for the minorities, and the problems minorities have created for themselves.

To achieve integration, authorities have to show the political will and moral courage to admit that structural and institutional racism exists in society. These discussions should yield a consensus on how to solve problems and bring down the barriers to mutual integration. Ethnic minority organisations have for years been asking for new thinking from the political establishment in Europe, but it is a wish that remains largely unfulfilled.

The weakest link Europe’s mutual integration process is the translation of EU policies into practical steps at national level. If the EU is really sincere in its desire to move forward, it has no choice but to move on two fronts simultaneously. First, a battle for winning hearts and minds through massive media campaigns to counter populist tendencies, and secondly to make sure that member states live up to their responsibilities.

The EU institutions must therefore ask the member states to take the following steps:
• De-link immigration issues and integration policies
• Acknowledge the intercultural nature of their societies, and the benefits it brings.
• Involve ethnic representatives in the formulation of policies relating to their own living conditions, and to the improvements that are needed.
• Ensure adequate funding for organisations that are helping the process of integration, including through non-discriminatory fieldwork.
• Establish Integration Committees at municipality level consisting of ethnic representatives and local solidarity NGOs.
• Support the work of specialised bodies where ethnic groups can register discrimination complaints and can get useful legal help
• Implement EU directives against discrimination and in support of equality in society, as well as ensuring that public services are being provided without prejudice or arrogance.
• Introduce legislation, where necessary, concerning asylum and family reunion in line with human rights and refugee conventions
• Make sure that the media lives up to its responsibility of creating a harmonious atmosphere
• Consider racism and racist statements as a crime against humanity and not a question of freedom of expression
• Be extra vigilant regarding far right populist propaganda and anti-Semitic and Islamophobic tendencies

To conclude with a word of self-criticism, ethnic minorities must play their part in making sure that they get what they deserve. Increased influence for Europe’s non-indigenous communities on the political decisions that shape their lives and well-being will not be served on a platter, it will only be gained through constant struggle and awareness raising.