® RACISM, XENOPHOBIA AND ETHNIC DISCRIMINATION IN GERMANY 2007 european forum for migration studies (efms) Authors Nicole Bosch, Mario Peucker, Stefanie Reiter assisted by Dr. Klaus Michael Alenfelder and Barbara Schneider Bamberg, July 2008 Table of content Executive Summary ..........................................................................3 A. Legal issues .....................................................................8 A.1. Brief overview.................................................................................8 A.2. New legislative provisions...........................................................10 A.3 Statistical data and tables ...........................................................19 A.4. Case law........................................................................................21 A.5. Good practice ...............................................................................22 B. Racist violence and crime.............................................27 B.1. New criminal legislation...............................................................27 B.2. Complaints mechanisms: abuse of police power .....................27 B.3. Brief overview...............................................................................28 B.4 Official data and information.......................................................29 B.5. Unofficial data and information...................................................39 B.6. Good practice ...............................................................................45 C. Key areas of social life..................................................54 C.1. Employment..................................................................................54 C.2. Education......................................................................................72 C.4. Housing.........................................................................................93 C.5. Health and social care ...............................................................108 Annex ……………………………………………………...…….....136 2 Executive Summary Legal issues Since its introduction in August 2006, the first German anti-discrimination law, the General Equal Treatment Act (AGG) has had only little impact on litigation; nevertheless the new Act seems to have contributed (directly or indirectly) to positive changes in the struggle against ethnic discrimination in two ways: The AGG has had a positive impact on the organisational landscape of anti- discrimination work in Germany: The government installed the required specialised equality body Antidiskriminierungsstelle (ADS), new non- governmental anti-discrimination organisations have been set up, already existing ones have sought to bundle their expertise and professionalize their work and new internal complain bodies have been installed within companies as required by the AGG. For the first time ever in Germany, data on court cases and complaints of discrimination, registered by the federal equality body ADS, have been published. According to labour court statistics in the state of Baden- Württemberg and the preliminary data on complaints released by the ADS, discrimination on the grounds of ethnic origin was recorded in about 10 to 15 per cent of all registered cases of discrimination, surpassed by discrimination on the grounds of age, sex and disability. It remains very difficult to make empirically defendable statement on the application of criminal law due to lacking court statistics. Although no new legislation on racist violence has been passed, it noteworthy that three Ester German Länder have presented a joint bill in the Upper House which aims at introducing the hate crime concept into German criminal law. Racist violence and crimes In 2006, the police registered the highest number of politically motivated right- wing crimes since the introduction of the new police registration system in 2001. In particular, the number of xenophobic right-wing crimes increased drastically; this holds for propaganda offences, cases of incitement to hatred as well as for violent crimes. This strong increase is confirmed by unofficial statistics on right-wing attacks jointly compiled by several victim support organisations in East Germany. 3 In contrast to the official figures on xenophobic crimes, the police recorded slightly less anti-Semitic – violent and non-violent – crimes in 2006. Data on Islamophobic or anti-Roma offences are still lacking. The Federal Ministry of the Interior as well as several NGOs assumed that the success of the right-wing extremist party NPD in the state election in Mecklenburg-west Pomerania has spurred the right-wing scene and thus partly explains the strong rise in xenophobic violence and crimes in 2006. In 2007, the Federal Government launched two major support programmes to promote projects against right-wing extremism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism: • The programme ‚Diversity feels good. Youth for Diversity, Tolerance and Democracy’ (annual budget of € 19 million) supports primarily local and regional awareness raising initiatives that follow a preventive, educational approach. • With an annual budget of € 5 million the programme ‘Support of counselling networks – mobile intervention against right-wing extremism’ supports networks and projects that follow a more interventionist approach, in particular when local actors require external professional assistance to deal with right-wing extremist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic developments. Employment The release of statistics based on findings of the 2005 micro census has lead to significant progress concerning data on the situation of migrants in employment. The micro census applied for the first time a complex indicator of the respondents’ migration backgrounds taking into consideration three variables, namely the nationality, migration history and naturalisation of the respondent as well as of his/her parents. Selected findings from official data are the following: The unemployment rate of foreigners is more than twice as high as the unemployment rate of Germans. Comparing the unemployment rate of ethnic German migrants, foreigners and Germans, ethnic Germans have the highest unemployment rate. For Germans and foreigners, the risk of being unemployed decreases with a higher educational attainment. Foreigners are more often employed in branches with a lower income and less favourable working conditions and less often employed in highly skilled professions with a higher prestige. Despite several indicators for perceived discrimination and the clear disparities between Germans and foreigners, there is only little empirical evidence for discrimination of migrants on the German labour market. A recently released empirical research study, however, underscored the difficulties and lower 4 chances of migrants in finding a job after having completed their dual apprenticeship. The new General Equal Treatment Act (AGG) obliges employers to implement anti-discrimination mechanisms which prevent any forms of direct and indirect discrimination and support victims of discrimination. It is difficult to assess how effectively the requirements of the AGG (one year after it came into force) have been put into practice by companies The Federal Government supports diversity strategies of companies by launching the nationwide campaign ‘Diversity as a Chance’. The campaign aims at raising awareness amongst public and private employers for the economic potentials of diversity. Education Migrants and foreigners continue to occupy, on average, a clearly disadvantaged position in the educational system. The causes for these educational disparities are manifold and complex: studies indicate a high impact of the social and family background that translates into educational disparities. The studies also emphasise the high impact of German language problems on the educational achievement of migrant children. Thus, the educational system, especially the early streaming after forth grade, has been subject to ongoing criticism as it does not succeed in levelling out the initiate differences between migrants and non-migrants. It remains difficult to make a defendable statement on the extent and mechanism of discrimination in the educational system. Complaints on discrimination, however, indicate that perceived discrimination against migrants does occur in the field of education. A recent research study of the German Youth Institute found that perceived discrimination and subsequent tendencies of re-ethnisation have a negative impact on migrants’ access to apprenticeship and employment. Support measures for migrant children have been expanded over the last years, especially with regard to German language support measures. A special focus is laid on pre-school education. The National Integration Plan announces the implementation of a general concept for education in early childhood which shall especially consider the needs of children with a migration background. Furthermore, the National Integration Plan announces the support of further education of teachers and educators with regard to a multicultural and multilingual environment and promotes a stronger involvement of parents within support measures aiming to improve the educational achievement of migrant children. 5 Housing The results of a recently conducted discrimination testing study by the NGO Planerladen indicate that the access to housing is limited for foreigners: For persons with a Turkish sounding name fewer flats were available after initial contact with