47% of all people of African descent in 13 European Union countries have experienced discrimination ranging from verbal harassment to being denied housing or employment, according to a new report issued by the European Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA).
The report, entitled “Being Black in the EU: The Experience of People of African Descent,” is based on interviews with 6,752 people of African descent in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.
The survey showed that discrimination is particularly high in Austria and Germany where more than three-quarters of respondents said they had been discriminated against in the past five years.
The study also found that women and men of African descent experienced similar rates of discrimination (36% for women and 36% for men), with those with higher levels of education more likely to experience discrimination.
More than half of respondents with tertiary education (52%) felt discriminated against compared with one in four respondents (26%) with secondary or lower levels of education.
Those who wear traditional or religious clothing in public reported significantly higher levels of discrimination from those who do not (40% compared with 33%). Respondents who identified as a minority in terms of religion, disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation, or as a person of African descent or a Black person, experienced higher rates of discrimination.
Only 9% of those who experienced discrimination had reported the incident or made a complaint to any organization or body. Women of African descent reported incidents of discrimination more often than men (12% compared with 6%).
The most common reasons cited for not reporting were that nothing would happen or change (40%) and that the incident was too trivial or not worth reporting (36 %). Some 22% said that they felt they couldn’t “prove” it, and another 19% said that they did not report the incident because ‘it happens all the time.”
Fewer than a third of respondents (29%) were aware of any organization that offers support or advice to victims of discrimination in their country of residence.
The report also highlighted the lack of progress in EU countries in addressing discrimination despite binding anti-discrimination laws having been in effect in the EU since 2000.