Discrimination against Immigrants in the Area of Civil Rights

Description

A small number of immigrants reach the antidiscrimination bodies, and the data available on their discrimination in the area of civil rights are very scarce. The project objective is to promote human rights for immigrants, with focus on equal treatment in the area of civil rights. The equal treatment is provisioned for in the National Strategy on Immigration. The project is expected to raise the awareness of actors involved in the immigrants’ integration regarding human rights and discrimination, and to reduce the discriminatory practices against immigrants in the area of civil rights. A target population of 20 immigrants and 30 public servants was set for training. A premiere research on the aliens’ discrimination in Romania in the area of civil rights will provide the basis for a policy brief on anti-discrimination measures. The anti-discrimination training for immigrants and public servants will reduce the institutional discrimination. The anti-discrimination campaign supports the other project activities through awareness-raising. The beneficiaries of DIM are immigrants, authorities and NGOs working on migration, employers, and the Romanian society.

Summary of project results

Despite the inclusion of anti-discrimination provisions in several immigration laws, Romania failed to monitor the cases of discrimination on criteria such as ethnicity and race. As stressed in the EC report regarding the application of anti-discrimination Directives (2014), the lack of in-place mechanisms for collecting and analysing such data led to the false conclusion that discrimination does not exist in society. The immigrants are among the most vulnerable groups to discrimination, according to the studies conducted across Europe, because of their different physical appearance and culture. The main objective of the project was to fight discrimination and intolerance against immigrants through several actions: 1) the evaluation of discrimination as perceived by the immigrants in their experiences related to housing, education, health care, work and access to goods and services; 2) participation of institutional and civil society actors in the process of elaborating specific antidiscrimination measures; 3) combatting discriminatory practices among public clerks and reducing immigrants' vulnerability to discrimination/rights violation; and 4) raising the awareness of authorities, employers, general public and immigrants themselves regarding migrants’ vulnerability to rights violation. The first phase of the project focused on the evaluation of discrimination level among immigrants. Based on its findings, the team drafted recommendations of measures expected to improve the issues raised. The recommendations have been improved following 3 consultation sessions with public authorities and NGOs, and provided the material for a policy brief, which is available on the project website - www.imigranti.ro. The second phase consisted in drafting the materials that underpinned the awareness raising and education activities – a training package for migrants, another one for authorities, and a brochure for employers. All of them can be downloaded from the project website. The third phase was the awareness raising campaign, together with all the information/education sessions that accompanied it. Since May, and especially October 2015, when the EC allocated the compulsory refugee quotas, the project evolved in an environment increasingly hostile to migration. In those circumstances, the team struggled and partially succeeded to provide an informed point of view and an alternative to the mainstream mass media that embraced the concept of refugee invasion.

Summary of bilateral results