The research was commissioned by the EUMC (European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia). The main purpose of the study was to differentiate each of the four communities mentioned above from the other. The research question was whether these four communities perceive equally that they are victims of discrimination based upon ethnic origin.

Luxembourg has a long standing tradition of immigration and is today a multicultural country which - proportionally to its population - has the largest foreign population of all EU member States. Officially registered incidents of racial discrimination are rare.

In order to explore how the foreign population is perceived in the country, groups of migrants of different geographical origins were selected in an attempt to get an insight into the situations in which discrimination is, or is not, frequent. The following four groups were asked to participate:

These groups are very different in socio-economic and cultural terms and were intentionally chosen to get diverse perspectives on the topic of discrimination based upon ethnic origin. The individual perception of discrimination is very subjective, which causes two difficulties regarding the measurement of perceived discrimination: Firstly, there is no evidence that discrimination is defined equally in the four groups; and secondly, the discrimination reported could actually be no discrimination but merely a different but legitimate way of handling certain problems. The results of the study present the unique view of the ‘victim’, according to his/her experiences in life.

The 18 core questions of the study questionnaire focus on different areas of everyday life. They can be summed up in 4 categories: employment, the public/private environment, the institutional area and a last group with questions covering different thematic fields.

In 2005, a representative sample of 5,117 foreign residents was sent a questionnaire. 1,383 people replied, which corresponds to a 27.1 per cent response rate. The content of the questionnaire was determined by the EUMC. A few minor modifications were nonetheless made in order to adapt the questionnaire to the specific situation of Luxembourg (e.g.: terminology of certain institutions).

The questions concern the perception of discrimination endured? in 18 different spheres of daily life (work, housing, school, the neighbourhood, public places, etc.). The types of discrimination are essentially due to the ethnic origin of the victims; the incidents asked about in the questionnaire have all occurred in Luxembourg during the course of the last few years.

The research is financed by the EUMC. The core of the EUMC's activities was the RAXEN (European Information Network on Racism and Xenophobia), designed to collect data and information at a national as well as at the European level. This was accomplished via National Focal Points, contracted by the EUMC to collect, coordinate and disseminate national and EU information in each of the EU Member States. From March 2007, the EUMC is merged in the FRA (European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights) representing a body of the European Union.

The analysis of the results points out that there are no clear trends and tendencies regarding both the perceptions on discrimination and the origin of the victims.

Nevertheless, the Cap Verdeans declared to be more often discriminated than the other nationalities explained by the ‘visible’ character of their origin.

In general, employment is the area where discriminatory experiences take place. In this area, harassment at the workplace (16.1 per cent) and discrimination in the process of job application (12.6 per cent) are the situations reported most often.

CEPS/INSTEAD (Centre d'Etudes de Populations, de Pauvreté et de Politiques Socio-Economiques / International Networks for Studies in Technology, Environment, Alternatives, Development)
Luxembourg
Fax: +352 58 55 60
Isabelle BOUVY, tel. +352 58 58 55-513

//

/12/2006

Lucile BODSON, Claudia HARTMANN-HIRSCH, Uwe WARNER

research

Urban Policy > Social inclusion & integration

Integration of social groups