SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: The European Union has published a new report on racism in Europe. Germany comes in for criticism on several fronts, including violent crimes and discrimination against foreigners in the job and housing markets.
Racism has become a front-page issue in Germany in recent days after an apparently xenophobic attack on eight Indians (more...) in the eastern German town of Mügeln. Now a new European Union report on racism reveals the full extent of the problem -- and shows that everyday racism in the general population is just as much an issue as right-wing extremism.
The "Report on Racism and Xenophobia in the Member States of the EU" was published Tuesday by the Vienna-based European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) -- an agency which was created on Mar. 1, 2007 to replace the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia.
The report shows that violent racism appears to be on the increase in Germany, with reported incidents of racist violence and crime increasing by 14 percent between 2005 and 2006, going up from 15,914 incidents in 2005 to 18,142 in 2006. However the report did say that the figures for reported crimes "should be interpreted with caution," as an apparent increase can reflect better data collection as well as real increases.
Crime with an extremist right-wing motive also showed an increase, going up from 15,361 incidents in 2005 to 17,597 incidents in 2006, a 14.6 percent increase. "The observation of this apparent upward trend in extremist activity in Germany is supported by reports of increased right-wing attacks noted by victim support organizations in eastern parts of the country," the report's authors write.
However the incidence of anti-Semitic crime in Germany remained fairly constant, with 1,662 incidents in 2006 compared to 1,682 in 2005. Racism On the Rise in Germany (more)
Mark Alexander
