Europe’s Ethnic Minorities and the Labour Market: Good EQUAL Practice in Five European Countries

A Joint Publication of the European Network of Ethnic Diversity in Employment (ENEDE)

PROJEKTĄ REMIA LIETUVOS RESPUBLIKA

PROJEKTĄ IŠ DALIES FINANSUOJA EUROPOS SĄJUNGA Europos socialinis fondas

ISBN 978-9955-9997-1-3

Publisher Lithuanian Children’s Fund

Design and layout Tomas Fedosejev Editor Irena Maciulevičienė Figures and tables supplied by country authors Photos from EQUAL project archive

© ES EQUAL project

Europe’s Ethnic Minorities and the Labour Market: Good EQUAL Practice in five European Countries

A Joint Publication of the European Network of Ethnic Diversity in Employment (ENEDE)

France

Germany

Lithuania

Spain

United Kingdom

Edited by Naina Patel, Director of PRIAE

(ENEDE) European Network of Ethnic Diversity in Employment

Index

Forewords........................................................................................... 6

Chapter 1: Contextual Overview: the EU and its non-White Ethni Minorities vis à vis the Social Environment and Integration Policies ........................................................................... 24

Chapter 2 France: Ethnic and Racial Discrimination in the Frenc Job Market and the Development of anti-Discrimination Policies: The Poitou – Charentes Region and the Commitment of the Châtellerault Community .................................. 34

Chapter 3 Germany: EQUAL Bremen & Bremerhaven: Diversity Management in Employment Promotion .......................................... 46

Chapter 4 Lithuania: Challenges to the Employment of Roma in Lithuania ............................................................................ 56

Chapter 5 Spain: Spain Becomes Diverse: Main Trends of its Rapid Immigration Process ..................................................... 72

Chapter 6 United Kingdom: Ethnic Diversity and Small and Medium-sized Businesses in the UK ........................................ 84

Bibliography ...................................................................................... 98

Acknowledgements .........................................................................................9

Contributors ...................................................................................................10

Aims of the Book ...........................................................................................14

Introduction ....................................................................................................16

Key Issues .....................................................................................................18

Forewords

9

It is a privilege for me to introduce this publication, Europe’s Ethnic Minorities and the Labour Market: Good Practice in Five European Countries. This is a significant publication, created by five Euro-pean partner countries which have been led by the UK partner PRIAE (Policy Research Institute on Ageing and Ethnicity), in combating racial dis-crimination and promoting equal opportunities and diversity in employment across Europe.

Today, Europe is operating in a changing global community where its countries are interdependent on each other. Knowing each other’s cultural as-pects makes interaction and communication easier and more understandable. With the recent enlarge-ment of the European Union and increased immi-gration from non-EU countries, Europe finds itself dealing with its largest ever minority ethnic popula-tion. Most members of minority ethnic groups are young but unfortunately are underachieving in the labour market. This book demonstrates how the participation of minority ethnic communities in the labour market is affected by a number of factors that have little or nothing to do with their skills, experience or qualifications. Most importantly, this book identifies the necessity of filling the gap in research linking ethnicity and business perform-ance. As this area of research is relatively new and required proper attention, this study attempts to inform governments, policymakers, and employ-ers how companies can perform when diversity is present in the companies.

While a large number of minority ethnic groups are experiencing high levels of unemployment and underachievement in the labour market, European

companies face labour and skills shortages. Com-panies across Europe need to realise that diversity within their workforce can bring great benefits to the company and community if it is properly implemented and managed. Diversity and equal opportunities are not only an issue of fairness and justice, but also an important element facilitating success of the future economic growth. As a an enterpreneur myself, I truly believe that diversity in my company has been key to the success of the business.

When companies try to access international mar-kets, diversity within its workforce helps companies work more effectively in the international arena. Companies that embrace diversity are capable of providing better services internationally because they better understand the needs of their multi-cultural customer base. Therefore, it is becoming crucial for European companies to try to capitalise on and encourage their multicultural workforce.

The Europe’s Ethnic Minorities and the Labour Market: Good Practice in Five European Countries is a milestone in manifesting a more practical approach to issues of diversity in employment through the introduction of good practice across Europe. I hope that the recommendations pre-sented in this study will be positively approached and implemented.

Foreword from Lord Karan Bilimoria CBE, DL

Founder and Chairman of Cobra Beer Visiting Entrepreneur, University of Cambridge Chancellor, Thames Valley University

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We have all experienced situations that we consid-ered unfair or hurtful. A person who arrived after us in a restaurant was served first. We applied for a job and received no reply while others did. We stood patiently in a queue, and when it was our turn, someone else was called before us. A promo-tion was given to someone clearly less competent than we were, and so on.

We remember the feeling of injustice that swept through us in these situations. Sometimes it was anger, sometimes guilt or shame that overcame us. Many people try to find reasons for this inex-plicable favouritism. Some reach the conclusion that they are persecuted for the sole reason that they are who they are.

These memories may help us to understand people who are victims of discrimination because of their real or imagined origin. They can help us understand the damage to one’s identity that can occur when a clear case of discrimination excludes a man or woman from a job, from housing, or from obtaining a service. In this context, our work in the European EQUAL projects takes on particular importance. And perhaps we begin to understand that a personal, individual change is necessary if we are to understand the reality of our societies and begin to participate in advance in the area

of equality and the fight against discrimination. When we address problems of ethnic or racial discrimination, we cannot ignore the conflicts that disrupted Europe in the twentieth century and which continue to tear humanity apart in various parts of the world today.

Our judicial systems, national and European, must be mobilised. The law must serve the cause of jus-tice. It is not reserved for specialists; it must be for the benefit of all. Laws regarding equal treatment and non-discrimination are based on the will to protect the weak and to create a society of justice, citizenship, security and peace. The EQUAL Com-munity initiatives are exceptional opportunities to work at regional and national levels, in partnership with other countries of the European Union. To take just one example from this book, the ACCEES Europe project is clearly part of the effort to raise general awareness of discrimination in the Châtel-lerault area. It uses the law to professionalise par-ticipants in social and economic sectors; it informs and assists victims of discrimination; it promotes diversity not as something that should be, but as something that is. Efforts made at a personal or small group level can radiate outward, affecting others. They can have an immense influence for change in discriminatory practices for a given area, for a country, for a whole continent.

Foreword from Arnaud Gauci

Director of the PIC EQUAL LATITUDE – ADECCO

Associate Director of consulting firm ALETHEIA

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This book was funded by the EQUAL Initiative which is a part of the European Social Fund (ESF). On behalf of ENEDE partners, we would like to express our special thanks to EQUAL teams across Europe that made the production of this book possible.

We would also like to thank PRIAE staff members working on the Contribution of Ethnic Minority Employees to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (CEMESME) Project for proposing the research outline and the template for this book and for designing the report in a way that facilitates its use among policy makers, researchers, profes-sionals and employers who will be our primary audience.

Acknowledgements

Our special thanks also go to Hazel Waters for her excellent copyediting of the manuscripts, given that, for the majority of the authors, English is not their working language.

We would also like to express our special thanks to the Equality and Human Rights Commission for allowing us to use the original graphs and tables from the Commission for Racial Equality fact files in the UK national chapter.

And finally, we would like to thank everyone who participated in this research project and facilitated the production of this book.

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Contributors

United Kingdom

PRIAE Policy Research Institute on Ageing and Ethnicity

Naina Patel OBE is the Director and founder of PRIAE. Naina is a Professor in Ageing and Eth-nicity at the Centre for Ethnicity and Health at the University of Central Lancashire. She is also the UK representative on the European Monitoring Centre on Racism, Xenophobia and Anti-Semitism (EUMC) and Observer on ECRI (Council of Europe). In addition, Naina is a member of the Leadership and Race Equality NHS Panel. She is part of the Old Age and Mental Health Delivery Board at the Department of Health and is on the Partnership Group for Older People at the Depart-ment for Work and Pensions. Naina has written extensively on the subjects of age and ethnicity, race equality and social work. Her background is in economics, race relations and social work. She is a principal editor of this book.

Ahsan Malik is the Director of the Contribution of Ethnic Minority Employees to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (CEMESME) project. Ahsan’s role within CEMESME is to lead the CEMESME team successfully to deliver the UK and transna-tional aspects of this ESF – and EQUAL – funded project; bringing in effective processes and del-egating responsibilities to the team members to achieve this. He also manages the Personalised Mentoring Programme under which postgraduate students from various ethnic backgrounds develop international trade activities in UK companies. He is a principal coordinator of the European Network

of Ethnic Diversity in Employment (ENEDE), which is a partnership of five organisations from France, Germany, Lithuania, Spain and the United King-dom and is responsible for the overall administra-tion of this book.

Dr. Gonzalo E. Shoobridge was the former leader of the CEMESME project and a former principal coordinator of ENEDE. Gonzalo was also previ-ously a Project Manager at the Bradford University School of Management, where he focused on economic development initiatives, making use of his past experience as special adviser and consult-ant on European policy affairs and external funds in the UK. He was responsible for setting up a framework for the research and conceiving the content of the book. He conducted the extensive literature review prior to the research and is the author of Chapter 1.

Akja Karajakulova, who holds a Master’s degree in International Business and Management, is a Research Officer at PRIAE. Akja works primarily on the CEMESME project and is responsible for the secondary research in the introductory parts of the book and a co-author of the UK national chapter. She is also responsible for liaising with partner countries’ organisations and coordinating the chapters of the book.

FranceSunergeia

Catherine Grandin is the Director and founder of Sunergeia, which is a private employment service specialising in the area of equal opportunities and

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the fight against discrimination. She specialises in public employment services and social inclusion for disadvantaged people. Her background is in social sciences and education.

Elena Schiroli is a Project Manager at Suner-geia. She is in charge of the coordination of all national and transnational activities of the French Development Partnership, as well as of all aspects linked to the administration of ESF for the EQUAL programme, ACCEES Europe. She is a co-author of the French national chapter. Elena holds a Master’s degree in International Economics, Co-operation and Development and has worked as a consultant for UN agencies, the Italian Ministry for Foreign Affairs and NGOs on the formulation and management of complex humanitarian emergency and poverty reduction programmes.

Alberto Balaguer holds a Master’s degree in Human Geography and a Master’s in Intercultural Mediation, and works for the Regional Agency for Social Inclusion and Equal Opportunities. He has experience in researching and writing on the sub-jects of migration and family reunification among North Africans. His main contribution to this book is the analysis of regional data on migrants and their socio-economic conditions.

Alessandro Pannuti holds a Master’s degree in Politics and International Relations, and has con-tributed to the literature review in this book.

GermanySenator for Labour, Women, Health, Youth and Social Affairs in the state of Bremen (EQUAL Management Unit)

Dr Saul W. Revel works for the Senator for Labour, Women, Health, Youth and Social Affairs in Bremen (Freie Hansestadt Bremen) and leads the EQUAL Management Unit. He is responsible for labour market programmes with external funding, focusing particularly on diversity management. Dr. Revel is of German and non - German background (his mother is from Berlin, Preußen, and his father from Louisville, Kentucky). Initially, Dr Revel entered the labour market becoming a printer and working as such for several years; later he studied social, cultural and economic sciences. He holds a PhD in Economics and specialises in labour market theory and politics.

Simone Müller is a researcher and a consultant at the Lawaetz-Stiftung in Hamburg, Germany. Her main focus is an on-going evaluation of labour market policies and networks. A social scientist, she is of German and Spanish family background; she works in the areas of labour market and ethnic minorities, social exclusion and urban develop-ment. The ongoing evaluation of ‘Equal Bremen and Bremerhaven’ is carried on by Simone and her colleague Peer Gillner.

Peer Gillner holds academic degrees in social education and business administration. He is a re-searcher and a consultant at the Lawaetz-Stiftung in Hamburg in Germany. Peer has several years of experience in the evaluation of labour market policy programmes and networks, communal so-

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cial planning and regional, national and European project management. Former areas of his research have included youth welfare services, vocational qualification programmes and integration projects for disadvantaged groups.

Lithuania

Lithuanian Children’s Fund Department of National Minorities and Lithuanians Living Abroad under the Government of the Republic of Lithuania Roma Community Centre Centre of Ethnic Studies of the Institute for Social Research

Romualda Navikaitė is the Director of the Lithuanian Children’s Fund, which is the leading organisation among the Lithuanian partners of the EQUAL project ‘The Creation and Testing of Sup-port Mechanisms of Integration of Roma People into the Labour Market’. She has extensive experi-ence in Roma issues. The first project in this field dates from 1993 and her knowledge gleaned from other successful projects is drawn on for EQUAL partnership.

Rasa Paliukienė is the Head of the National Minorities Division of the Department of National Minorities and Lithuanians Living Abroad (DNMLA) under the Government of the Republic of Lithua-nia. The DNMLA is responsible for arranging and implementing state programmes on national minorities and Roma integration specifically. Rasa has been a curator of the state Roma integration programme for the last six years and is one of the most experienced specialists on Roma issues.

Svetlana Novopolskaja is the Director of the public institution, the Roma Community Centre (RCC). Since 2001 when the Centre was opened, it has implemented a wide range of projects on the local and international levels. Situated close to a disadvantaged Roma settlement, RCC is able to contact and assist in the integration of the Roma community through different technologies, methods and approaches.

Dr. Tadas Leončikas is a sociologist and works as a senior researcher at the Centre of Ethnic Studies in the Institute for Social Research (Lithuania). His research focuses on social inequalities between ethnic groups, discrimination and equal opportuni-ties, ethnic intolerance, and issues of Roma inclu-

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sion. He is also a manager of the Lithuanian focal point for the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency, an expert in the NGO Human Rights Monitoring Institute, and a co-editor of the journal ‘Ethnicity Studies’. He is an author of the Lithuanian national chapter.

SpainFundacion Directa

Dr. Gema de Cabo holds a PhD in Economics from the Complutensian University of Madrid (the Universidad Complutense de Madrid). She works as an economist and project manager at the Tomil-lo Economic Studies Centre (Centro de Estudios Económicos Tomillo (CEET)). She specialises in time series econometrics, labour economics and social exclusion. Gema is a scientific director of the Spanish national chapter and its co-author.

Mateo Silos works as an economist at the Tomillo Economic Studies Centre (Centro de Estudios Económicos Tomillo (CEET)) and is a co-author of the Spanish national chapter.

Ana Moreno Romero is an industrial engineer and a PhD student in social and organisational psychol-

ogy. She is an organisational consultant, a partner in Enred, and an independent consultant on infor-mation and communication technologies (ICT) and development. At present, she is a Vice-President of Aula Solidaridad, working on the digital divide and corporate social responsibility. She is on the board of directors of the Energy without Borders Foundation (Energías sin Fronteras), and a mem-ber of AECOP (Spanish Association for Coaching and Organisational Consulting).

Manuel Acevedo is a consultant specialising in information and communications technology for development. He is an engineer with research interests in the information society, digital inclu-sion, and third sector networks. He worked for about a decade for the UN, where he initiated the UNITeS initiative (www.unites.org) and the UN Online Volunteering service (www.onlinevolunteer-ing.org). In the ‘Madrid Entre Dos Orillas’ project, he was responsible for studying the influence of digital inclusion on the socio-economic integration of immigrants in Spain.

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Aims of the Book

Working towards the elimination of racial discrimi-nation, promoting racial equality in employment and reducing the exclusion of minority ethnic populations are fundamental objectives of the European Union. The proper integration of ethnic minorities in EU countries is especially important today due to recent demographic changes, such as the increasing ageing of the population, increasing immigration from the Third World countries and EU enlargement. This book looks at the current social environment of ethnic minorities in France, Germa-ny, Lithuania, Spain and the UK; more specifically it looks at the situation of ethnic minorities in the labour markets of these five European states.

The book’s main aim is to raise awareness of the current situation of ethnic minorities in the EU and generate evidence on relevant issues facing EU policy-makers, governments and employers. It attempts to explain the benefits of the inclusion of ethnic minorities in all sectors of EU labour markets. Each country has its own approach to minority ethnic issues, as different EU states have gone through different development stages in respect of immigration. For instance, while the UK has a comparatively long history of migration, in Spain it is a fairly recent phenomenon. But in all five countries stress is laid on the crucial importance of policy intervention to secure minor-ity ethnic populations’ proper integration into all mainstream sectors of the EU economy.

This book underpins the concept of the ‘business case for diversity’ through various case studies and findings. It also underlines the reasons for minority ethnic concentration in certain employment sec-

tors and factors affecting incentives for minority ethnic employment, such as the lack of realistic, local employment opportunities, as well as other obstacles. The chapters, written by representatives from five EQUAL development partnerships1, show various sources of disadvantage which might lead to the underachievement of ethnic minorities in the labour market.

Due to limitations of time and resources, each country chapter focuses on selected ethnic groups.

Below is the list of ethnic groups for each country:

UK

Asian (Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Other • Asian)

Black (Black Caribbean; Black African, Black • Other)

Chinese•

Mixed•

1 Operational entity of the Equal initiative. The DP (geo-graphical or sectoral) gathers several public, semi-public or private organisations, called national partners, with a view to implement experimental activities on the basis of a common project linked to a thematic field of EQUAL. The partners participate at the decision making process on an equal footing. One of the partners ensures the ad-ministrative and financial co-ordination (Europa 2007).

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France

North Africans•

Sub-Saharan Africans •

Spain – Latin Americans

Lithuania – Roma

Germany

Turks•

Repatriates from Eastern Europe and the • former Soviet Union

Southern Europeans (former Yugoslavians, • Italians, Greeks, Spanish and Portuguese)

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Introduction

This book is a product of a partnership between five European states – France, Germany, Lithua-nia, Spain and the UK. This partnership, the Eu-ropean Network of Ethnic Diversity in Employment (ENEDE) operates nationally with universities, spe-cialist institutes, governmental institutions, NGOs and other partner organisations. A literature review conducted prior to writing of this book identified a gap in research linking ethnicity and business performance. This relatively new area required further attention, and ENEDE recognised the need to fill this gap, so as to inform governments, policy makers and employers how companies perform when ethnic diversity is factored in. In fact, the creation of ENEDE (funded by the European So-cial Fund), has become critical in the face of the changing demography of the European Union. The project specifically promotes equal opportunities and ethnic diversity in employment, particularly in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It is of particular importance, given that SMEs make up a large part of the Europe’s economy. In total, there are about 23 million SMEs in the EU, which are a source of around 65 million jobs. Small and Medium-sized Enterprises account for 99 per cent of all EU businesses. Moreover, SMEs, as key to delivering growth and better jobs for Europe, cannot afford to ignore the consequences of globalisation.

Schemes promoting the employment of ethnic minorities have mainly focused on training and on improving the job skills of their participants through a variety of activities. Such projects have tended to concentrate on minority ethnic employ-ees, to make them more attractive to employers by improving their skills base. ENEDE’s approach,

however, is to concentrate on the ‘demand’ side of the problem by demonstrating to employers the contribution which minority ethnic employees can bring to companies. Showing how the rich cultural backgrounds such employees bring with them impacts on business performance makes this project different from others promoting the minority ethnic employment.

The study Europe’s Ethnic Minorities and the Labour Market: Good Practice in Five European Countries was undertaken as a serious attempt to contribute to combating racial discrimination and promoting equal opportunities and diversity man-agement in employment across the EU. Through documenting the different obstacles that minority ethnic individuals face in both the search for em-ployment and at work, the book demonstrates how their participation in the labour market is affected by a number of factors which have nothing to do with skills or qualifications.

The participation of five European countries in this project shows the importance and necessity of anti- discrimination measures in employment not only as an issue of fairness and justice but also as an important aspect of the future economic growth of the EU.

Moreover, the gap in empirical studies which focus on ethnic diversity in the workforce as an element that influences business and export performance means that there is a lack of even basic descrip-tive information. Therefore, ENEDE, recognising the lack of sound empirical data for establishing practice and policy, has provided thoroughly re-searched documentation enabling:

19

the analysis of the current social environment • relating to ethnic diversity

the identification of various sources of dis-• advantage which lead to ethnic minorities’ underachievement in the labour market

the assessment of good practice initiatives • undertaken by some companies; and

the assessment of individual and companies’ • experiences of workforce diversity through various case studies and research findings.

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Key Issues

It is a truism that sound empirical knowledge will help to establish practical and policy responses on combating racial discrimination and promoting racial equality and diversity in employment. But in order to generate appropriate evidence and knowledge, certain key questions had to be ad-dressed:

Why do ethnic minorities still face obstacles • when trying to access mainstream services and employment?

What is the attitude of SMEs to ethnic diver-• sity today?

How do minority ethnic employees in SMEs • view themselves and what do they think should be done differently by SMEs with regard to diversity?

Is there an easy way of introducing diversity • in SMEs?

What lessons can we learn and how can • we identify good practice on which to build for the future as minority ethnic populations expand?

Following Article 13 of the Amsterdam Treaty2, the EU passed two anti-discrimination directives in 2000:

2 The Article 13 complements Article 12 of the Amster-dam Treaty, which prohibits discrimination on grounds of nationality. The new Article enables the Council to take appropriate action to combat discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation (Europa 2007).

the Racial Equality Directive (Council Direc-• tive 2000/43/EC)

the Employment Framework Directive (Coun-• cil Directive 2000/78/EC)

The Racial Equality Directive sets down principles protecting all EU citizens against discrimination on the grounds of race or ethnic origin. This directive applies to both the public and private sectors. The Employment Framework Directive sets down principles of equal treatment in employment and occupation, and provides the minimum level of protection against discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orienta-tion. Each EU member state has been responsible for transposing the Equality Directives into national legislation, which means that existing legislation should conform to the norms laid down in the EC Racial Equality and Employment Equality Direc-tives. Each member state undertakes its own national implementation measures to cover the two directives.

The increase in minority ethnic populations in Europe and their high unemployment rates, in the context of the overall ageing of the European population, demonstrates an urgent need to ad-dress the issue of their underachievement in the labour market. Continuation of this tendency may well lead to an unnecessary growth in social and economic costs, representing a major challenge for national governments and EU businesses.

What is crucial in any examination of employment issues regarding minority ethnic populations is to

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take account of the enormous variety in legal sta-tus. In some European states ‘immigrants’ residing in the country for decades, until recently, still had the legal status of a’ foreigner’ – for example those former ‘guestworkers’ imported into Germany and France in the post-war period as a ‘temporary’ solution to those countries’ labour shortages. Or there are those ethnic minorities from a colonial background, such as those who moved to the UK during the post-war reconstruction period. More recently, of course, there are others such as those seeking asylum, or economic/political migrants

who needed to escape unbearable or oppressive conditions in their countries of origin.

But, as this book shows, whatever the differences in migration histories, or the relationship with indig-enous but socially excluded minorities, and how these are played out in the labour market, all the country studies show basic similarities in the types of problems faced by minority ethnic populations, their needs and the types of issues that have to be addressed.

Introduction ....................................................................................................21

1. Background ..............................................................................................21

2. The EU as a Multicultural Environment ....................................................22

3. Social Quality in Europe ..........................................................................22

4. The Social Environment for Ethnic Minorities .........................................23

5. EU Policies for Social Inclusion ..............................................................24

6. Approaches to Cultural Integration in Europe .........................................27

7. Approaches to Social Inclusion in the Workplace ...................................28

7.1 Diversity Management and Equal Opportunities ....................................28

7.2 Benefits of a Diverse Workplace ............................................................29

7.3 Arguments against Diversity in the Workplace .......................................30

8. Considerations for Further Research ......................................................31

9. Conclusion ...............................................................................................32

Chapter 1

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Contextual Overview: the EU and its non-White Ethnic Minorities vis a vis the Social Environment and Integration Policies

By Dr Gonzalo E. Shoobridge

Introduction

This chapter begins with the following question:

Does the European Union (EU) enable its minority ethnic residents to perform to their full potential in an equitable social environment, where no one group has an advantage or disadvantage, by providing an atmosphere that encourages and enables all its members to draw on their talents, skills and experience for the benefit of society?

To answer this question, this chapter surveys the existing literature on European social policies, providing an updated discussion on the European social environment that non-White ethnic minorities experience. The chapter discusses current trends in different European states concerning the accept-ance of this segment of the European population, as well as theories of social inclusion and how they link with initiatives currently being implemented by the EU and national governments. It also highlights the importance of anti-discrimination measures in employment, which are rightly seen as key drivers for social integration. And it aims to identify the potential social exclusion of minority ethnic groups and facilitate the development of appropriate and effective policy interventions.

1. Background

Discussions with various academics, professionals and different organisations in the UK handling Eu-ropean race-related projects reveal that there is a

range of views and understanding concerning key concepts of ethnic diversity and social inclusion. Further debate and clarification of these concepts is therefore needed to assist the general public and employers to fully grasp the current European environment as it relates to social exclusion and ethnic diversity.

But how do we define an ‘ethnic group’? Broadly speaking, whereas the notion of ‘race’ – mired as it is in the historical attempt to order population groups on the basis of skin colour and physiog-nomy within a social hierarchy – refers to a group of people of common ancestry with distinguishing physical features, ‘ethnicity’ refers to a human group with racial, religious, linguistic character-istics, history and symbols in common. In other words, it encompasses both the physical and the cultural characteristics of a group.

Within any given nation, minority ethnic com-munities may be indigenous or may have been brought into being by the processes of migration. They may be differentiated from the majority population by skin colour and/or subscription to noticeably different cultural, religious or value norms. Most immigrants have been drawn to Eu-rope for employment, to escape often desperate living conditions in their home countries, or to flee persecution or oppression. Indeed, many from an earlier period of

Europe’s post-war history were deliberately re-cruited in the project to restore Europe’s war-torn industries.

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2. The EU as a Multicultural Environment

Europe is experiencing a gradual and wide-ranging transformation into multi-ethnicity, through internal and external migrations into its territories, that poses a challenge to the traditions of EU member states and their concepts of citizenship (Kundu 2003; Sanchez and Kepir-Sinangil 2003; Syfox 2000). The incursion of non-European immigrants in the labour market is radically changing the de-mographics of Europe’s workforce (Sanchez and Kepir-Sinangil 2003).

On May 1, 2004, the EU saw the enlargement of its 15 member states to 25. In January 2007 Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU, bringing the number of EU member states to 27. Croatia, Macedonia and Turkey are candidates for future membership. The current and future incorporation of Eastern European countries will accelerate an internal mi-gration that will bring noticeable demographic and cultural changes. At the moment, among Europe’s most distinctive ethnic minorities are minorities of African descent (18 million); Muslim communities (12.5 million); and the Roma (numbering some 7 to 9 million). These figures are, of course, very approximate – in some European states statistics may be scanty, or, for political/ideological/legal reasons, they are not collected. Hence, the data was also drawn from organisations running EQUAL projects in different European states. A number of member states are also home to different minority ethnic groups related to their colonial histories.

Migrants from developing countries usually suffer most from discrimination and social exclusion. Some 15 to 17 million non-European citizens from Third World countries suffer from the poor-est housing conditions, the worst paid jobs, the highest unemployment rates and daily exposure to racism. In general, ethnic minorities in Europe have limited power and influence, whether politi-cally, economically, or socially.

3. Social Quality in Europe

Several authors measure the social environment for ethnic minorities using the concept of ‘social quality’. Beck et al. (1997) define ‘social quality’ as the degree to which citizens are able to participate in the social and economic life of their communities under conditions which enhance their well-being and individual potential.

In June 1997, the Amsterdam Declaration on So-cial Quality of Europe was signed by a group of European social scientists. It focuses on respect for the fundamental human dignity of all EU citi-zens and temporary residents. It aims to create a European society that is economically successful and which promotes social justice and participation for all European citizens and residents. According to the European Foundation on Social Quality (1997), social quality requires the following basic conditions:

Security and protection from violence•

Decent housing, heating, clothing and food • for all

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Access to health care and other social serv-• ices

The opportunity to conduct one’s personal life • in conformity with one’s preferences

Sufficient employment for all•

An income for all workers that allows them to • fully participate in society

A decent income for those who cannot work • due to ill health, age or other circumstances

An equitable tax system•

The opportunity for all young, older and disa-• bled people, for minorities and immigrants to fully integrate into the wider society and local community

The elimination of discrimination on the ba-• sis of nationality, age, gender, race, religion, political or other beliefs, marital status, and sexual orientation

Life-long access to education and training • opportunities for all

Access to social protection systems enabling • citizens to maintain their standard of living in case of social contingencies.

Source: European Foundation on Social Quality, 1997

The social environment of ethnic minorities dis-cussed in the next section and all EU social inclu-sion policies discussed in this chapter are based on the concept of ‘social quality’ and the basic principles and indicators stated above.

4. The Social Environment for Ethnic Minorities

A recent Eurobarometer survey commissioned by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia - EUMC (Europa 2005) shows a disturbing trend among EU citizens:

21 per cent are ‘actively tolerant’ towards a) minorities and migrants

39 per cent consider themselves ‘passively b) tolerant’ towards minorities and migrants

25 per cent admit being ‘ambivalent’ to-c) wards minorities and migrants

14 per cent admit being frankly ‘intolerant’ d) towards minorities and migrants.

The high percentage (39 per cent) in the lower part of the spectrum (‘c’ and ‘d’) is excessive and disturbing. According to the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (Europa 2005), there are large and persistent disadvantages for migrants and minorities in the labour market. In employment, minority ethnic individuals suffer from lower wages, lower payments for overtime and har-assment. They are also excluded from certain jobs, particularly, in some countries, in the public sector. The chances of White people being invited to a job interview are three times greater than those of Asian people and five times greater than for those of African or African Caribbean backgrounds. Discrimination against ethnic minorities was higher in relation to occupations that involve face-to-face contact with customers or clients. As a result, some minority ethnic individuals who feel disadvantaged

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when searching for employment may well adopt a ‘racism-avoiding’ strategy, which in turn severely restricts the range of jobs available to them.

This situation of exclusion also translates to the wider social scale. There is some concern that Europe’s cities are developing visible ‘ghettos’ populated by minority ethnic communities cut off from the mainstream of social and economic life. Arriving minorities tend to cluster geographically because destination communities provide them not only with a zone of familiarity but also tangible, if rudimentary, assistance and contacts. Those from settled minority ethnic communities who undertake internal migration tend to move for fairly pragmatic reasons, mainly because of economic opportunities in the minority ethnic business labour market.

The social and economic exclusion and isolation of minority ethnic communities in Europe has generated wide-ranging resentment among their members. On occasion this has translated into crime and violent social disturbances, as well as opposition to, and alienation from, the majority’s way of life (Atwood 2003).

At the same time, far Right parties are a signifi-cant force across the EU, and there is evidence to show that they have developed links and often co-ordinate their activities. Needless to say, their approach to migration issues is unrelentingly nega-tive. Economic uncertainty and slowdown is an important breeding ground for supporters of such movements. As Netanyahu (1996) declares: ‘The majority’s toleration of every minority lessens with the worsening of the majority’s condition’.

The EUMC’s findings show that a substantial pro-portion of the European populace is intolerant of those with a different ethnicity. What ethnic minori-ties in Europe have in common that unites them is a general feeling of exclusion from mainstream European society.

5. EU Policies for Social Inclusion

To understand ‘social inclusion’, it is necessary to consider what is meant by ‘social exclusion’. Ab-rahamson (1998) defines ‘social exclusion’ as the condition of being marginalised from mainstream society that some ethnic minorities endure. This lack of belonging leaves members of minority ethnic groups trapped in a kind of ‘social limbo’, a liminal condition in which they no longer belong to their country of origin and are not accepted in their country of residence. Moreover, the mere fact of being born in Europe and knowing no other home does not, of itself, negate such marginalisation, as many young minority ethnic people across Europe would attest.

In order to tackle the problem of exclusion and marginalisation, Europe has gradually developed certain laws, institutions and policies to give dis-advantaged minorities a voice in society, protect them from social vulnerability and economic dis-advantage, protect them from racial discrimination in the labour market, and support their cultural heritage.

Citizenship is an integral part of inclusion at both the national policy level and at the level of individ-

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ual experience (Weiler 1997), even in multicultural societies (Baubock 1995). According to the law, no EU citizen can be denied equal employment opportunity because of ancestry, culture or lin-guistic characteristics common to a specific ethnic group. Nevertheless, Byrne (1997) has noted that European social welfare systems have placed too much importance on individual citizenship rights, rather than on community rights, ignoring the fact that non-citizens also form a substantial part of the European population.

In 1992 the European Commission published the second annual report of the EC Observatory on Policies to Combat Social Exclusion. In 1995 the Council of Europe published its report on social exclusion; in 1996 the European Community held a conference on ‘Public welfare services and social exclusion’ which identified significant steps in making public services a more effective instru-ment for social cohesion at national and European levels (Washington and Paylor 1998). The signing of the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1997 granted the EU powers to take action against discrimination in a number of areas, including race (as set out in Article 13). In 2000, directives on racial equality and on equality in employment were issued which member states were required to incorporate into their domestic law by 2003.

Europe-wide, the Fundamental Rights Agency (formerly the European Monitoring Centre on Rac-ism and Xenophobia, EUMC) and its information network (RAXEN) exist to provide data on race and racism that is comparable across member states, and to identify best practice throughout the EU

(Europa 2005). Another institution, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance of the Council of Europe (ECRI), specialises in combating racism and racial discrimination.

The standard of the information collated by these European institutions has generally been good, but its impact has been limited by the lack of its dis-semination. It is worth noting here that one crucial feature for the creation of an evidence base that can support action against racial discrimination is ethnic monitoring. Such easily comparable statisti-cal data can show where disparities of access to the labour market, social facilities and benefits exist between ethnic groups. Ethnic monitoring is not widely accepted across all EU member states and is unlawful in some, such as France.

In 1999, The Tampere European Council had set a framework for closer co-operation at the EU level in the fields of immigration and asylum, with the integration of migrants as a major emphasis. For this to be fully achieved, integration needs to take place not only within the labour market, but also within the social, political and cultural spheres of society. Effective policies need to take account of integration strategies for permanent immigrants, their families, temporary migrant work-ers, refugees and students as well as reception measures for asylum seekers that can facilitate future integration.

This framework aims to ensure successful integra-tion through considering three key areas:

(a) Effective anti-discrimination measures to remove barriers that may prevent migrants’ in-

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tegration in any of the main spheres of society described above

(b) The roles and responsibilities of the host socie-ty, including the roles played by NGOs, the media, unions, the general public and employers.

(c) The roles and responsibilities of migrants themselves and the provision of services to enable them to fulfil these (e.g., language class provision to enable migrants to develop language skills).

However, there are also integration and discrimina-tion issues concerning the nationals of other EU member states, particularly since the accession of new member states.

Hence, the European Commission has launched campaigns to raise awareness and provide infor-mation about anti-discrimination measures with reference to employment in all the areas cov-ered by the directives. The EQUAL programme, funded by the European Social Fund (ESF), aims to increase the employability of ethnic minority individuals through encouraging and supporting innovation and sharing solutions and best practice between member states. It operates in a number of areas including race (Europa, 2005). These EU strategies also take minority-led businesses into consideration.

Although, as seen in this section, the EU is at the forefront of a number of positive initiatives towards social integration in various areas, the European Commission still needs to harmonise criminal law against racial discrimination in member states

and facilitate judicial co-operation over this. And although much work is being done on social in-clusion, the problem of racism in the European Union goes far deeper than existing data might suggest. For example, minority ethnic individuals in the EU are often afraid to report racist attacks to the authorities, and only a limited number of such incidents are officially recorded. There is no doubt that the reporting and recording of incidents of ra-cial discrimination and racial violence will become more accurate once effective legislation, reporting methods and independent bodies to tackle racism are introduced in all EU countries. The authorities must also ensure that such designated bodies are genuinely independent and have the powers to deal appropriately with racism and discrimination, so as to win the trust of the victims and make the reporting of racist incidents more effective.

Europe is currently faced with some very real challenges in the areas of cultural diversity and social integration, challenges that need creative handling and that cannot be addressed solely by passing new laws. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate and contemplate new approaches to the increasingly complicated and difficult questions of citizenship and integration. EU policy makers need to consider: (a) making all major European policies subject to a social cohesion impact study; (b) creating uniform statistics on social aspects of the EU as a whole; (c) drafting clear measurable benchmarks for social objectives; (d) engaging policy makers, scientists, educators at all levels and citizens in the promotion of social equality.

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6. Approaches to Cultural Integration in Europe

This section comments on four main approaches to cultural integration in Europe, that of assimilation; that of multiculturalism; a combination of the two; and monoculturalism as favoured by the extreme Right and separatist movements.

a) Assimilationism proposes an amalgamation process, in which people of different ethnicities are to be assimilated into a common national culture; they are to be absorbed into the ways of the host country. Under assimilation, controlled amounts of immigration, enough to benefit society and economic growth, but not so much as to alter it, are allowable.

b) Multiculturalism views each culture or subculture in a society as contributing something unique and valuable to the whole. The valuing and retention of minority groups’ distinctive cultural patterns and ways of life, where these are not in conflict with the fundamental rule of law or rights and freedoms of others, is seen as a characteristic of a democratic and free society. This more tolerant approach sug-gests that different ethnic groups can retain their cultural patterns and co-exist with each other in a kind of ‘cultural mosaic’ style of society. This is something that we can see, at least as an ideal if not always fully practised, in Canada, USA, Aus-tralia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Such an approach can also shade into a more overt concern with preserving and defending the distinc-tions between cultures. This approach is clearly at odds with some government programmes aimed

at fully assimilating minority communities into the mainstream culture of the host country. The issue of ‘integration’ in practice can verge on assimila-tion, if the regard for cultural distinctiveness with equality, is not fully respected.

c) Under a combination of assimilationism and multiculturalism, minorities are not expected to abandon their culture and traditions to achieve the goal of assimilationist host countries, as long as the new citizens put the interests of the host nation first and their nation of origin second.

(d) Monoculturalism typifies those whose aim is to define the nation as an indivisible, homogenous and monoethnic entity. It is mostly espoused by separatist and extreme or far Right movements. Nations that conceive of themselves as monocul-tural do not recognise the existence of other ethnic groups within their territories.

The efforts to manage social inclusion in Europe are directly linked to these contradictory pressures, as well as the need to reinvent European social identity in times that are changing rapidly and significantly under the processes and pressures of globalisation (Ward 1997). The increasing in-tensification of globalisation and the permeability of borders that it engenders directly challenge the commonly accepted stereotype of Europe as ethnically homogeneous and culturally bounded. It is this that is shaping the debate between the advocates of multicultural and anti-racist policies and those who defend policies born of racial ex-clusion and cultural assimilation. Assimilationists in Europe hold that multiculturalism destroys the

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fabric of society through ethnic division and the economic burden of policies for social inclusion. The challenge is to develop policies for democrati-cally managing linguistic and cultural diversity, as well as tackling racial discrimination and preju-dice. But it is a challenge that, if surmounted, will strengthen significantly the fabric of European democracy and social justice – to the benefit, not only of Europe’s minority ethnic communities but to the wider European publics. And there is a tradition to draw on in this respect. It is necessary to stress that many Europeans are opposed to racism and actively contest efforts to incite hatred and violence towards minority ethnic communities.

The cultural integration approaches discussed in this section, which are employed by different EU member states, clearly influence impact on the human resource diversity initiatives undertaken and practised in business, and the subsequent employability of minority ethnic individuals in the European labour force.

7. Approaches to Social Inclusion in the Workplace

This is an appropriate time for the European Com-mission to adopt a new strategy on ‘corporate social responsibility’, whereby companies inte-grate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with stakeholders. Rather than focusing solely on short-term profits, the Commission argues that, in the modern global economy, the ‘double bottom line’ has to include a company’s social performance as

part of its image and hence long-term success. The Commission, then, encourages businesses to assess their performance not on profit margins alone but also on the welfare of their workforces. As it was already stated, extensive EU attention has been paid to equality and anti-discrimination measures in employment. Such employment is being deemed the key component in the well-being of minority ethnic individuals in Europe, and their consequent integration into society.

There is a considerable literature covering employ-ment discrimination, equal rights in employment and racism within society (Brown and Gay 1985; Jenkins 2004; Jenkins and Solomos 1987; Lust-garten 1986; Shoobridge 2006), which concludes that racism is an institutionalised element of daily life for minority ethnic groups.

7.1 Diversity Management and Equal Opportunities

The ‘diversity management’ approach to an ethni-cally mixed workforce, along with other theories aimed at dealing with this issue, is based on the multicultural approach to social inclusion. Various researchers in the field, such as Richard (2000) and Hartenian and Gudmundson (2000), cor-roborate the fact that a multicultural approach in the workplace has a positive impact on business performance; thus, all European organisations that create an inclusive work environment valuing and respecting difference will benefit. ‘Diversity management’ is about encouraging and enabling all employees to draw on their talents, skills and

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experience for the benefit of the business. Diversity management regards human differences in the workplace as contributing to the success of the business by optimising the ability and willingness of all employees to contribute to that success.

EU initiatives have used the concept of ‘equal opportunities’ as a starting point for strategies of social inclusion. Policy makers believe that once minority ethnic individuals are fully participating members of an organisation and able to demon-strate their capabilities, the old negative attitudes to ethnic difference, on which discrimination against particular social groups is based, should gradually change. Nevertheless, according to Torrington and Holden (1992), this assumption is not born out in real life. Creating and maintaining a diverse workforce demands more than simply by-passing the gatekeepers to employment op-portunity. Rather, policy makers need to transfer the principles of ‘social quality’ to the workplace, by ensuring that organisations develop the capacity to create and maintain an environment that em-powers employees, an atmosphere in which each person is respected in their own terms, and where all employees can contribute and be rewarded for their results and performance rather than treated according to preconceptions about their ethnic status. In this respect, The UK’s Commission for Racial Equality (now replaced by the Equality and Human Rights Commission) has published a new statutory code of practice which sets out employ-ers’ legal obligations under the Race Relations Acts and provides recommendations and guidance on how to avoid unlawful racial discrimination and harassment at work.

7.2 Benefits of a Diverse Workplace

There is considerable, and remarkably consistent, published information that offers an explanation for the primary business drivers for diversity (Salo-mon and Schork 2003). Basically, European firms need to respond to competition, labour shortage, changing demographics and changing workforce values in the current business environment (Kundu 2003). From a global perspective, there are some additional arguments for European firms to move towards a more ethnically diverse organisation/workforce:

(a) European companies must be prepared to market effectively to a broad global customer base (Salomon and Schork 2003). As globalisation gathers pace, diversity will help organisations to compete more effectively in the international arena (Cascio 1998). Organisations with a diverse work-force can provide good services because they can better understand diversified market segments and specific customers’ needs/niche markets (Fleury 1999; Mueller 1998; Salomon and Schork 2003; Wentling and Palma-Rivas 2000).

(b) Diversity enhances creativity and innovation (Adler 1997; Jackson et al. 1992; Salomon and Schork 2003). In this, it produces competitive advantages (Coleman 2002; Jackson et al. 1992). Diverse teams make it possible to enhance flex-ibility (Fleury 1999) and a rapid response and swift adaptation to global change (Adler 1997; Jackson et al. 1992). The ideas generated by ethnically diverse workforces were judged to be of higher quality than the ideas produced by homogeneous groups.

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(c) As all the segments of the European public have a stake in the development and prosperity of society as a whole, creating and managing a diverse workforce should be seen as a social and moral imperative (Mueller 1998). As international customers recognise the value of diversity in their workforces, they are demanding to see it in those of their European suppliers. Customers want to hear about diversity programmes, and they want to interface with teams that are diverse (Salomon and Schork 2003).

(d) As European economies shift from manufac-turing to service economies, diversity issues will gain in importance. In a service economy, effective interactions and communications between people are, first and foremost, essential to business suc-cess (Wentling and Palma-Rivas 2000).

(e) The ability to attract, retain and motivate talent from all over the world is critical to business suc-cess. European organisations that aspire to recruit the best and brightest employees cannot afford to ignore any portion of the talent pool. Organisations that restrict themselves to selected talent pools and ethnicities are forced to recruit deeper into such pools, and lower talent levels (Jackson et al. 1992; Salomon and Schork 2003).

7.3 Arguments against Diversity in the Workplace

Efforts to implement diversity still encounter some resistance. Stockdale and Standing (2004) believe that diversity impairs organisational effectiveness.

Thomas (1999) found that culturally homogene-ous groups performed better than culturally het-erogeneous groups. Williams and O’Reilly (1998) conclude that mismanaged diversity initiatives can negatively affect both processes and outcomes. In terms of human resource strategy, homogeneity appears more suitable for cost-reduction systems (Arthur 1994). Richard (2000) noted that diverse workforces in firms not pursuing growth strategies can represent additional costs to the firm. These researchers and others have suggested that dif-fering values across subgroups in a firm can slow down organisational processes and procedures, ultimately affecting a firm’s performance.

Because of these mixed findings, further research is needed to explore the relationship between di-versity, group process gains/losses, and business performance. Given, however, the EU’s fundamen-tal commitment to the betterment of the lives of all its citizens – and given that the populations of EU nations are, whatever the image that is promoted, already extremely mixed and that this is no recent phenomenon but has a long historical pedigree, policy makers in Europe are duty-bound to take a pro-diversity stance and concentrate on maximis-ing the positive benefits from these mixed findings. Let us not forget that ‘diversity management’ sup-ports the view that ‘if managed well’ diversity will improve organisational effectiveness (Saji 2004).What is required are EU policies to educate and sensitise business decision makers concerning issues related to organisational diversity.

In the last three decades, European schemes for promoting the employment of ethnic minori-ties have focused on training and on improving

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the job skills of participants through a variety of guidance activities. These initiatives have mainly concentrated on minority ethnic employees and how to make them more valuable to employers by improving their skills base. But this issue can also be approached from a different perspective, by advising EU policy makers to concentrate on the ‘demand’ side of the problem, through demonstrat-ing to employers the important contribution ethnic minorities make to European businesses, and showing how their diverse cultural backgrounds have an enriching impact on business perform-ance. By demonstrating these benefits, the case for European firms to employ minority ethnic work-ers will be strengthened.

8. Considerations for Further ResearchFurther research on the concept of ‘social quality’ could well inform such policy decisions. Any such research, however, should adopt an environmen-tal scanning approach, which involves analysing social, economic, political (regulatory), and de-mographic trends, so as to anticipate sources of threats and opportunities to the European social environment (Wright and Snell 1991).

Such research could, for example, focus on politi-cal factors linked to legislation. And it should ideally involve a dynamic approach concentrated on the combination of various indicators of social quality: the different cultural integration approaches, poli-cies for social inclusion, immigration and human resource practices (Diversity Management and Equal Opportunities in the workplace) and their

links with the ‘social quality’ of life for minority ethnic communities in Europe. Hence, it would, for example, be appropriate to measure ‘social quality’ by linking human resource management strategies (diversity management and equal op-portunities) to quantitative social quality indicators at a national level. Other key indicators of social inclusion / exclusion linked to legislation and the social macro-environment should also be taken into account.

Moreover, in order to provide a comparative framework between EU member states; subjec-tive social indicators should be avoided when possible, since any such subjectivity could reduce the significance of the research results by making cross-comparisons too difficult at the Europe-wide level. To facilitate such comparisons, any research would need to concentrate on social indicators at the member state level, since indicators at a com-munity level are too subjective in nature (Berman and Phillips 2000). Given the need to garner basic information in the first instance, measures of a mostly objective nature should be employed to compare data between the different social realities of different Member States. Bearing this in mind, propositions that could be usefully explored are:

The degree of ‘social quality’ is influenced • by specific political factors

Factors to be taken into account here would include the integration model adopted by each member state; legislation on immigration; policies of social inclusion; employment practices in the public and private sectors. How far are concepts of ‘diversity management’ and ‘equal opportunities’

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implemented in the labour market? How far is a national policy aimed at the promotion of multicul-turalism directly related to diversity-oriented human resource practices, and proactive programmes to educate the general public about social diversity? What are the indicators of the extent of racial discrimination in the workplace? To what extent does a state-sponsored policy of multiculturalism affect employment legislation?

The degree of ‘social quality’ is influenced • by specific economic indicators

All the factors listed above need to be analysed in the context of the macro-environment, the econ-omy as a whole. Economic indicators will have a direct bearing on ‘social quality’ and should help account for some of the behaviour and attitudes of the majority population towards minority ethnic groups.

The degree of ‘social quality’ is influenced • by specific demographic indicators

‘Social quality’ is also directly related to the size of the minority ethnic population, the number of different ethnic groups, and their distribution within the member state. The larger the proportion of a uniform and evenly distributed minority ethnic com-munity within an EU member state, the higher the ‘social quality’ indicators.

The degree of ‘social quality’ is influenced • by specific social indicators

Such indicators could include, e.g., racial violence and harassment; interethnic conflict and violence; the presence and active influence of far-Right and

racist movements; the visibility of social problems linked to minority ethnic communities.

9. Conclusion

This article has discussed the European social environment and those factors affecting the well-being of ethnic minorities, focusing mainly on indicators of social inclusion and exclusion. Exten-sive review of the existing literature illustrates that European societies are still, to varying degrees, class-based and that they suffer from multi-racist tendencies - those that are relatively class equal, as well as those in which class is still a powerful social factor. The question for the EU is how to enable its minority ethnic residents to perform to their full potential in an equitable social environ-ment that encourages and enables all its members to draw on their talents, skills, and experience for the benefit of society, when:

(a) European racist movements targeting minority ethnic groups are supported by a significant sector of the majority population

(b) minority ethnic groups are noticeably excluded from mainstream employment

(c) noticeable income and economic inequalities exist between majority and minority groups;

(d) the contribution of minority ethnic groups to society is often overlooked and ignored;

(e) minority ethnic traditions, beliefs and culture are not respected by the majority of social groups in the EU.

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In terms of social inclusion, employment is crucial, with attention needing to be paid to the role of the employer and not just the potential employee. Edu-cation is also key – for the public, for policy-makers and for business managers - on the importance and value to social and business well-being of di-versity. Any assessment of social quality in Europe for minority ethnic communities needs to take a holistic approach, analysing the impact of political, social, economic and demographic indicators.

The European Union, it is worth repeating, with its enormous diversity of minority ethnic popula-tions is already a multicultural entity. Europe must necessarily be multicultural, or it cannot exist. It is perhaps more correct to say that the European Union is still in the process of fashioning itself, and part of this self-fashioning must include not just the acceptance and protection of Europe’s various minority ethnic communities but the deep-seated realisation that they are as much part of Europe’s lifeblood as any other population.

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1. Context ......................................................................................................351.1 Populations of Foreign Origin since 1999 ..............................................351.2 Current Immigration Policy .....................................................................361.3 Immigration and Integration Law: towards Selective Immigration? .......361.4 The Origin of the Fight against Discrimination in France ......................361.5 Transposing EU Directives into French Law ..........................................37

2. Discrimination ............................................................................................37

3. Components of the System .....................................................................393.1 The Position of Companies ....................................................................393.2 The Position of the State ........................................................................403.3 Training for Public and Private Sectors ..................................................403.4 Efforts to Influence Regional Bodies ......................................................41

4. The Poitou – Charentes Region: the Town of Châtellerault ...................414.1 Châtellerault’s Commitment to anti-Discrimination .................................414.2 The Impact of Unemployment in Poitou–Charentes ..............................414.3 ‘Unemployed People Who Have Never Worked’ by Nationality ............424.4 Job Insecurity ..........................................................................................434.5 Châtellerault and its Immigrants ............................................................434.6 The anti-Discrimination Project PIC EQUAL ACCEES Europe: ‘Act in Châtellerault against Exclusion and for Socio-professional Equality’ ...................................................................................................44

5. Conclusion ................................................................................................44

Chapter 2

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France

Ethnic and Racial Discrimination in the French Job Market and the Development of Anti-Discrimination Policies: The Poitou – Charentes Region and the Commitment of the Châtellerault Community

1. Context

1.1 Populations of Foreign Origin since 1999

In France, ‘foreigners’ and ‘immigrants’ are two different concepts. Immigrants are not necessarily foreigners and foreigners are not always immi-grants. Foreigners do not hold French nationality.Immigrants are persons who moved to France from another country, but in some instances they became French citizens through naturalization process. And foreigners are not necessarily im-migrants as they can be people who were born in France from foreign parents.

According to the INSEE (National Institute for Sta-tistics and Economic Studies), under globalisation the nature of immigration is changing. European immigrants have been increasingly replaced by people from the African and Asian continents. Among the 3.2 million foreign residents in France, almost two-thirds (2.06 million) are of non-Europe-an origin, mainly from countries with colonial or his-torical ties to France. North African, sub-Saharan African and Southeast Asian as well as Turkish nationals have become more numerous.

Within the immigrant population, a decline in EU nationals may be noted. There are 1.3 million im-migrants from North Africa (the Maghreb)3 which

3 North African region encompassing Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Mauritania and Libya. In Arabic, it translates to where the sun sets, meaning the western Arab world, but as a place it refers to Kingdom of Morocco (Western Sahara Online 2007).

is 6 per cent more than in 1990. Three-quarters of that increase is due to immigration from Morocco. The sub-Saharan African presence has increased by 43 per cent compared with 1990. Sub-Saharan Africans number some 400,000 people. The num-bers of immigrants from the rest of the world has also gone up from 850,000 in 1990 to 1.1 million by 1999.

According to data collected by the INSEE in 2004, the percentage of immigrants in the total popula-tion has increased slightly, with women now being in the majority of the immigrant population (50.3 per cent). And the percentage of adult immigrants who have acquired French nationality has gone up to 41 per cent, compared to 37 per cent in 1999.

As to the geographic origin of immigrants, the preliminary findings of this study generally confirm the trends already noted: the declining presence of nationals from the then 15 EU countries, a large increase in Eastern Europeans, a moderate rise in the numbers of Asians and a large increase in the African population (a rise by 15 per cent for North Africans and by 39 per cent for sub-Saharan Africans).

1.2 Current Immigration Policy

The framework legislation of 1945 is still the le-gal basis for immigration policy, even though the conditions of entry and residence for foreigners have undergone several modifications, sometimes becoming stricter, sometimes more lenient. Today the regulatory framework is complex, defined not

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only by French legislation but also by international texts. The Treaty of Amsterdam has established the European Community’s authority in terms of immigration and asylum. However, pending coordi-nation of policies at the European level, questions of immigration and asylum have remained largely a national issue.

In spite of two major programmes to regularise the legal status of immigrants in 1981 and 1997-98, the struggle against undocumented or ‘illegal’ im-migration still remains a political priority.

1.3 Immigration and Integration Law: towards Selective Immigration?

The law of 26 November 2003 on immigration, nationality and foreign residents in France was primarily designed to reduce illegal immigration. The aim of the 24 July 2006 law on immigration and integration was to manage both the quantita-tive and qualitative aspects of migration, so that France could move ‘from being subjected to im-migration to choosing its immigrants’ – a so-called ‘selective immigration’.

The law now restricts family reunification, the main source of the immigration that the country was ‘subjected to’, and also monitors mixed marriages more closely. Obtaining a ‘salaried’ residence per-mit now depends on having an employment con-tract and prior possession of a long-term visa.

In order to move to a ‘selective immigration’, provi-sion is made for the selection of workers, and ‘lists

of critical sectors in which employers may call on foreign labour’ have been instituted. In addition, a (renewable) card of ‘skills and talents’ valid for three years has been introduced to facilitate the immigration of those ‘whose talent represents an asset to the development and influence of France’.

France has reaffirmed its commitment to integra-tion into the French society by requesting each newly-arrived foreigner to sign a Reception and Integration Contract (CAI)4.

1.4 The Origin of the Fight against Discrimination in France

Before examining anti-discrimination measures, we need to establish whether this is a modern devel-opment in the struggle against social inequality and racial discrimination, or if it is situated in the con-text of the ‘republican model’ for the integration of migrants. In effect, the fight against discrimination is based on the following premises: the ‘visibility’ of populations who are descendants of immigrants -‘issued from immigration’ in the French terminol-ogy; the observation that unfavourable treatment due to national origin happens, in spite of formal commitments to equality; and the necessity of not putting the responsibility for this on the victim, but

4 Reception and Integration Contract (CAI) offers newly arrived immigrants in France civic and language training courses if the migrant undertakes to respect the values of the Republic and to attend the courses offered (France Diplomatie 2005).

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on the system. The system is the combination of decision-makers and processes, public institutions, companies and their day-to-day operations, laws and judicial and criminal processes. This system has proven itself incapable of guaranteeing impar-tiality towards its users, even though that is one of its most fundamental principles.

Anti-discrimination policy has not replaced integra-tion policy, nor is that its goal.

1.5 Transposing EU Directives into French Law

European Directives 2000/43 on race and 2000/78 on employment were brought in France in the law of 16 November 2001 (number 2001–1066) which modifies article 122–45 of the Labour Code. The law introduces the concepts of both direct and indirect discrimination and the readjustment of the Burden of the proof between the victim and the company. The application of the labour direc-tive goes further than required, by introducing the concept of ‘real or imagined membership in an ethnic group, a nation, or a race’ into the criminal code - discrimination is thus a criminal offence in France. It should be noted that by using the ter-minology ‘real or imagined membership’, French legislation protects itself against the accusation that it has recognised the existence of the concept of ‘race’.

However, the shared responsibility for proof can only apply to civil jurisdiction (trials for discrimina-tion based on article 122-45 cited above), not to

criminal jurisdiction, where the presumption of in-nocence is the rule and where the judicial process (and not the participants) must establish the facts and also the intentional guilt of the accused.

Victims of discrimination (or those who believe themselves to be so) may, however, go before either a criminal or civil court. Until recently, the judicial practice in France was that most cases of discrimination were tried in criminal courts. This re-sulted in an insignificant number of convictions be-cause of failure to prove intention, which, it should be remembered, is often genuinely absent.

However, the Conseil des Prud’hommes (industrial tribunal) would be a much more powerful instru-ment. There are many people, even within com-panies, who would welcome more effective judicial action that would eliminate the sense of impunity that surrounds discriminatory practices in hiring.

2. Discrimination

We define discrimination as any treatment, based on criteria such as ethnicity or religious affiliation that are not relevant to the matter under consid-eration, which distinguishes or excludes particular individuals. Consistent statistical data, testimony from a large number of studies, and reports from experts are unanimous in their affirmation of the existence and seriousness of discrimination in employment. The rates of unemployment among different populations appear to be very similar between non-EU foreigners, immigrants, and natu-ralised French citizens: 2 to 3 times higher than

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those of native-born French citizens and foreigners from the EU.

The 1999 Employment Survey by INSEE showed differences in the general rates of unemployment based on the level of education and socio-profes-sional categories: the higher the level of educa-tion, the greater the difference in unemployment rates.

Another revealing source is the Echantillon Démo-graphique Permanent (Continuous Demographic Sample) which Cédiey (2002) used to illustrate in addition to the rate of unemployment, the compara-tive levels of disadvantage in employment , ac-cording to gender, level of education and parental origin, associated with three categories: ‘native-born French parent’, ‘North African origin’ and the sub-division ‘Algerian origin’ (see Figure 1).

He concluded that, among university graduates, the level of employment in management positions or liberal professions is 46 per cent for the sons of native-born French citizens, 25 per cent for the sons of North African parents, and barely 11 per cent for the sons of Algerian parents.

In 2007, the International Labour office (ILO) published the results of a survey, carried out in conjunction with DARES (Direction de l’Animation de la Recherche, des Etudes et des Statistiques) using testing to examine discrimination in employ-ment. The aim was to deepen the understanding of discrimination in the labour market, so as to assist the government and its social partners in imple-menting effective solutions. Each job offer tested received two applications: first from two young French women and then two young French men aged between 20 and 25. Each candidate had been educated in France to a similar level and had similar work experience. Their overall appearance, pres-entation and levels of expression were also similar. However, one of the two candidates had name typi-cal of a family of long-standing Metropolitan French origin and the other’s evoked an African origin. The results showed that the employers clearly discrimi-nated against candidates from an ethnic minority (sub-Saharan African or North African origin). Some 2,440 tests were carried out. Only 11 per cent of employers respected equal opportunities during the whole recruitment process, either by offering the applicants a trial period or a job, or by refus-ing both candidates after having met them. When employers chose between the two candidates, 4 times out of 5, they favoured the non-minority candidate. All candidates of minority origin faced

Figure 1 Employment rate for holders of a degree in higher education. Source: Cédiey, E., 2002

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strong discrimination, whether they were male or female and of North African or sub-Saharan African origin. The most serious differences in treatment affected men and women of sub-Saharan origin who were rejected in 4 cases out of 5 for the met-ropolitan French candidate. In the cases of those of North African origin, the non-minority candidate was chosen 3 times out of 4 among the men and 2 times out of 3 among the women.

Yet despite substantial proof of the existence and seriousness of discrimination in employment from numerous studies, there is still a major recurring problem: How do we count the victims? The fact that it is forbidden in France to keep public sta-tistics on ‘race’, ‘origin’, ‘ethnicity’, ‘nationality of parents or forebears’ makes it difficult to evaluate the number of victims. But this does not make it impossible to begin to tackle discrimination. Nonetheless, judicial action on discrimination has had modest results.

3. Components of the System

3.1 The Position of Companies

There is a very widespread problem of discrimina-tion in companies, especially in the service sector and sales. Resistance appears along the whole chain of hierarchy, where discrimination, when it is recognised, is justified by three arguments: ‘client risk’, ‘personnel risk’ and ‘image risk’.

Three types of measures may be suggested as effective to counter discrimination, provided that company management is committed to them:

1 – raising awareness and training company personnel.This has to be implemented at all levels of the company hierarchy, starting at the top to give it more weight, carrying through all the sensitive management positions, and spreading across the base for real ‘diversity management’.

2 – reform of hiring procedures.In an advanced economy, even if ethical consid-erations based on the principle of equality are set aside, recruiting has to be carried out according to criteria of qualifications and motivation. An objec-tive and rigorous procedure must aim to neutralise all forms of discrimination and take into considera-tion only those qualifications which correspond to the needs of the company.

3 – pre-recruitment measures to link companies and groups suffering discrimination.Discrimination often begins with work placement (internship), a transitional period between school and the world of work. (The data is similar in show-ing discrimination in the ‘dispositifs de formation en alternance’ schemes, where periods of training and work alternate. Young foreigners are under-represented in these schemes which are likely to lead to permanent employment (Viprey 2004). One way to address this would be the introduction of ‘work placement contracts of confidence’ between the company and the school, which would then choose the placement students. Finally, companies themselves could have a role to play in making themselves and potential opportunities they offer known to young people in disadvantaged suburbs. Promotion of the company’s image could empha-sise the themes of diversity and multiculturalism.

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These changes are already happening. The first independent and spontaneous private sector com-mitment in the fight against discrimination was the Charte de la Diversité (Diversity Charter)5.

3.2 The Position of the State

The equal opportunity law of 30 March 2006 re-places the Action and Support Fund for Integration and the Fight against Discrimination (FASILD) with the National Agency for Social Cohesion and Equal Opportunity (L’ACSE). Its mission includes both countering discrimination and supporting the integration of immigrant populations. The Agency’s main purpose is to support those who face difficulties in social or professional spheres. Its aims are:

the integration of immigrant populations and • the descendants of immigrants

the fight against discrimination•

the fight against illiteracy.•

HALDE, created by the law of 30 December 2004, is the only independent administrative body entirely devoted to the fight against discrimination. Its

5 Diversity Charter is a voluntary agreement drawn up by the employers’ think tank, the Montaigne institute, headed by Axa chairman Claude Bébéar, the author of a government-backed report titled ‘Business reflecting the colours of France’. It provides a framework to encourage companies to reflect the different components of French society and to make diversity and anti-discrimination a development priority (Gaz de France 2007 and BBC 2005).

objectives are to identify discriminatory practices, to combat them and to find concrete solutions to the problems they pose (HALDE 2005). HALDE responds to complaints, informs people of their rights, and helps them uncover proof of discrimi-nation. It may tackle any discriminatory practice of which it becomes aware. It contacts public authorities and cooperates with all those working against discrimination.

3.3 Training for Public and Private Sectors

In both content and form, the comments on recruit-ment and training valid for companies also apply to the public service. Particular attention must be paid to the Service Public de l’Emploi (SPE), the public employment agency which is also responsible for carrying out anti-discrimination policies. In France the main public services, which are part of the SPE, are the Agence National Pour l’Emploi and its local offices, the Missions Locales. There are also many private agencies for temporary staff.

When a company does its own recruiting, the existence of discrimination in the recruiting proc-ess may be difficult to identify. However, when an employment service is involved, the process becomes more overt. Any public or private body which acts as an intermediary may be a channel for discriminatory practices and so contribute to social inequality.

Specific training programmes have been imple-mented by the SPE within the framework of the

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EQUAL ESPERE project, while the temporary work agencies ADECCO and ADIA have worked against discrimination in the EQUAL LATITUDE project.

In addition to the public training programmes, it is to be hoped that the state will invest in a real cam-paign against discrimination, on a par with those waged against road accidents or smoking.

3.4 Efforts to Influence Regional Bodies

The public service sector has chosen to concen-trate on the local level in tackling discrimination. The state can thus involve local authorities through the local employment services (Missions Locales, Maisons de l’Emploi, Plan Locaux d’Insertion dans l’Emploi) and city employment agreements (Contrats de Ville or Contrats Urbains de Cohésion Sociale) which are ratified by the state. Indeed, the most appropriate level at which to contact public and private decision-makers is often at a lower echelon than that of the departement. This approach can be particularly effective in mobilising small and medium-sized businesses and in win-ning over influential public and private figures.

4. The Poitou-Charentes Region: the Town of Châtellerault

4.1 Châtellerault’s Commitment to anti-Discrimination

Châtellerault’s commitment does not arise either from a particularly volatile situation in relation to

the integration of immigrants nor from flagrant discrimination. The image that the region projects is, in fact, more likely to mask any such problems, as indicated in comments recorded by Viteau and Willem in a recent study: ‘There are not enough foreigners in the region for the problem to be overwhelming’, and ‘we have a real tradition of in-tegration’ (Viteau and Willem 2005). The exemplary nature of the wide-reaching and energetic anti-discrimination campaign being waged in the region can be attributed to the mobilisation since 2001 of public services, local and regional authorities, neighbourhood associations, training and socio-professional integration organisations and, finally, a core group of companies in the area involved in two anti-discrimination projects: ESPERE and ACCEES Europe.

4.2 The Impact of Unemployment in Poitou-Charentes

According to the 1999 census, unemployment is greater among foreigners and immigrants than in the total working population of Poitou-Charentes. More than 23 per cent of foreign men and almost 32 per cent of foreign women in the labour market are unemployed. Among the immigrant population, approximately 21 per cent of immigrant men and 29 per cent of immigrant women are unemployed. However, for the total working population of the region, the rate of unemployment stands at 10 per cent for men and at

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Figure 2 Unemployment in the Poitou – Charentes region. Source: INSEE/FASILD, 2003

16 per cent for women (see Figure 2). Once again, it is Africans as a whole who are most likely to find themselves without work.

However, there is an important gap between Afri-can men, 29 per cent of whom are unemployed, and African women, for whom the rate reaches 48 per cent. The highest male unemployment rate is among Algerian nationals, with 1 in 3 of the active population out of work, whereas the women most affected are Tunisian, 3 out of 5 be-ing unemployed.

Although the proportion of foreigners in the region living in a ZUS (Zone Urbaine Sensible-urban area with special problems) area is lower than in the rest of continental France, they are much more subject to unemployment. In the Poitou-Charentes region,

where 42 per cent of foreigners living in ZUS areas and able to work are unemployed, compared to 35 per cent in France as a whole. These are the numbers which show that, in the region generally, there is much to be done.

4.3 Unemployed People who Have Never Worked’ by Nationality

By definition, people who have never worked will be, for the most part, young people.

Figure 3 Unemployed people who have never worked. Source: INSEE, 1999

Analysing this category by nationality is a useful tool for approaching the difficulties, linked to the question of ethnic origin, of getting a first job. Al-though in overall terms, unemployed people who have never worked represent a small proportion of the total economically active population, it is

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important to underline the disparities between dif-ferent nationalities:

the rate of young, native-born French people • who have never worked stands at about 0.5 per cent

for young people who have acquired French • nationality, it stands at 1.1 per cent

for nationals of third party countries, the rate • is almost 8 times higher (4.3 per cent) than the average

in the latter group, young Algerians and • Tunisians who have never worked are the most over-represented, at 6 per cent of the former and 6.3 per cent of the latter (see Figure 3).

Hence, the conclusion is that the nationality of young people in the region has a great influence on their chances of finding work, thus raising ques-tions about the principle of equal treatment. It is much more difficult for a young person of foreign origin to find employment in the Poitou-Charentes region than it is for other young people.

4.4 Job Insecurity

In general, immigrants are more likely to be in temporary employment than workers as a whole, and women are more likely than men (20 per cent) to suffer from job insecurity:

30 per cent of female immigrants compared • to 18 per cent of the total female regional working population

20 per cent of male immigrants compared to • 16 per cent for the total male regional work-ing population.

Job insecurity makes any attempt in getting social advancement or career progression extremely difficult for immigrants, especially for immigrant women, of who 1 in 3 does not have secure em-ployment. All of which raises questions about the existence of discrimination, intentional or uninten-tional, against people of foreign origin.

4.5 Châtellerault and its Immigrants

7 per cent of the Châtellerault total population are of foreign origins. The immigrant population totals 1,405 people, which is 4.1 per cent of the total population of the town. 2.6 per cent of these 1,405 people do not have French nationality. 3 per cent of the Châtellerault population are Harkis6 and their descendants, which acquired French nation-ality in 1962. This population’s main countries of origin are Algeria, followed to a lesser extent by Portugal, Morocco and Spain. In 1999, its propor-tional distribution was: North Africa, 44 per cent, the European Union, 29 per cent, Asians, 12 per cent and, finally, sub-Saharan Africa, 8 per cent. The immigrant and ‘of immigrant origin’ population reside mainly in two districts which are classified as ZUS: the Plaine d’Ozon and the Renardières. The unemployment rate for the working population in Châtellerault stands at 30 per cent for immigrants,

6 Harki is the generic term for Muslim Algerians serving as auxiliaries with the French Army, during the Algerian War of Independence from 1954 to 1962.

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compared to 18 per cent for the town’s population as a whole.

4.6 The anti-Discrimination Project PIC EQUAL ACCEES Europe: ‘Act in Châtellerault against Exclusion and for Socio-professional Equality’

The ACCEES Europe project which has financed this book is part of the European Community programme EQUAL, whose objective is to fight discrimination and inequality in employment in Eu-rope. Its objective is to generate a higher level of awareness and to create synergy among all those participating in the socio-economic activity of the Châtellerault area labour market. Its main activity is promoting equal opportunities in the labour market by educating and training participants and stimulat-ing a network of economic partnerships.

SUNERGEIA, a training organisation in Chatel-lerault, leads a group of Development Partners who are responsible for the project. They include the AFPA, the MJC Les Renardières (community centre) and three companies: ADECCO, Batisol Plus, and SNECMA Services. The PIC EQUAL ACCEES began its work in 2005 with a systematic action programme covering four main areas:

Training social and professional organisations • in Châtellerault

Provision of information and assistance to • victims of discrimination

Developing awareness of employers on • how to prevent discrimination and promote diversity

Promoting the active participation and em-• powerment of populations subject to dis-crimination.

Through information provision and awareness-building, ACCEES has sought to bring the focus of recruitment procedures back to the skills nec-essary for any particular job and emphasise that the fight against discrimination in the workplace is not a question of ‘being nice’, but is in the best interests of the company, even more so now, as Europe’s population ages.

5. Conclusion

Discrimination is a highly complex phenomenon that runs in tandem with racism, though it is not synonymous with it. Some of its effects can be measured through differences in levels of un-employment. The path upon which France has embarked in countering discrimination is not one in which maximum coercion is equated with maxi-mum efficiency. France’s object is to profoundly change people’s awareness. It is based initially on the belief that ‘indifference to difference has a detrimental effect on those who are victims of their differences’ (Fauroux 2005). A change in the republican model, through which difference is ap-proached, would reveal and would make visible inequalities which have hitherto not been taken into account and which have often been denied.

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Discrimination and guilt are systemic, diffuse and widespread in society. The goal is, therefore, to identify those procedures which facilitate discrimi-nation in order to eliminate them. It is as unhelpful and simplistic to make employers feel guilty as it is to deny the existence of discrimination. Companies

cannot be the only structures that bear legal re-sponsibility for the crime of discrimination, and the state cannot simply respond with repressive legal and administrative measures, especially consider-ing the role and responsibilities of the public sector in colluding with work-related discrimination.

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Introduction ....................................................................................................47

1. Immigration and the Labour Market .........................................................471.1 Ethnic Minorities in Germany..................................................................471.2 Ethnic Minority Women and Men in the State of Bremen .....................491.3 Integrating Ethnic Minorities in the State of Bremen .............................50

2. EQUAL in Bremen and Bremerhaven ......................................................502.1 First Funding Phase 2002 – 2005 ..........................................................512.2 Second Funding Phase 2005 – 2007 .....................................................512.2.1 EQUAL Network ‘Diversity in the Workplace’ ......................................522.2.2 EQUAL Network ‘Employment and Qualification for Ethnic Minorities’ ...........................................................................................53

3. EQUAL Bremen & Bremerhaven: Mainstreaming ....................................54

Chapter 3

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Germany

EQUAL Bremen & Bremerhaven: Diversity Management in Employment Promotion

Introduction

‘Equal Bremen & Bremenhaven’ is an innovative approach focused on labour market policy. Five networks have been instituted on ‘Employment and Qualification of Ethnic Minorities’ and ‘Diversity in the Workplace’, through which the Senator for Labour, Women, Health, Youth and Social Affairs (SAFGJS) for Bremen and Bremenhaven7 wants to achieve a better integration of Ethnic Minorities in labour market actions.

In the context of these unprecedented EQUAL networks, this report describes the background to the minority ethnic presence in Germany and in the Bremen and Bremenhaven labour market in particular. It sets out how the political concept of minority ethnic integration, laid down by the Bremen Senate, has shaped the implementation of the EQUAL networks in Bremen and Bremen-haven. In the first funding period, three regional development partnerships were brought into be-ing. Their results are described below. The two networks set up in the second EQUAL funding period are described in more detail.

7 The State of Bremen (Freie Hansestadt Bremen) consists of the cities of Bremen and Bremenhaven. The state of Bremen is the smallest state among the sixteen states of the Federal Republic of Germany and one of the three ‘City-States’ (others: Berlin and Hamburg). Bremenhaven was established in the 18th century by the Bremen Senate and trade companies due to the need in another harbour close to the sea.

1. Immigration and the Labour Market

1.1 Ethnic Minorities in Germany

Although Germany has not viewed itself as a country of immigration for a long time, it has be-come the second most important such nation in the OECD after the United States (OECD 2005, p.14). Nearly 13 per cent of its population was born outside Germany, of whom two-thirds have lived in Germany for more than 10 years.

That Germany is in fact a country of immigration is demonstrated by the recruitment of ‘guest work-ers’, based on the idea that unskilled workers from poor rural areas throughout Europe would work for several years in Germany and then return home. Some did so, but many, as is well known, settled and managed to bring in their families. The aim was to use the workers as a temporary solution to the lack of manpower.

Later, larger immigration flows followed with the ‘resettlers’ – repatriates of German descent from Eastern Europe (mainly Russia, Poland and Ro-mania) – and refugees. In 2003, Turkish nationals formed the largest minority ethnic group, with ca. 1.2 million persons out of a total 5.8 million non-German population in Germany. Asylum seekers and refugees currently account for 1.1 million persons. Around 1.5 million of the nearly 6 million minority ethnic population who are not German citi-zens are second generation (OECD 2005). In 2003 more than 2 million repatriates, Spätaussiedler,

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mostly from Russia, Poland and Romania, were living in the Federal Republic. Despite all this, Ger-many has long viewed immigration as a temporary phenomenon. However, the new Immigration Act of 2005 now formally acknowledges that integration is the Government’s responsibility.

Minority ethnic individuals work in all sectors of the labour market in Germany. However, when compared with the rest of Europe, there is a great discrepancy between the level of vocational and academic qualifications among ethnic minorities and non-minority individuals. This can be at-tributed partly to the low percentage of minority ethnic individuals in apprenticeships and partly to the fact that overseas qualifications are often not recognised in Germany.

In recent years, Germany has suffered high unemployment. Thus, official statistics indicate an average unemployment rate in 2005 of 25.2 per cent for non-Germans and 12 per cent for Germans. Minority ethnic women, in particular, have a considerably lower rate of participation in the labour market. At just under 41 per cent, this group’s rate is 15.8 percentage points lower than the rate for German women.

The vocational integration of the so-called second and third generations who were born in Germany is especially disappointing. Whereas the percent-age of non-German pupils in schools of general education has fallen to 9.9 per cent of all pupils in 2005, the percentage in vocational schools is only 6.9 per cent of all pupils. The percentage of non-German trainees in companies is even lower,

at 4.6 per cent. And in the public service sector the percentage of non-Germans is far below the average, at 1.8 per cent.

In the future, Germany will be confronted with two issues in which the systematic integration of minor-ity ethnic communities could make a substantial contribution; demographic developments and an imbalance in labour market supply and demand. In Germany, the low birth rate and higher life ex-pectancy are leading to an increase in the elderly population and a simultaneous reduction in the working population. The controlled immigration and sustained integration of ethnic minorities is being discussed as central to helping solve this major structural problem. The demand for a workforce is particularly relevant to more highly qualified and specialised fields of employment. However, exist-ing qualification levels among Germany’s minority ethnic population are not high enough to meet this need. 63 per cent of minority ethnic individuals in Germany have poor formal qualifications; 33 per cent are vocationally qualified and only 4 per cent have further education or university qualifications (Bommes and Kolb 2005, p. 8).

Nevertheless, the German National Plan of Action for Employment makes no connection between national labour market policy and immigration. The use of immigration as a strategy in labour market policy is the exception; it is not seen as integral. But national, educational and labour market politi-cal strategies will have to confront this disjunction in the future.

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1.2 Ethnic Minority Women and Men in the State of Bremen

In 2005, non-German residents in the state of Bremen accounted for 12.7 per cent of its popula-tion (the national average is 8.8 per cent). It is a level that has increased only slightly over the past five years. Note that these figures refer to those who do not have German citizenship. But recent evidence published by the Federal Statistical Office of Germany (2005), indicates that the percentage of individuals from a minority ethnic background is considerably higher.

While 8.8 per cent of the population of the Federal Republic are non-Germans, the Federal Statistical Office calculates that minority ethnic population is just fewer than 20 per cent of the overall popu-lation. In the state of Bremen, given its heavy immigration in the 1960s, one can assume, by analogy with the national figures that just under 28 per cent of its residents come from a minority ethnic background.

In general, the participation of non-Germans in the labour market in the state of Bremen is well below the rate that might be expected. While they are 12.7 per cent of the Bremen’s population, this falls to 6.1 per cent of the working population. Similarly with unemployment rates, the annual average unemployment rate for the year 2005 was 16.8 per cent, whereas the unemployment rate for non-Germans reached 34 per cent. In other words, the risk of minority ethnic individuals in Bremen and Bremenhaven to become unemployed is double that for the population as a whole. Under the new

Act for the long-term unemployed (Grundsicherung für Arbeitssuchende/SGB II – social welfare for job-seekers/SGB II) groups that formerly either received unemployment benefits or social welfare are now being reached in one system. In relation to the residential population in the state of Bremen, there is an SGB II-quota8 of 13.9 per cent (Sena-tor for Labour, Women, Health, Youth and Social Affairs 2006). If the distribution of SGB II (social benefit) recipients of working age is analysed by nationality, then more than one-quarter (26.6 per cent) of them would be non-Germans. This per-centage is twice as high as that of non-Germans in the overall population. In the context of active labour market policy, approximately 5,000 ‘work opportunities’ (in-jobs) were set up in 2005 in Bremen, of which around 12 per cent were filled by non-Germans. Although while this rate does more or less correspond with the percentage of non-Germans in the total population of Bremen, there is still quite clear discrimination of ethnic minorities in regional active labour market policy because the percentage of non-Germans among long-term unemployed people in Bremen and Bremenhaven is much higher than the percentage of non-Germans in the total population of Bremen and Bremenhaven.

8 The SGB II-quota is calculated from the total number of persons in communities in need, multiplied by 100 and divided by the residential population. Up to and including August 2006, the residential population as of 31 December 2004 was used for the calculation and as of 31 December 2005 for the population from September 2006.

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1.3 Integrating Ethnic Minorities in the State of Bremen

The Bremen state government first adopted an integration strategy in 2000, which saw the in-tegration of ethnic minorities as a governmental and societal responsibility. It incorporates all departments under the leadership of the Senator for Labour, Women, Health, Youth and Social Af-fairs together with the Senator for Internal Affairs, Culture and Sports, the Senator for Education and Science and the Senator for Finances and the Senate Chancellery.

The aim is to provide ethnic minorities with an equal opportunity to participate in the economic, social and cultural life of the State of Bremen. The strategy distinguishes between various levels of action:

The necessary requirements for minority eth-• nic participation in employment and in wider social, community and cultural life are to be created or improved.

In developing employment opportunities, the • aim is to improve conditions in the regional employment promotion scheme so as to boost the integration of minority ethnic persons in working life. ‘Equal Bremen and Bremen-haven’ is a crucial labour market political instrument.

In addition, suitable measures are to be • developed in response to specific disadvan-tages, especially those suffered by asylum seekers and refugees.

Intercultural integration projects aim to pro-• mote sustained contacts and exchanges between minority ethnic communities and the host society.

Democratic participation in social institutions • and beyond is to be encouraged, as are legal measures to promote socio-political participation.

2. EQUAL in Bremen and Bremenhaven

That the Bremen and Bremenhaven EQUAL networks are anchored in the state government’s integration strategy for ethnic minorities is unique among EQUAL networks projects in Germany.

The goal of this wide-ranging regional network is to improve systematically the access of minority ethnic communities to work and training, through both individual and corporate measures.

Employment and integration of the target group are to be further developed. The objectives of ‘Equal Bremen & Bremenhaven’ are both complex and ambitious, as they amount to no less than the opening up of rigid structures and procedures that, to date, have scarcely considered either the needs or the potentials of minority ethnic individuals. The budget of the five Bremen and Bremenhaven EQUAL networks runs to a total of € 25.9 million including an ESF funding allocation of €11.3 mil-lion spread throughout the entire funding period. More than 60 regional individual projects are being implemented.

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The coordination of this is the responsibility of the EQUAL Management at the Senator for Labour, Women, Health, Youth and Social Affairs in the state of Bremen (SAFGJS). Its tasks include:

coordination and steering of the entire net-• work

handling the fiscal and financial processes •

organising the mainstreaming of good EQUAL • practice through opening up access to those bodies empowered to make labour market de-cisions at the political and strategic levels.

2.1 First Funding Phase 2002-2005

Between 2002 and 2005, measures aimed at improving vocational qualifications and access to employment were carried out under EQUAL auspices which involved 3,322 participants in three EQUAL networks. Due to the special efforts made to reach minority ethnic women, they made up 58.8 per cent of participants. The largest group of participants by far (40.4 per cent) were from non-EU states, followed by those with repatriate status (34.2 per cent).

EQUAL activities focused on the following areas:

Vocational orientation, consulting and ad-• vice

Training and vocational preparation •

Employment projects with specific training • offers

Consulting for business start-up•

One of the central and innovative emphases was on empowering minority ethnic individuals. This was seen as instrumental to integration, as well as the expression of a specific, professional and educational commitment within the organisations. Such empowerment also reinforced the fact of, and belief in, the individual competence of minor-ity ethnic women and men as well as helping to create suitable conditions, locally and regionally, to foster their potential for self-help.

Diversity management and the manifestation of diversity in practice were strategic aims of the EQUAL networks. Many sub-projects took on board the innovative EQUAL framework by incor-porating its approach to intercultural competences and, in doing so, put it to the test. In practice, the three EQUAL networks found that such imple-mentation processes were more complex than initially assumed. The process revealed discernible benefits to decision-makers, along with a certain pressure for accountability. Linking the empow-erment approach to the further development of diversity strategies was a clear asset, buttressed by intercultural and diversity management training for the participating enterprises.

2.2 Second Funding Phase 2005-2007

The two EQUAL networks, ‘Diversity in the Work-place’ and ‘Employment and Qualifications for Ethnic Minorities’, continued to strengthen the development process in Bremen and Bremen-haven. In the current funding phase, these two new

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networks are building on the strategic objectives of EQUAL in Bremen and Bremenhaven.

2.2.1 EQUAL Network ‘Diversity in the Workplace’

This network incorporates both aspects of the la-bour market (supply and demand). It concentrates not only on the further development of vocational training for diversity and integration but also on the opening up of public and private companies to diversity – diversity management – and on empowerment.

Objective 1: Diversity for vocational, educational and consultative institutions

Strategies for the development of vocational training, further education and the improvement of advice and consultancy services are to be implemented, in order to enhance the capacity for integration of ethnic minorities. Diversity man-agement in vocational training is a goal of those sub-projects, tied into the Chamber of Crafts and Trade, to be achieved through awareness training and education.

The EQUAL network is also paving the way for new developments, oriented to diversity, within Bremen’s business start-up consultancy service. Specific services are to be developed and consul-tations offered to minority ethnic individuals within an expanded B.E.G.I.N. programme (Bremen business start up initiative). But while such meas-ures may be stipulated by the authorities, they

still have to be put into action by people. Hence, measures to increase the intercultural and diversity competences of trainers, educators and advisers are also needed.

Objective 2: Intercultural opening up of private and public companies

Systematically winning over employers to improv-ing the integration of ethnic minorities within the labour market is one of the most important goals of ‘Equal Bremen & Bremenhaven’. To open up companies to intercultural issues and firm up company procedures for the employment of mi-nority ethnic workers requires, first, the education and sensitisation of corporate decision-makers, for example within the framework of training pro-grammes aimed at promoting diversity as a human resource for the company. This will facilitate sen-sitivity to and acceptance of diverse cultures and lifestyles within the workforce and allow company executives to pursue diversity management as a corporate goal.

The goal of increasing or securing the employ-ment of minority ethnic individuals in businesses has been pursued particularly effectively by those sub-projects aimed at young people, through training and educational programmes. Thus, for example, one project is seeking to increase the rate of minority ethnic participation in the police force. Other projects in the EQUAL network of-fer certified training for the unskilled and partially skilled, in order to equip the participant for fields of work where demands for qualifications are in-creasing. This will give minority ethnic individuals

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better chances in a labour market that is becoming ever more specialised. But parallel to this runs the need to sensitise human resources executives to the benefits of diversity management – otherwise, the extra qualifications are of little benefit. This is an objective that runs through nearly all the sub-projects in the EQUAL network. The target groups here are the company proprietors (mainly in manufacturing) and the personnel directors. Thus, public companies and their social partners have the chance to act as multipliers for the introduc-tion of diversity management, paving the way for private enterprises to follow.

Objective 3: Reinforcing personal empowerment and the achievement of skills

‘Diversity in the Workplace’ also pursues the goals of personal empowerment and betterment of skills among minority ethnic individuals. Participants are systematically supported in expanding their profes-sional qualifications as well as their ‘soft skills’, such as language mastery. Several sub-projects attempt, through counselling and professional training, to increase the chances for minority ethnic young people to gain apprenticeships or voca-tional training. The measures extend from making information available to young people and their families to aiding preparation for examinations to the entry-level qualification for unskilled workers. This also applies to older people. There is, too, a focus on professional or sector-related further education for those in employment, in order to enhance job security or support career advance-ment. Several sub-projects offer modular training courses which are tailored to business practice, as

well as retraining or refresher course, which offer certified qualifications.

2.2.2 EQUAL Network ‘Employment and Qualifications for Ethnic Minorities’

This EQUAL network promotes the integration of ethnic minorities in the regional labour market and is a catalyst for the development of regional employment opportunities for ethnic minorities. Its focal point is the nursing and health-care industry, whose clientele is itself becoming increasingly diversified. A mutual learning process takes place between the companies, the organisations promot-ing diversity in employment, and the minority ethnic individuals who participate.

Objective 1: Furthering the employment of minor-ity ethnic individuals and their integration in the labour market

New ways of opening up employment aimed at this target group focus on business start-up advice and consultation. They include the development of new training courses, for example, in language and culture, the adaptation of curricula, supplemented by the use of e-learning in combination with classroom instruction. These measures also entail improving the pathways to achieving qualifications, training or employment and providing support. Internships are a component of several projects, as are coaching or consultation following the com-mencement of training or employment. Increasing the participation in the labour market of minority ethnic women is also an equal opportunity objec-

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tive. This goal is to be achieved through meshing political measures concerning the labour market with neighbourhood work; for example, women who have no access to the working world may be reached through local organisations near their homes. Such an approach would be a precondition for bringing women who are under-represented into schemes aimed at vocational qualifications and gainful employment.

Objective 2: Diversity in sectors with a high de-mand for labour

Healthcare and nursing is a growing industry in which there is reasonable access to employment for ethnic minorities. Moreover, increasing numbers of this industry’s clients are from minority ethnic and different cultural and religious backgrounds. Activities aimed at increasing diversity in this sec-tor include information events, expert congresses and roundtable discussions, as well as support for network formation. Diversity training for human re-sources directors and corporate managers is also important. Opening up companies to the increased recruitment of ethnic minorities is achieved through measures that sensitise the healthcare industry to the intercultural dimension and also prepare it to provide intercultural services.

Objective 3: Improvement in qualifications and skills of minority ethnic women and men

Raising the qualification levels and increasing the skills of individuals is necessary for improving the access of the group as a whole in the labour mar-ket. Empowerment is particularly important to rein-

force these approaches and enlarge an individual’s options. It is a means of enabling the target group to take their (job-related) futures into their own hands. The development of communication skills and conflict training are part of this, as are courses in German, in technical language and in English. Individual strategies for professional integration may be developed through support for concrete work experience, company visits and internships. A further objective is to adapt prior relevant pro-fessional qualifications and expertise; if previous qualifications and experience are validated, often only an additional qualification is needed to enable minority ethnic individuals to continue the careers they initially were trained for.

3. EQUAL Bremen and Bremenhaven: Mainstreaming

The innovations tested and developed by the five EQUAL networks (three in the first funding period and two in the second) need to be transferred into mainstream practice. And their application has to be demanded by publicly funded institutions and systems. It is a two-way process. ‘Equal Bremen & Bremenhaven’ is therefore attempting to shift public discourse on labour market policy towards the necessity of, and benefits from, implementing diversity management and equal employment policies.

As already noted, ‘Equal Bremen & Bremenhaven’ is rooted in the state strategy for integration, where its goals and content are explicitly laid down. Thus, it is an integral building-block of state policy, regu-

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larly monitored in a bi-annual report. Its networks are coordinated and controlled via the central director’s office, EQUAL Management, which is incorporated in the state administration. One of its essential duties is to effect both the horizontal sharing of experience, across the network, and the vertical mainstreaming of the lessons learnt into institutions of active regional labour market policy. From the start, there has been intensive communication and coordination between EQUAL Management and the ESF (European Social Fund) department of the state government. As the EQUAL programme is a particularly innovative

strand of ESF funding, these tight-knit working re-lations helped actively in the transfer of experience and results. That diversity management focused on ethnic minorities is part of regional ESF fund-ing for 2007-2013 is a tangible and extremely important mainstream outcome. It is a testimony to the way that the EQUAL network was structured and its incorporation of strategic partners, includ-ing decision-makers at the levels of the regional labour market and integration policy, as well as federal government bodies and social partners and networks aimed at integration.

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Introduction ....................................................................................................57

1. Minority Situation ......................................................................................581.1 Ethnic Structure ......................................................................................581.2 Socio-economic Disparities between Lithuanians and National Minorities .........................................................................................591.3 Educational Attainment Rates .................................................................601.4 Knowledge of Lithuanian ........................................................................60

2. Roma Integration Policies and their Impact .............................................612.1 Public Attitudes towards Roma ...............................................................622.2 Involvement in the Labour Market ..........................................................62

3. Individual Employment Models .................................................................64

4. Conclusion ................................................................................................68

Tables and Figures ........................................................................................69

Chapter 4

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Lithuania

Challenges to the Employment of Roma in Lithuania

By Dr Tadas Leončikas Centre of Ethnic Studies of the Institute for Social Research, Vilnius

Introduction

This chapter analyses specific forms of exclusion in a country which otherwise maintains an image of a successfully integrating its national minorities into its social and economic fabric. But specific groups such as the Roma suffer extreme margin-alisation and almost complete exclusion from the labour market.

The sheer extent of the problems related to Roma integration may have actually hindered a clear focus for debating and identifying policy priorities. Although, for example, there has been a range of positive initiatives in the area of Roma education since the mid-1990s, the overall marginalisation of the Roma has nonetheless increased over the last decade. State integration policies for national minorities focus mostly on the cultural dimension, on educational provision and support for minority organisations. Social and labour market policies still fail to acknowledge or address ethnicity as a relevant factor. Against such a background, the specific problems of the Roma in Lithuania largely fall outside existing policy frameworks and there are no mechanisms available to address such problems.

This chapter is written from within the framework of the EQUAL project The Creation and Testing of Support Mechanisms of Integration of Roma Peo-ple into the Labour Market and draws attention to the fact that employment is crucial to social integra-tion. Whereas the Roma are widely perceived as unwilling to take jobs, it is the structural obstacles to employment that are examined here. A survey

of crucial indicators about the Roma community, including its age structure, levels of educational attainment and knowledge of languages demon-strates that these factors are actually extremely relevant to employment prospects. They need to be taken into account when designing integration policies. In particular, examples of individual Roma employment patterns cited here focus attention on the often neglected fact that the wider society constrains Roma social advancement within a limited number of exotic occupations.

Of all national minorities, Roma have the highest rates of unemployment, illiteracy, and poverty. While the country’s economy is growing and gen-eral living conditions are improving, a closer look at the data will show that the marginalisation of the Roma is actually increasing. Although numerically small, the Roma are least affected by state policies which are not adjusted to their specific situation. So far, there has been no breakthrough in Roma employment rates. Possible reasons for their long-term exclusion from the labour market include the failure, based on the lack of experience, to design socially oriented, group-sensitive policies. Current needs include accredited vocational train-ing, sources of income for the younger generation that provide an alternative to crime, and involving employers in dialogue and employment develop-ment programmes.

The individual case histories of Roma employment and self-employment cited below reveal that the areas in which the Roma can achieve success are extremely narrow niche occupations, such as music or fortune telling. Factors affecting the Roma

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take-up of employment, such as the lack of realistic opportunities where they live, the men’s working abroad and low organisational infrastructure are all too often overlooked. Policy intervention is vital if there is to be any breakthrough in employment prospects for the Roma.

1. Minority Situation9

It is generally acknowledged that national minori-ties (at least those that have been in the country for a considerable amount of time) are relatively well integrated into Lithuania’s economic and social fab-ric. However, in the case of the Roma, their social deprivation is outstanding and marginalisation is multiple. Roma experience the most hostility from the majority society and are negatively portrayed in media. Many of the problems that afflict the Roma community are of a long-term nature. So far, the policies applied though essentially positive, have been limited in nature and have not brought about any breakthrough. If we are to better under-stand the challenging context for policies aimed at encouraging Roma integration (particularly in the labour market), it is necessary to review the general minority situation.

1.1 Ethnic Structure

Minorities account for 15.6 per cent, or 544,000

9 This section draws partly on Ex-Post Evaluation (and Dissemination of Findings) of European Union Support to National Minorities in Lithuania (2004), on which the author was a consultant.

people10 of Lithuania’s nearly 3.5 million popula-tion. The most sizeable national minorities are the Poles and the Russians, accounting for 6.7 and 6.3 per cent of the population respectively. Other national minorities account for around 2 per cent of the population, the most numerous of whom are Belarusians and Ukrainians. In addition, since historical times, Lithuania has been home to Jew-ish, Tatar, Karaite, Roma and some other, presently smaller, communities.

In 2001, 2,571 persons declared themselves to be Roma/Gypsies; however, the census may not have reached all Roma; the actual number could be higher, at around 3,000. Roma live throughout the country, but the largest and most impoverished group of settlements (population approximately 670) is located in the outskirts of Vilnius, near Kirtimai. There are some Roma who, for various reasons, do not have official papers and who therefore experience difficulties to obtain full citi-zenship rights. However, the vast majority of Roma have citizenship, and their employment problems are not caused by the lack of formal rights.

For a variety of historical reasons, national mi-norities in Lithuania tend to be geographically concentrated in certain areas. Depending on the social milieu in which Roma live, they differ in their second language use (the first is their native

10 This number refers to those who declared ethnicity other than Lithuanian in the 2001 census. Figures are calculated from data published in Statistics Lithuania (2002). 32,900 persons (0.94 percent of population) who did not declare any ethnicity are not included. The declaration of ethnicity was optional.

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Romany). Though many have some knowledge of a few languages, there are differences: in certain areas, Lithuanian prevails, in other areas, Rus-sian. The language factor may well impact on their integration and employability.

Roma have a distinctive age structure (see Figure 1): 46 per cent are younger than 20, whereas nationwide this age group is only 27 per cent of the population. Given the youthfulness of its population, education and employment are cru-cially important for the development of the Roma community.

1.2 Socio-economic Disparities between Lithuanians and National Minorities

While minorities are relatively well integrated, there are disparities in the labour market representation between Lithuanians and national minorities. A comparison of unemployment levels in 2001, 2002, and 2003 reveals that unemployment amongst national minorities is significantly higher than the

national average (Beresnevičiūtė 2005)11. While data on income levels broken down by national minority group is not available, it is reasonable to assume that these disparities extend to income levels.

Caution should be exercised over making simplistic and speculative assertions about disparities in the labour market between the Lithuanian majority and national minorities. There are complex, multifac-eted factors in play, such as structural economic factors (the restructuring of traditional industries); regional differences; differences in age structure and educational attainment. There may, of course,

11 For example: in 2002, when unemployment stood at 12.8 per cent amongst Lithuanians, the level amongst the Russian and Polish minorities respectively was 20.3 per cent and 17.8 per cent. Unemployment amongst other minorities (e.g. Belarusians, Ukrainians etc.) was also higher than average, at 17.4 per cent. Statistical sources are: the 2001 Census and the 2002 and 2003 Population Employment Surveys, all carried out by the Lithuanian Department of Statistics. Ethnicity has not been regis-tered in the unemployment statistics since 2003.

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be other factors that hinder participation in the labour market for some minorities – the language barrier is an obvious constraint. In the case of the Roma, discrimination is especially acute, although other factors need to be kept in mind.

Structural factors, such as a locality’s predominant language or its unemployment levels will certainly have an impact on Roma economic prospects; nevertheless, given the small numbers of Roma, targeted policies would have a realistic chance of bringing about change.

1.3 Educational Attainment Rates

Educational attainment rates are an important in-dicator since there is typically a strong correlation between educational attainment rates and labour market outcomes. There is a certain variation between ethnic groups, but the figures confirm that the Roma minority is the worst performing in respect of educational attainment, as it is on many other indicators. Only 59 out of every 1,000 Roma achieve further or higher education levels (see Table 1). Similarly, illiteracy and the proportion of Roma who fail to complete basic schooling are much higher than for other national minorities.

Education was the area in which most NGO and governmental projects aimed at Roma were car-ried out in the 1990s. And in recent years, the numbers of Roma children enrolled in school have, comparatively, increased. However, there is still no certainty with regard to Roma fluency in Lithuanian.

1.4 Knowledge of Lithuanian

A high proportion of some national minority popu-lations have a poor knowledge of Lithuanian (see Table 2). The Roma may not appear outstand-ing in this context; nonetheless, a more detailed statistical analysis reveals an alarming trend. The Roma minority population demonstrates a ‘reverse’ distribution in terms of those knowing the Lithuanian language when the data is examined by age structure. The proportion of those who know Lithuanian is significantly higher amongst the older generation, whereas more than 30 per cent those aged 20-39 claimed not to know the language. This regression may well be an additional factor that hinders Roma entering the labour market, as well as hindering their ability to participate in education and vocational training. This is particu-larly worrying given that the data on other national minorities, such as the Poles and the Russians, clearly demonstrates that, the younger the age profile, the more widespread the knowledge of the language. This clearly suggests that language is much less of an obstacle for young people than for the older generation (aged over 50). The age distribution concerning language skills emerged as one of the most clear indicators of a decrease among Roma in social contacts outside their im-mediate social environment; in other words, that their social isolation, post-independence (after 1990) was intensifying.

However, the situation may have changed since 2001 as there have been a range of government-supported language-training initiatives since then. It should also be pointed out that there has always

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been a difference between Roma in countryside regions of Lithuania who were relatively fluent in Lithuanian, and those concentrated in Vilnius and Vilnius region who were less familiar with it.

The lack of proficiency in Lithuanian should, how-ever, not be overstated as an obstacle to labour market participation, since many jobs do not re-quire much Lithuanian (Ex Post 2004). However, the lack of linguistic skills, combined with illiteracy, will often severely impede Roma in accessing and receiving public services or effectively exercising their rights.

2. Roma Integration Policies and their Impact

While the Roma community is numerically small (estimated 3,000), the problems faced by it remain considerable. This fact was recognised by the Lithuanian government, which implemented the Roma Integration Programme, 2000-2004. The programme focused on the multiple disadvantages

faced by the Roma, but problems still persist in the sectors of employment, housing, education, healthcare and public services. The types of depri-vation that affect the Roma minority are inextricably linked to poverty. In case of the largest settlement near Vilnius in Kirtimai, the Roma community also suffers from crime-related problems – particularly the sale of illegal drugs.

As a result of various ground-breaking initiatives and policy measures from the 1990s onwards, Roma representatives began voicing their con-cerns. One highly practical issue identified was the need for driving lessons for young Roma since many were driving without an official licence12. But the major issues they identified included the need for accredited vocational training for young people that would lead to real employment opportunities, the need to find young people alternative sources

12 The courses for obtaining driving licenses took place in 2006 and were financed through EU structural funds and the EQUAL programme.

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of employment to crime and the need to provide Lithuanian language teaching. The Roma are also concerned about reparations for holocaust victims and would welcome official political recognition of their national day – 8 April (Ex Post 2004).

Across Lithuania, there is a small number of NGOs working for the benefit of the Roma community such as the Lithuanian Children’s Fund. There are also Roma NGOs staffed by Roma themselves such as the Gypsy Bonfire, which has several branches across Lithuania, Nevo Drom and oth-ers. No noteworthy changes have been achieved in the development of Roma representation and organisational capacities. Although around 20 Roma organisations have been founded over the past 15 years, most are no longer active. Only four NGOs took advantage of an opportunity to participate in a programme allowing tax-payers to donate 2 per cent of their income tax to the non-profit sector.

2.1 Public Attitudes towards Roma

Gaining support for Roma integration policies is severely compromised by public attitudes that are largely negative. The public at large view the Roma through media eyes that tend to focus on the ghettoised Roma settlement in Kirtimai and emphasise news about crime and drug-dealing. This alarming image was further reinforced in the media when the Vilnius municipality demolished some buildings in the Roma settlement as a part of its anti-drug-trade campaign in December 2004. Over the past 15 years, the image of the Roma

has deteriorated the most in comparison to other ethnic groups (see Table 3).

Prior to the demolition of the buildings, in autumn 2004, the Vilnius municipality made some 50 jobs available to the Roma. The fact that no one was willing to get involved was a disappointment to some Vilnius residents who had previously sym-pathised with the Roma. Superficially, it seemed to justify the belief that ‘they do not want to work’. However, survey evidence collected here contra-dicts the prevailing stereotype that the Roma are unwilling to work. So the question remains, why the usual avenues to employment do not work for the Roma and how can accessible jobs be found or created for them.

2.2 Involvement in the Labour Market

No recent statistics exist on Roma participation in the labour market since data on employment and unemployment is collected without any indication of ethnic background. However, we can assume that the highest Roma unemployment rates are to be found among the Kirtimai Roma, in the settle-ment near Vilnius. According to a 2001 survey of the Roma in Kirtimai and its surroundings, about 50 per cent of men and 70 per cent of women described themselves as unemployed; only 7 per cent indicated that they had a profession [i.e. had received some professional training] (Institute of Social and Labour Research for DNMLA, 2001). Those who worked irregularly included 25 per cent of men, who said they worked in a market, and 16.5 per cent who carried on individual busi-

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66

nesses. About 40 per cent mentioned the lack of employment opportunities. Only a small percent-age of those surveyed (5 per cent of men and one woman) stated that they had a regular source of income. Since the majority of respondents had no regular job, their income came from casual earn-ings or social grants or benefits. The situation of the Kirtimai Roma settlement is unlikely to have changed within recent years. Almost every other Roma family expressed a willingness to take any job, if only there was a chance of one.

As far as measures to improve Roma employment prospects are concerned, barriers such as the lack of education and skills, and lack of the work ethic and motivation need to be considered. Because of their long-term exclusion from adequate em-ployment and the wider society, the existence, in certain cases, of illegal sources of income must also be taken into account. The induction of Roma into the labour market needs very special support, without which even their undertaking specialised training is not effective in improving their situation. Vilnius Labour Exchange reported (September 2006) that from 2003-2006, 151 Roma individuals were given various kinds of training, yet only four were employed as a result13. Also important is the lack of any real need for unqualified labour. Hence, both the supply of a Roma workforce and the de-mand for it have to be stimulated. But the Roma population in Lithuania is small and scattered, so it is difficult to argue that it could be turned into a

13 This data was obtained by the Centre of Ethnic Stud-ies of the Institute for Social Research from the Vilnius Labour Exchange by request on 20 September 2006.

labour pool for a large-scale economy as has been the case in other east central European countries with large Roma populations (UNDP 2005).

One of the most important initiatives to address Roma employment was launched after Lithuania’s EU accession. It was supported by the EQUAL programme . The project aims to test the support mechanisms for Roma integration into the labour market; it is also aimed at Roma integration into the networks of social cooperation by employing specially trained Roma representatives. However, the EQUAL programme14 supports experimental initiatives designed to find new, innovative solu-tions and so is not part of regular social policy. Thus, the EQUAL project does not replace the need for a Roma integration policy and does not exempt the government from responsibility and long-term obligations.

3. Individual Employment Models

Below are some individual case studies of Roma employment, together with commentary on what can be discovered about the models represented by them. We selected individuals who are consid-ered a success both by other Roma and by the mainstream society. All, however, differ in the type

14 The Department of National Minorities, the Vilnius City Municipality, the Ukmergė Region Municipality, the Roma Community Centre, the Lithuanian Roma Community Čigonų laužas and the Social Workers Training Centre under the Ministry of Social Security and Labour are the partners in the project, which is managed by the NGO Lithuanian Children’s Fund.

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of social contacts and the extent of social networks they rely on in the pursuit of their goals.

Case 1: Working on One’s Own

Milda, 59, is a fortune-teller from Ukmergė who has her own premises and is probably the only Roma fortune-teller who has formalised her business. She registered her enterprise nine years ago. The specific self-employed status that Milda has is, according to Lithuanian law, that of an ‘individual enterprise’. Her field of business is ‘services and recreational activities’. As a matter of course, she keeps all her documentation in order: receipts, tax declarations and health insurance.

Milda has been a fortune-teller since her youth, but she is now a self-confident professional. The best proof of success is her nearly ten years of steady work. Milda emphasises her efforts and respect for the clients. She also believes that in some situations she should not charge a fee but simply help a person.

Milda is well aware of society’s disrespect towards Roma, of negative stereotyping and about the dif-ficulties Roma have in getting education or finding jobs. For herself, however, she has always striven forward. Although educated up to grade five only, Milda reads books and has learned a number languages – apart from Romany and Lithuanian, she knows Russian and Polish and can understand Byelorussian and Ukrainian.

(based on Zimblienė D. „Mokesčių inspekcija gauna ir būrėjos ataskaitas“ in Lietuvos rytas/Vartai, 06 02 2006, p.8).

Case 2: Work within the Community

Kazimieras, 59, has been on the staff of the Roma Community Centre (RCC) in Kirtimai almost since it was opened in 2000. A rare example of a Roma person with a university education, he is respected and valued for his literacy and administrative know-how. It is typical to see him surrounded by others, for whom he may be composing a docu-ment on the computer or doing some other work. No less important is his fluency in spoken and written Lithuanian, also a rarity among the Kirtimai community.

Kazimieras’ wife is Lithuanian, but became in-volved in activities for the Roma community. While Kazimieras is largely concerned with his duties working for the population of the Kirtimai settlement, his wife is involved in an organisation which carries out projects for other segments of the Roma community. Kazimieras’ informal knowledge and his contacts with Roma in other towns are by all means a good support for his wife’s work. Kazimieras’ two daughters, now in their twenties, have worked respectively as a hairdresser and a sales-person, until they left a year ago in search of better wages abroad; now both are in Italy.

When considering the prospects for Roma employ-ment, Kazimieras notes that the small trading and other opportunities to earn in the market place have been shrinking recently, and that jobs for unskilled and poor settlement dwellers are not easy to find. Kazimieras is always ready to try to convince the sometimes distrustful and hesitant people from the settlement that it is worth making

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the effort. But it is distressing that his efforts and assistance are often not enough to win trust and fairness from employers.

(based on interview with Kazimieras, February 2006).

Case 3: Working beyond the Community

Over the last few years Sare Roma has become a familiar band for many more people than just devoted lovers of Romany music. Istvan, 26, is the central singer and the moving spirit of the band, which currently numbers twenty: twelve people perform on the stage, and eight assist in the background.

As their career evolved, Sare Roma has played at concerts, private parties and festivals. One of the turning points in winning wider publicity was its involvement in social projects. Sare Roma was invited by the artistic community to perform at Viln-ius Centre; it joined in performances that were not just entertainment but that also carried a message of crossing cultural boundaries. Over the last four or so years, the band has gained confidence and popularity; its CD and an international tour were scheduled for 2006-2007.

As we talked, I discovered how Istvan and his group rely on their strong family background. Istvan speaks about the good atmosphere, the mutual respect for each other, especially for the elders, and the support within his large family. Indeed, other relatives of his are noted for these qualities. Istvan believes that it is not possible to separate economic success from such moral qualities. Others often turn to him to ask about job

opportunities. In relation to the general prospects for Roma employment, Istvan sincerely believes that his co-ethnics do wish to work. He believes that the drug trade in Kirtimai settlement is a main source of survival, into which people have slid or were manipulated because other means of suste-nance were not accessible for the Roma.

(based on interview with Istvan, February 2006).

In all these examples, the family’s importance stands out: either in providing a supportive back-ground for Milda and Istvan, or helping to share the initiatives for work in the community and daily life (Kazimieras and his wife). However, although families and broader informal networks generate support, they cannot help their members secure entrance into mainstream society or, for our pur-poses here, the labour market).

In informal networks, successful Roma may well act as intermediaries for others but, once again, the connections are limited to those within the community. It is not always possible to pass on know-how or an entrée into mainstream society to other Roma because of the general public’s reluctance to accept Roma.

Most families, as became apparent from other in-terviews not sampled here, have relatives working abroad. The destination countries are the same as those for most Lithuanians – Great Britain predomi-nates. Labour emigration is important for a number of reasons; it can, for example, be cited in public debate to counteract the popular stereotype that Roma are not willing to work.

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But emigration, especially of men, may actually be changing labour preferences and opportunities for the rest of community. The ‘male-drain’ affects family life and family structure. Although child-care may still be shared by women in an extended family, the men, when absent, cannot create and share job contacts, experience and opportunities with the growing generation. In other words, men do not become role models who could be followed to achieve a social breakthrough in Lithuania. It was difficult for us to find a young person as an example for our case studies: the young are either unemployed or have gone to work abroad.

Even attempts at social entrepreneurship lack sufficient structural support. There are neither gov-ernmental schemes available to provide resources nor a non-governmental infrastructure capable of supporting Roma initiatives where they exist. Needless to say, future employment programmes would gain some solidity if they could find a way of tapping in to what Roma themselves are willing to implement.

4. Conclusion

The age structure of the population, combined with its deep-seated exclusion, clearly dictate that for a mainly youthful Roma population education and entry into the labour market are the key areas that policy must address. The regressive trend in knowledge of Lithuanian among younger age groups could well signify a deepening marginali-sation that needs considerable time if it is to be reversed.

Given that Roma representation and organisational capacities remain at low levels, Roma employment is essentially a matter of seeking individual op-portunities – and those opportunities, in the case of most Roma, are very limited. Rare examples of successful Roma have been achieved through self-employment essentially supported by intra-commu-nal ties. Excluded from wider social networks, the Roma are kept on the margins of society. Roma, it seems, can only achieve success through the semi-exotic, niche specialism with which they are stereotypically associated – fortune telling, Roma music, etc. It is yet another marginalisation. The mainstream society fails showing that other paths to social advancement for Roma are also available and can be effective

Yet Roma constitute a relatively small group of population, and the government should be capa-ble, in terms of both finances and administration, of developing policies that would make far-reaching changes in Roma life. The Roma cannot overcome their exclusion on their own. In terms of employ-ment, it is clear that any measures undertaken have to be accessible to and welcomed by Roma themselves, have to involve employers, and be supported by policy programmes.

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Figure 1 Age structure of Roma and Lithuanian society average, based on 2001 census data Source: Human Rights Monitoring Institute, March 2005

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Table 1 Educational attainment rates according to 2001 census (number per 1,000 inhabitants aged 10 & over)

Source: Statistics Lithuania, 2002

Hig

her

E

duca

tion

Furth

er

Edu

catio

n

Sec

onda

ry

Sch

ool

Bas

ic

Prim

ary

Sch

ool

Not

fin

ishe

d pr

imar

y S

choo

l

Lite

ratu

re (

but

have

not

at-

tend

ed s

choo

l)

Illite

rate

(u

nabl

e to

rea

d or

writ

e)

Not

indi

cate

d

Country average 126 193 272 150 208 38 4.6 3.4 4.7

Roma 41 18 223 149 310 184 39 31 4

Roma (in absolute numbers) 79 35 427 286 594 352 75 60

Note: The definition of Higher Education is post-18 university-level education; the definition for Further Education is post-16 non-university level education including adult education.

Table 2 Proportion of population that do not know Lithuanian, 200115

Ethnicity %

Total 7.8

Lithuanians 3.0

Poles 31.0

Russians 27.8

Belarusians 42.2

Ukrainians 35.9

Jews 28.5

Latvians 10.9

Tatars 25.0

Roma 37.8Germans 17.8

Armenians 32.6

Others 34.9

Source: Statistics Lithuania, 2002, Ex Post Evaluation, 2004

Note: Data based on self-assessment. Percentages include only those who explicitly indicated their mother tongue was not Lithuanian and either did not know or did not mention that they knew Lithuanian. This number is divided by the total number of the corresponding ethnic group population.

15 It should be emphasised that there are inherent methodological difficulties with regard to statistics that rely on selfevaluation. Researchers tend to be sceptical about the accuracy of self-evaluation of linguistic capacity firstly because the process is subjective, and secondly because respondents may have personal reasons for declaring their command of or, conversely, lack of knowledge of a particular language. By implication, there is uncertainty with regard to the reliability of the figures.

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Table 3 Increase of social distance towards selected groups in Lithuanian society

1990 1999 2005 2006 2007

People of other race 20 – 36 – –

Jews 18 21 31 25 18

Muslims 34 31 51 58 59

Roma/Gypsies 59 62 70 75 68

(Representative survey data; percentage of those not willing to have given groups as their neigh-bours)

Sources: European Value Survey 1990, 1999; the Institute of Civil Society 2005; The Centre of Ethnic Studies of the Institute for Social Research, 2006-2007

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Introduction ....................................................................................................73

1. General Context ........................................................................................731.1 Trends and Extent of Immigration ..........................................................731.2 Employment Conditions ..........................................................................741.3 Immigration Policy Highlights ..................................................................741.4 Perception of Migration among the Spanish Population ........................75

2. Demographic Trends .................................................................................752.1 National/Ethnic Composition of Foreign Residents ................................752.1.1 Composition of Latin American Population .........................................772.2 Regional Distribution of the Immigrant Population .................................772.3 Settlement Patterns ................................................................................772.4 Age and Gender Structures ....................................................................782.5 Population Projections ............................................................................78

3. Socio-economic Situation .........................................................................783.1 Poverty/Discrimination and Immigrants ..................................................78

4. Immigration and Remittances ...................................................................78

5. Diversity in Spanish Businesses...............................................................795.1 Caja Madrid .............................................................................................795.2 Grupo Vips ..............................................................................................795.3 DIA ..........................................................................................................805.4 Small Companies ....................................................................................81

6. Conclusion ................................................................................................82

Chapter 5

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Spain

Spain Becomes Diverse: Main Trends of its Rapid Immigration Process

Introduction

This chapter is organised in two main parts. The first part gives a general picture of immigration in Spain, focusing on several areas of analysis (demography, labour market, policy issues, socio-economic situation, etc.) and emphasising the main social and economic changes brought by immigration. The second part presents valuable and innovative case studies that convey, qualita-tively, experiences of diversity management in the increasingly ethnically diverse context of Spanish companies.

When dealing with ethnic diversity in Spain, it is necessary to take into account the fact that immigration is a very recent phenomenon; thus, ethnic diversity, as an analytical concept, has not yet permeated Spanish society. This implies, of course, that immigration is crucial to diversity and, second, the fact that the array of processes generated by immigration are in constant motion. This country profile, then, is a picture of what is currently going on in Spain. The consolidation of current trends will make the issue of ethnic diver-sity gain momentum and significance.

Diversity management is gradually becoming an element in Spanish human resources policies. Attention is already paid to gender and disability; now ethnic diversity is part of the most innovative policies. But despite this, the glass ceiling (as far as gender is concerned) remains intact, the mini-mum quotas established by law for people with disabilities are rarely met and, for the purposes of this study, the employment of immigrants is a

real cultural challenge to organisations that is just starting to make itself felt.

Mestizaje (from mestizo) is understood here as a business process specifically marked by its plural-ity, its mixing of cultures and experiences. Mestiza companies might express this internally in their business culture, immigrant human resources, in-ternational divisions, knowledge management, and globalisation of capital structure and production chains; and externally through clients, suppliers, environments, policies or transnational norms or policies. While there is no single or strict definition of a mestiza company, its mestizaje is likely to be greater the more global the company. Although this mixing of national origins and cultures, like any process of change, carries a certain risk, it is also a source of opportunity and enrichment.

1. General Context

1.1 Trends and Extent of Immigration

The arrival of a substantial inflow of immigrants over the last few years has completely changed the picture of migration in Spain. In fact, Spain has changed from a country of emigration to one of immigration so that the number of foreigners cur-rently living in the country amounts to more than 3.5 million, which is equivalent to 8.4 per cent of the total population. Furthermore, the extraordinary growth rate of this inflow becomes obvious when we look at the numbers of immigrants living in Spain in 1996 – some 542,000, who made up 1.36 per cent of the population.

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Figure 1 Evolution of the Foreign Population Living in Spain, 1996-2005 Source: Municipal Census, 1996-2005

1.2 Employment Conditions

Along with the higher numbers of foreigners liv-ing in Spain, the numbers of those registered with Social Security has rocketed over the last few years, from 335,000 in 1999, to more than 1,803,323 in April 2006. This is the consequence of the regularisation process detailed in the fol-lowing section.

As far as employment patterns are concerned, immigrants mainly work in the construction sector (around 20 per cent), followed by the tourist sector, domestic work (especially women), and agricul-ture. Although most immigrants work for others, analysts have recently detected that an increas-ing percentage of those in the labour market are self-employed. Only three out of ten immigrants

were employed in highly skilled jobs in 2004 (10 per cent less than 12 years ago); they were also substantially more likely than Spanish nationals to work in a temporary capacity.

1.3 Immigration Policy Highlights

On 30 December 2004, the government passed the New Regulation of Aliens Law (Reglamento de la Nueva Ley de Extranjería), after reaching a consensus with employers’ organisations, trade unions, the autonomous regions and the federa-tion of municipalities. This new law established a regularisation process for migrant workers, as long as both immigrants and employers met certain conditions.

The process of regularising migrant workers be-gan in February 2005 and lasted till 7 May. The number of applications amounted to 691,655, of which 573,270 (85 per cent) were accepted, of which 550,136 (80 per cent) resulted in Social Security registration.

The regularisation process has benefited immi-grants of diverse nationalities; it was aimed at fight-ing the large black economy in Spain, fuelled by the substantial inflow of undocumented migrants in recent years. There are two circumstances which have made this regularisation process different from previous ones: first of all, the large number of irregular immigrants affected, second, the fact that the application for legalisation had to be made by employers, entailing a formal commitment to employ the irregular migrant worker.

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Table 1: Some Perceptions about Immigration in Spain

Source: CIS (Centro de Investigaciones Sociologicas) Barometer, 2001-2004

Before this latest legislation, the main landmarks in immigration policy were the basic laws, from 2000 onwards, and the foundation of the Forum for the Social Integration of Immigrants, a public body accountable to the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs whose main responsibility is to offer information and advice services on immigration-related issues to the different institutions of the Spanish executive.

1.4 Perception of Migration among the Spanish Population

Traditionally, immigration was not seen as of major concern to the Spanish population. Nevertheless, this has been gradually shifting over the last few years and immigration is currently perceived as a crucial issue. As the CIS Barometer (May 2006) pointed out, immigration was ranked second among problems affecting Spanish society (46 per cent of respondents), just below unemployment (49 per cent), but ahead of insecurity and crime (28 per cent), housing (27 per cent) or terrorism (20 per cent).

2. Demographic Trends

2.1 National/Ethnic Composition of Foreign Residents

Today the foreign population in Spain amounts to more than 3.5 million which is equivalent to 8.4 per cent of the total population of the country.

Latin Americans are the largest group of foreign residents, accounting for 1,432,000 persons (38.8 per cent of the total foreign population in 2005), followed closely by Europeans, that account for almost 1,336,041 persons (36.2 per cent of the total foreign population). African residents amount to 705,000 people which is 19.1 per cent of the total foreign population.

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Table 2: Foreign Residents According to Nationality

Source: Municipal Census, 2001-2005

If we look at single nationalities, Moroccans are most numerous (505,373), slightly above Ec-uadorians (491,797) and far above Colombians (268,931). It is worth mentioning that the last two groups have grown very rapidly during the last four years.

In 2001-2005, Latin-American immigration in-creased enormously, so that its share of the total foreign population has risen about nine percent-age points.

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2.1.1 Composition of Latin American Population

Latin Americans form not only the largest immi-grant group, but also a highly heterogeneous one. Immigrants from Ecuador, Colombia, Argentina and Bolivia are the most numerous, accounting for the 70.5 per cent of the Latin American presence in Spain in 2005.

In the period 2001-2005, the compound annual growth rates of immigration from the largest na-tional groups (Ecuador, Colombia and Argentina) have differed widely. Argentineans have exhibited the highest compound growth rates in immigration (almost by 50 per cent annually).

Figure 2: Distribution of Latin American Immigrant Population in Spain. Source: Municipal Census, 2005

2.2 Regional Distribution of the Immigrant Population

The distribution of the immigrant population var-ies considerably between the Spanish regions. In 2005, Catalonia had the largest number immigrant population (21.4 per cent of the total), followed closely by Madrid (20.9 per cent), Valencia (15.6 per cent) and Andalusia (11.3 per cent), account-ing for 69.2 per cent of the Spanish immigrant population.

While Catalonia receives relatively more im-migrants from Africa and the rest of the world, especially from Asian countries, such as India, Nepal, Philippines or Pakistan, Madrid has more immigrants from Latin America, especially Ecuador and Peru. The tourist destinations of Balearic Is-lands and Canary Islands, host relatively more EU nationals (retirees); the latter also, for geographi-cal reasons, has had immigrants from Mauritania (34.8 per cent of the total immigrant population) and from Sierra Leone (25.4 per cent of the total immigrant population) who have entered Spain il-legally and under extremely dangerous conditions during recent years.

2.3 Settlement Patterns

More than 45 per cent of immigrants from non-EU countries intend to remain in Spain for the foresee-able future. Quite a liberal approach to immigration by the Socialist government of Spain let a lot of im-migrants legalise their status as soon as they arrive in the country. The table below shows that most of the immigrants have a legal status in Spain.

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Table 3: Foreigners according to Residence Permit, 2004

Type of permit Number Percentage

Initial 258 320 19,8

First Renewal 390 269 29,9

Second Renewal 230 444 17,7

Permanent 378 528 29,7

Others 38 480 2,9

Total 1 305 041 100Source: Statistical Yearbook on Alien Status, 2004

2.4 Age and Gender Structures

The foreign population is a young one, mainly in the age range 20 to 39 years, which can be seen as a counterbalance to the ageing of the Spanish population. That this is a young population implies that it will also have a higher birth-rate than the Spanish population.

Figure 3: Age Structure of Spain’s Foreign Population, 2005

Source: Municipal Census, 2005.

2.5 Population Projections

If short and medium-term trends are sustained, population projections for 2010 indicate that the foreign population will climb above 6 million (Tezanos and Tezanos 2003). This implies a substantial increase from the 3,691,547 million in 2005, who make up 8.4 per cent of the total population.

3. Socio-economic Situation

3.1 Poverty, Discrimination and Immigrants

The immigrant population suffers social exclusion, which may be manifested in several ways.

First, unemployment hits immigrants harder. Of-ficial figures show that unemployment rates are higher for immigrants than for the population as a whole. Second, along with higher unemploy-ment rates, immigrants are more vulnerable to job insecurity, wage discrimination and housing difficulties.

4. Immigration and Remittances

Remittances are one of the most important side-effects of immigration, mainly because of the positive impact they have on the economies of the countries from which immigrants come. Focusing on the Spanish case, it is clear that the increase in immigration during the last decade has resulted in a) higher remittance outflows to immigrants’ home

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countries and b) an acceleration of these outflows’ annual growth rates.

In 2004, the main destination countries of remit-tances were16 Ecuador (22.5 per cent), Colombia (21.3 per cent), Morocco (6.2 per cent) and Ro-mania (5.6 per cent).

5. Diversity in Spanish Businesses

The company case studies documented below are all based on direct contact with the company involved (primary research), and on occasions include additional documentary work (secondary research). While these studies do not represent all Spanish companies or cover the whole panorama of diversity management, they do indicate experi-ences of diversity management in the increasingly ‘mestizo’ context of Spanish companies that are of interest.

5.1 Caja Madrid

Caja Madrid is one of the biggest banks in Spain. It differs from strictly commercial banks in that, as a ‘Savings and Loans’ enterprise, it is a public-private company assigning considerable financial resources to its social programmes.

Given the rise in the number of immigrants in the Regional Community of Madrid (encompassing

16 Percentages in brackets represent the percentage of each destination country over the total amount of remit-tance outflows

both the city and the larger province), in 2000 Caja Madrid launched a project to employ immigrants to deal with its increasing number of foreign clients. Caja Madrid sought out people with commercial and office experience who had been in Spain for 3 or 4 years. Since most had no work permits, Caja Madrid regularised their legal situation and placed them on a training programme. The results were excellent; the immigrant workers were ‘very well appreciated’ by the bank’s foreign clients.

Based on this first experience, Caja Madrid launched a second programme in 2003, based on agreements with the Moroccan Employment Office and universities, to employ people directly from Morocco. The offer was one-year contracts giving participants the right to take a master’s degree at the Francisco de Vitoria University, with special vocational and professional monitoring. Fifteen people were selected, of whom 13 were finally employed. The outcomes were excellent and the participants adapted exceptionally well.

The results of these experiences were dissemi-nated by the Human Resources Department to ‘make them visible’ throughout the organisation. For the first time, the 2005 Caja Madrid Company Report includes job diversity as a performance indicator (‘diversity and opportunity’).

5.2 Grupo Vips

The Grupo Vips is one of the largest in the Span-ish hotel and catering sector, with restaurants and convenience stores in almost every large or medium-sized Spanish city.

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Whereas in 1999, 9 per cent of its employees were foreign, by the end of 2002, the figure had risen to 40 per cent and, by late 2004 a majority of its workers were immigrants. Its Human Resources Department told us that ‘immigration is a reality without which Spain can’t live’, underlining the fact that the company employs 6,000 immigrants from over 80 countries, with Colombians being the largest group.

According to the company, Spanish people today do not want to work in this sector due to socio-cultural changes and their better quality of life. According to the company’s Head of the Human Resources, Miguel Ángel García: ‘At this point, immigration becomes strategic and necessary’.

In order to ensure the proper legal integration of immigrants, Grupo Vips hires people in their countries of origin, organising the documentation necessary for them to come to Spain legally. It offers them permanent contracts ensuring stability of employment and job security.

5.3 DIA

DIA (Distribuidora Internacional de Alimentación, S.A.) is a chain of small supermarkets with outlets in several Spanish cities.

In 2005, immigrant workers of some 50 nationali-ties made up 10 per cent of its staff, working in the warehouses and stores. While the warehouse is a more mechanised, closed environment, working in the stores offers more challenges in terms of relations with the public.

The workers were mainly hired in Spain, having lived in the country for some time, and were all legal. DIA has no specific policy on employing im-migrants, but concentrates more on the workers’ ability to do the job properly than on their countries of origin. However, it does have a certain amount of experience in recruiting foreigners in their home countries. In 2001, it was permitted by the Regional Community of Madrid to employ foreign workers under a quota scheme – at the time, the company needed 52 workers in different depart-ments (fresh goods, fish, meat and bakery) and had found it difficult to recruit Spanish workers.

In order to simplify matters, the company decided to select workers from just one country, Colombia. Two people from the Human Resources Depart-ment travelled to Colombia, after liaising with the Colombian National Employment Office. DIA finally selected 24 new staff. The Spanish Consulate in Bogotá issued the necessary visas and other documents, and the workers arrived in Spain in November 2003, where representatives of the company met them at the airport.

The new recruits were put up in a hotel for a week while they found permanent accommodation. Dur-ing their first week at work, each one was met by the Head of the Human Resources in their work centre. All joined the company on permanent contracts for a 40-hour week. Twenty-two of the 24 workers are still with the company, and one has been promoted to the Head of the Bakery Depart-ment supplying all Catalonia. DIA report that the workers show a remarkable dedication to customer service as well as an attitude for self-betterment.

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From the corporate angle, DIA have realised that its activities have repercussions on developing countries where it does business and also acts as a client or buyer. The company points out that in the countries concerned, it generates employment, provides training and fosters the creation of small businesses in a franchise format. As a purchaser, the company is analysing how best it should op-erate, as a result of which it has launched a pilot social audit project. This is a fraught task, given that a social audit will confront the company with the economic/social realities of developing coun-tries. It ‘shows that although we can try to improve small aspects, the democratic, social demographic and economic evolution of the country is not in our hands. There are numerous political aspects that are beyond the scope of the private company.’

Regarding the concept of the ‘mestiza company’, DIA sees today’s society as taking the first steps in a process of integration, mobility and manage-ment of people which is set to grow and become increasingly characterised by ethnic diversity. Com-panies planning to stay around in the future have to assimilate all these factors. A company doesn’t survive over time by ignoring social changes.

DIA declares itself to be a company with an open culture, a necessary factor in a firm with an obvi-ous international orientation such as it has. Open culture is seen as a culture that is sufficiently flex-ible to accept differences and makes the most of any synergies arising from new and unexpected interactions that may arise. This also implies that mistakes can be and are made during any process of integration: ‘learning from these mistakes is the best way to learn how to manage differences’.

5.4 Small Companies

We visited six small companies in Madrid’s working-class neighbourhood of Vallecas to obtain information on their foreign employees. There were two internet cafés, two bars, a hairdressing salon and a fruit shop. Both internet cafés had been set up by foreigners living in the neighbourhood; the other small businesses were Spanish owned by foreign staff. All had 1-2 foreign employees.

In every case (except for the internet cafés), the reason for hiring foreign workers was the inability to find Spanish staff. All agreed that their foreign employees worked well and showed an interest in their jobs. Those employed were young, mostly Latin American men; there was also an Ecuadorian woman, and one Iraqi and one Romanian man.

None of the companies had specifically decided to hire immigrants. They all said that they made no distinctions when hiring workers, as long as they did their jobs properly. All six company own-ers agreed that their recruits generally worked well, helped to create a good atmosphere, made the company a friendlier, more familiar place and communicated easily with clients and customers. All agreed that they would continue to consider hiring other foreign workers.

All foreign workers interviewed (one for each com-pany) said that they felt at home, appreciated and did not suffer discrimination.

Only the owner of the hairdressing salon consid-ered that he took specific action relating to foreign

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workers, because of the policy of sending them to hairdressing courses. But the lack of policy concerning foreign workers is understandable in the case of small and medium-sized companies, which, at least in Spain, rarely have any kind of human resources policies at all.

Most of the owners felt that they had ‘open’ com-panies, in as much as they are willing to meet people from different origins and to respect their cultures; they are open to different experiences and other possibilities.

6. Conclusion

Spain offers enormous scope for analysing the dynamics of immigration, as not only is this a relatively recent phenomenon, but it has also developed at a great rate (for example, immigra-tion in 2005 is four times what it was in 1996). In this sense, it is an appropriate arena for studying all the effects of migration, including the ways in which the host population’s perceptions may gradually change.

It also offers special scope for analysing Latin American immigration to Europe, as well as an opportunity to study the features and effects of a very particular kind of immigration process: one which entails the rejoining of two cultures, the Latin American and the Spanish, strongly linked culturally and linguistically but also a historically divided for many years.

The most recent policy initiative in Spain, aimed at managing the increase in immigration during the

last few years resulted in high numbers of social security registrations. In fact, Spain has completed what is probably one of the largest extraordinary regularisation campaigns of irregular immigrants to date.

Immigrants are more prone to social exclusion, to housing difficulties, to job insecurity and to lower wages, amongst other constraints. But they do increasingly have access to social services, which has been met with increasing discontent among the poorest Spanish families.

All of the above implies that Spanish companies will need to embrace a more mestizo character in keeping with the wider social and economic environment. The number of immigrants arriving in Spain and the expansion of a growing number of Spanish companies overseas is giving rise to organisational cultures valuing greater ethnic diversity. Any company, any organisation that em-ploys people has always been a meeting point for different cultures. During most of the last century, the cultural environment in Spanish companies was simple: most of the workers were men from the different regions: Andalusia, Extremadura, Catalonia, Galicia, etc. Today that environment is more complex, with the entrance into the labour market of women en masse, the participation of groups such as the disabled, and, since 2000, a growing diversity of ethnicities and nationalities. In this lies the challenge of multicultural or ‘diversity’ management.

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Introduction ....................................................................................................85

1. Economic Activity and Inactivity................................................................85

2. Employment ..............................................................................................87

3. Unemployment ..........................................................................................88

4. Type of Work and Occupational Structure ...............................................89

5. Pay Rates .................................................................................................90

6. Self-employment and Minority Ethnic Businesses ...................................91

7. Ethnic Penalties ........................................................................................91

7.1 Discrimination in the Workplace .............................................................93

8. Consequences of Low Minority Ethnic Communities’ Activity in the Labour Market ...............................................................................................94

9. Future Trends ............................................................................................94

10. Good Practice .........................................................................................95

Chapter 6

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United Kingdom

Ethnic Diversity and Small and Medium-Sized Businesses in the UK

Introduction

There are some 4.4 million Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Britain which account for 99.9 per cent of all UK businesses. SMEs are responsible for more than half (58 per cent) of all UK employment and more than half (51.3 per cent) of the UK’s estimated business turnover (Office for National Statistics 2005, cited in Turnbull 2006). Thus, it is not surprising that SMEs are considered a major engine of economic growth and as particu-larly significant for generating employment.

The population of the UK overall is undergoing the same ageing trend as in most West European countries and, correspondingly, its working-age population is declining dramatically. There are worrying projections that, by 2014, there will be more people aged over 65 than under 16. And this will happen in less than 10 years. That is the general picture. But the age structure of minority ethnic communities is developing differently. Their share of the working-age population has been increasing, reaching 3.26 million or 9.3 per cent of the 35.2 million people of working age in 2004 (1.4 per cent higher than in spring 2001). This rise is likely to continue (Commission for Racial Equality 2006)17.

How well are UK SMEs responding to these demo-graphic changes, and what support do they need? These are the issues of concern to policymakers

17 Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) has now been replaced by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. For more information, please see www.equalityhumanrights.com.

and businesses alike – as well as to current and potential employees. PRIAE’s Contribution of Eth-nic Minority Employees to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (CEMESME) project was born out of the fact that there is much for SMEs to gain by capitalising on Britain’s multicultural society. There are, however, considerable gaps in knowledge and information on how SMEs, from both majority ethnic groups and minority ethnic groups, perform when ethnic diversity is factored in; and also how they see minority ethnic employees’ contribution to business performance.

1. Economic Activity and Inactivity

In the past decade, the minority ethnic population in the UK has grown from 3 million or 5.5 per cent of the total to 4.6 million today, accounting for 8 per cent of the total population today. The main cause of the recent growth has been the relatively high fertility rates of the BME population (Patel 2003). Migration – both internal to the EU and external – has also played a part in this. In 2004, the median age for White people was 40 years, compared to 27 years for non-White (Commission for Racial Equality 2006). As noted earlier, the minority ethnic population of working age is likely to continue increasing.

But despite this, only 65.3 per cent of the minority ethnic population of working-age were economi-cally active in 2004. Among all groups, men are more likely to be economically active than women. The levels of economic activity also vary between individual minority groups (see Figure 1).

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As we can see from Figure 1, the economic activ-ity rates of Indian and Black Caribbean males are close to those of White males. Black Caribbean women are the most economically active female group, even compared to White women. Chinese, Bangladeshi and Pakistani males have the lowest

economic activity rates among men from other population groups. More than two-thirds of Paki-stani and Bangladeshi women of working age are not in the labour market (Commission for Racial Equality 2006).

Figure 1 Percentage of working age economically active, Great Britain 2004 Source: Labour Force Survey, 2005 in Commission for Racial Equality, 200618

18 This graph was published in Employment and Ethnicity factfile, 2006 by the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE). CRE has now been replaced by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. For more information, please see www.equalityhumanrights.com.

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2. Employment

According to the Office for National Statistics (2004), in 2004 about 58.9 per cent of minority ethnic people of working age were in employment, compared to 74.6 per cent of the total working-age population. But the employment rates vary depending on which group is looked at. Figure 2

demonstrates that Bangladeshis (41.2 per cent) and Pakistanis (45.8 per cent) had the lowest employment rates, compared to White people. At 68.5 per cent and 68 per cent, respectively, Indians and Black Caribbean people had the high-est employment rates compared to other minority ethnic groups.

Figure 2 Percentage of working age in employment, Great Britain 2004 Source: Labour Force Survey, 2005 in Commission for Racial Equality, 200619

19 This graph was published in Employment and Ethnicity factfile, 2006 by the Commission for Racial equality (CRE). CRE has now been replaced by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. For more information, please see www.equalityhumanrights.com.

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In 2004, people from minority ethnic groups repre-sented 7.3 per cent of all people in employment. There are some differences in employment rates according to age group. The highest employment rate was in the 35-44 age group for all populations; in this category 83.3 per cent of White people were in employment, but only 69.8 percent of ethnic minorities. Only 38.1 per cent of young adults (16-24) from ethnic minorities were in employment in 2004, compared to 63 per cent of White people in the same category.

3. Unemployment

In 2004 the unemployment rates for ethnic minori-ties were 2.28 per cent higher than for White peo-ple (see Table 1). This is the general figure for all minority ethnic populations but for some groups the figure is even higher. Bangladeshis, Black Africans and Pakistanis have the highest unemployment rates. For instance, in 2004, the unemployment rate among Bangladeshi men of working age was 15.7 per cent, for Black African men it was12.9 per

Table 1 Unemployment rates for people of working age, by ethnic group and sex, Great Britain 2004 Source: Labour Force Survey, Spring 2004 to Winter 2004/5, in Commission for Racial Equality, 200620

20 This table was published in Employment and Ethnicity factfile, 2006 by the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE). CRE has now been replaced by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. For more information, please see www.equalityhumanrights.com.

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cent, whereas it was just 4.6 per cent for White men of working age. The unemployment rates for men and women are fairly similar but Pakistani women of working age have an unemployment rate (20.2 per cent) five times higher than that of White women. The lowest unemployment rates are among Indian and Chinese people.

4. Type of Work and Occupational StructureIn 2004, over a third of black and minority ethnic (BME) employees (35 per cent) worked in hotels, distribution and transport, and communications.

But they were far less likely than White people to work in manufacturing industries; only about 14 per cent, compared to almost 25 per cent of the White working population. The Bangladeshi population is the most highly concentrated in hotels and cater-ing, wholesale and retail, distribution and transport, and communication, with almost 66 per cent of those in employment confined to these sectors. Almost half the Chinese (47 per cent) and Pakista-nis (46 per cent) who were in work in 2004 were also concentrated in these sectors. Around 25 per cent of people from the Mixed group, Black African group and Other backgrounds group worked in private service industries (see Figure 3).

Figure 3 Percentage of each ethnic minority group working in each industry, Great Britain 2004 Source: Labour Force Survey, Spring 2004 to Winter 2004/5, 2005 in Commission for Racial Equality, 200621

21 This table was published in Employment and Ethnicity factfile, 2006 by the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE). CRE has now been replaced by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. For more information, please see www.equalityhumanrights.com.

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Those ethnic minorities working in the public sector tend to be concentrated in lower-grade jobs.

In general, men of all ethnic groups are more likely than women to hold senior or managerial positions or work in skilled trades; women are usually found in administrative and secretarial jobs. Minority ethnic men and women tend to be concentrated in sales and customer service jobs. And the per-centage of minority ethnic men in skilled trades is much lower than for White men (11.7 per cent compared with 20.2 per cent).

5. Pay Rates

Black and minority ethnic average earnings in 2004 were £7.50 per hour, compared with £8.00 for White workers (see Table 2). But the minority ethnic group with the highest average pay rates was the Indian (£8.41). The lowest pay rates were among Pakistanis and Bangladeshis who earned an average of £6.25 per hour. The earnings for almost all groups have been increasing since 1998, but the rate of change has varied between groups. For instance, in 2000, average pay for Indian employees was £6.57 per hour which, by 2002, had only increased to £7.00. However, for Black employees, it increased from £7.04 in 2000 to £7.41 in 2002.

Table 2 Average earnings per hour for employees aged 18 and over, by ethnic group, 1998-2004 (UK) Source: Low Pay Commission, 2005 in Commission for Racial Equality, 200622

22 Table 2 Average earnings per hour for employees aged 18 and over, by ethnic group, 1998-2004 (UK)Source: Low Pay Commission, 2005 in Commission for Racial Equality, 2006

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6. Self-employment and Minority Ethnic Businesses

There is evidence which suggests that minority ethnic groups have high levels of self-employment – spurred, in part, by potential or actual experi-ence of discrimination in the paid employment sector. Self-employment rates are especially high amongst Asians.

There are about 250,000 ethnic minority busi-nesses throughout the UK which contribute about £13 billion a year to the British economy. Minority ethnic individuals are believed to be responsible for 10 per cent of all business start-ups in the UK.

But it is more difficult for BME entrepreneurs to open new businesses than it is for their White counterparts. A study conducted in 2001 by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions demonstrated that deprived, inner-city areas are not really attractive locales for new businesses, which are more likely to be set up out of town or in peripheral areas with easy access to major roads. Since minority ethnic communities live mainly in highly urbanised areas, this eco-nomic shift has acted disproportionately against them (Dabinett et al 2001).

Most minority ethnic businesses share many of the problems and have similar support needs to all small enterprises, such as problems in raising funds or a lack of core managerial competen-cies. As black and minority ethnic businesses are generally much smaller than those of their White

counterparts and tend to be located in inner cit-ies, these types of problems are even more acute for them.

But apart from the general problems common to all, minority ethnic businesses also have distinctive needs which require attention. Among these are a lack of access to finance, language barriers, a lack of confidence among business owners (and potential owners), cultural issues that can affect access to and delivery of business support, the effects of bureaucracy and prejudice, succession planning issues, and the effects of the decline of some traditional markets (Ram and Smallbone 2001).

It is clear that minority ethnic businesses are an important and significant part of the UK’s Small Business sector but, at the same time, they do face more barriers than their White counterparts. Yet their success is of great importance to the country’s economy. Therefore, there is an ur-gent need for the government’s support to help overcome the barriers such businesses face. But their greatest challenge is to capitalise on the talents of the increasing number of young minor-ity ethnic entrepreneurs and so move from being traditional family businesses to larger, mainstream enterprises.

7. Ethnic Penalties

Some BME groups and individuals are doing well in the labour market and in the education system.

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The percentage of black and minority ethnic • first year first degree students rose from 16.9 per cent of the total number of students in 2001/2 to 17.2 per cent in 2002/3

In 2001/02 people from Chinese, Indian, • Black African and Asian Other backgrounds were more likely to have a degree compared to their White counterparts

In 2002, 32 per cent of Black Caribbean and • 44 per cent of Black African people were working towards a qualification, compared with just 18 per cent of White students.

Three quarters of Indian young people are • in full-time education, twice the proportion of White young people.

Source: Business in the Community, 2004

In 1997 about 25 per cent of people of working age from black and minority ethnic communities went on to further education and training after school, compared with an overall average of 15 per cent. The data showing the percentage of people receiv-ing education and further training after school is shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4 People receiving further education and training in the UK, by ethnic group and age, spring 1997 Source: Labour Force Survey, spring 1997, cited in Commission for Racial Equality, 199823

23 This table was published in Education and Training in Britain factfile, 1998 by the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE). CRE has now been replaced by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. For more information, please see www.equalityhumanrights.com.

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As Figure 4 shows, White people have the low-est propensity to take higher education or receive further training after school.

However, despite the great progress made by some members of minority ethnic communities in education, a considerable layer of minority eth-nic population is still being left behind. Very few minority ethnic individuals, even those with excel-lent academic qualifications, get to the top in the workplace. Worryingly, minority ethnic graduates experience more difficulties in finding employment than the majority of the population (National Em-ployment Panel 2005).

Although, today, the gap in the labour market between employment rates for ethnic minority populations and for the mainstream population is narrowing, these rates are still lower for ethnic minorities than for the majority population. This is despite the fact that minority ethnic people in general are more likely to be concentrated in the poorest paid sectors and do work that majority population is reluctant to take on. In addition, self-employment rates among people from minority ethnic groups are fairly high. So why is there this continuing disparity?

The Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), that has now been replaced by the Equality and Hu-man Rights Commission, cites statistical studies demonstrating that people from non-White groups do worse in employment or career progression and earn less money than their White counterparts, even after taking into account other factors such as age, sex, qualifications, place of residence,

English language fluency, etc., that could affect performance (Commission for Racial Equal-ity 2006). What is termed the ‘ethnic penalty’ is usually used to explain the various sources of disadvantage affecting ethnic minorities that lead to their underachievement in the labour market. ‘Ethnic penalty’ is a much broader concept than that of discrimination but some authors emphasise the importance of discrimination to explain the persistence of ethnic penalties.

7.1 Discrimination in the Workplace

Discrimination takes many forms and has many targets, including gender, age, disability and race, and all negatively affect people’s participation in the labour market. Racial discrimination, the focus here, has shown itself to be persistent, deep-rooted and continuing in the labour market.

Several types of evidence, such as that gained from testing for discrimination, the outcomes of employment tribunals, the personal testimonies of minority ethnic individuals, public attitude surveys, all show that racial discrimination still exists in the UK. For instance, discrimination tests conducted in 1996 by the Commission for Racial Equality, showed that White job applicants were three times more likely than Asian applicants, and almost five times more likely than Black applicants, to be asked to attend an interview.

It is true that the success rate for racial discrimina-tion cases brought before employment tribunals fell from 16 per cent in 1999/2000 to 3 per cent in

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2004/5. But not all racial discrimination incidents are reported and, even when they are, many of them are settled before going to the tribunal.

These persisting patterns of discrimination and harassment are of great concern and require appropriate, targeted policy responses. Without them, minority ethnic communities will continue to be excluded and segregation in employment can only intensify.

8. Consequences of Low Minority Ethnic Communities’ Activity in the Labour MarketThis underachievement in the labour market and concentration in the poorest paid sectors results in poor housing, difficult living conditions and general poverty.

More black and minority ethnic families live in unfit housing than their White counterparts. Cur-rently, overcrowding and the numbers living in poor quality accommodation are greater, and residents’ satisfaction rates lower, among most black and minority communities than the majority population. However, there are significant variations between communities (Home Office 2005). Moreover, ethnic minorities’ homelessness rates are three times higher than for others. And in four out of five local authorities with significant concentrations of minor-ity ethnic populations, levels of business activity are lower than the national average (Cabinet Of-fice 2003).

So what can be done to remove these inequalities and ethnic penalties?

9. Future TrendsBoth lower fertility rates and lower mortality rates have contributed to the trend of an ageing popula-tion. As already noted, there are projections that, by 2014, there will be more over-65s than under 16s. According to the Lord Leitch’s Review of Skills (2006), by 2020 adults aged 50-65 will account for 60 per cent of the growth in the working-age population – but most of these people will be either retired or close to retirement. Moreover, the UK’s skills base is weaker than in other developed coun-tries. The UK lags behind Canada, the USA and even some developing countries such as China and India in the percentage of adults holding a degree-level qualification (Leitch 2006).

It has also been estimated that, between 1999 and 2009, half of the growth in the working-age population will have come from minority ethnic groups (National Employment Panel 2005). This growth is a consequence of the generally young age profile and high birth rates of the ethnic mi-nority population.

The ageing of the overall population, the increase in the minority ethnic population, in combination with its underachievement in the labour market, will have serious implications for health, social services and social security arrangements. It represents a major – and as yet largely unexamined – challenge for the government.

Unless radical changes are implemented, govern-ment and business in particular will soon be confront-ed with the need to cope with increased labour and

97

skills shortages. Small businesses will be especially at risk; due to their limited resources and in the face of growing globalised competition, they will find these problems particularly difficult to solve.

Therefore, it is crucial for businesses and for the government to capitalise on certain population groups, including minority ethnic communities. Developed nations, including the UK, can not succeed as low cost economies; however, they can rely on their capacity to innovate to drive economic growth (Leitch 2006). As noted earlier, more minority ethnic individuals go on to further education and training after school compared to White adults. Their skills and qualifications will be vital for the country’s future economy. But they need to be given the opportunity to develop those skills further, to support the changing nature of the economy. Employers, in their turn, must show themselves capable of harnessing those workers’ skills and rewarding them properly. All businesses, but especially SMEs, need to adapt, otherwise, economic growth will be retarded and certain population groups, including ethnic minorities, will be left behind.

10. Good PracticeGood practice consists of those techniques which, developed through practical experience and research, enable an organisation to achieve its desired results. Good practice is also something that others can learn from.The Policy Research Institute on Ageing and Eth-nicity (PRIAE) has first-hand evidence to prove that ethnic diversity can benefit companies, particularly SMEs. This is through its primary research of 300 SMEs surveyed and the development of resources to affect changes within the SME organisations in practice: mentoring of managers by international mature business students and the use of learning materials on diversity.In the words of Lord Herman Ouseley, Chairman of PRIAE and former Executive Chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, ‘Companies are often reluctant to engage with diversity, fearing it will drive up resourcing costs and cause conflict between employees. They refuse to consider that benefits far outweigh costs. British business needs diversity to perform, diversity to compete and di-versity to survive and succeed.’

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PRIAE’s CEMESME project conducts a Profes-sional International Mentoring Programme. It involves setting up a link between an experienced minority ethnic postgraduate student as a ‘Mentor’ and a local SME aiming to develop its international business activities. UK and overseas minority eth-nic postgraduate business students, from diverse professional backgrounds and based at Bradford University School of Management, are taken on as ‘Mentors’ to assist a company’s exporting activities for up to 4 months. The Mentors’ skills and experi-ence are applied to specific issues, based on the company’s needs, in the areas of international marketing and human resource management. They formulate ideas for senior management and exam-ine their attitudes and approaches to workforce diversity. On completion of the programme, the company receives an individually tailored business action plan and an assessment report with recom-mendations for action. This is accompanied by an improved understanding, on the company’s part, of the business benefits in employing an ethnically diverse workforce. This is what some managing di-rectors had to say at the end of the programme:‘We were looking for a way to identify new op-portunities but did not have the resources to do it. The PRIAE scheme enabled us to brief the Mentors in a professional and commercial way. Our expectations of the work to be produced were actually quite low, how wrong could we be! The work was professionally produced and enabled us to make important decisions about our longer-term strategic objectives, much sooner than we thought. Would we do it again? I can’t wait for next year.’ Mick Karol, Managing Director at the Blueprint Innovation Ltd. Commenting on Ms Wei Ren, Brad-

ford University School of Management (MA)‘A postgraduate engineer with instrumental knowl-edge who immediately understood my product range and how to apply them. This meant that we could concentrate on the market requirements with confidence.’John Slevin, Managing Director Hawker Electronics Ltd commenting on Ms Natalia Gonzalez, Bradford University School of Management (MA)

The programme was also beneficial to students: ‘I have been able to apply the tools and techniques learnt during my MBA to the practical situations involved during the PRIAE International Mentor-ing Programme. I would highly recommend this programme for future students.’

Mentor Student Mr Kamran Saeed on the Bradford MBA working with VMI Blackburn Ltd.

When the Managing Director of VMI Blackburn Limited, one of the companies which was involved in the PRIAE Mentoring Project was asked about the benefits of diversity, he said:

‘At VMI we believe it helps us retain and attract best people. It also allows us to provide our customers with the most innovative products and services which, in turn, means that we have more motivated staff. Those staff are the people who deliver the service ultimately to our customers and it helps us to retain them for a longer term.’

Lord Karan Bilimoria, the founder of ‘Cobra Beer’ believes that diversity in his company has been key to the success of the business, now valued at £100 million (Moules 2007). He says: ‘It is amaz-ing, but diversity creates a buzz.’

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Lithuanian Children’s FundPhone (+370 5) 262 8836, fax (+370 5) 262 7180

E-mail: info@lvf.ltHead Office: Žygimantų g. 6, LT-01102 Vilnius, Lithuania

Post address: PO Box 2482, LT-09018 Vilnius-51, Lithuania