Authors: Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency (FADA) Year of publication: 2016

Brief overview

To get a survey of the special risks of discrimination for refugees in Germany, the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency carried out two complementary enquiries in the first half of the year 2016.

On the one hand, employees and voluntary workers at migrants' and refugees' counselling centres, youth migration services and other refugee relief organisations were interviewed as to which role the discrimination of refugees played in their work. Moreover, it was to be found out how counselling centres and contact agencies deal with those experiences and which offers of support are required to combat discrimination.

On the other hand, 20 exemplary high-quality interviews were carried out with refugees to include this group's own perspective in the study. Within the scope of the interviews which were based on a practical guide, the refugees could describe their experiences of discrimination in detail and also report on their personal impacts of those incidents.

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Main results

Risks of discrimination for refugees in Germany

• In Germany, refugees are exposed to a high risk of discrimination: Almost nine of ten interviewed contact points and counselling centres stated that refugees directly reported on their experiences of discrimination during the conversation.
• Both, the interviews with refugees and also the enquiry carried out among organisations clearly show that a large part of the discriminations experienced by refugees and asylum seekers are traced to grounds of discrimination laid down in Section 1 of the General Equal Treatment Act. Against this background, it has to be pointed out that refugees are particularly affected by discrimination on grounds of ethnic origin or race: The two latter characteristics play a leading role in the discrimination against refugees, as 94 percent of the institutions involved in the enquiry reported.
• Refugees particularly often experience discriminations in working life, in the housing market, in access to goods or services and at agencies and authorities. In this context, 80 percent of the organisations interviewed reported on discriminations against refugees in the housing market. 68 percent state that agencies and authorities are spheres of life where refugees are affected by discrimination, 64 percent state that it is the working life. In addition, more than half of the respondents (52 percent) report on discrimination in business transactions and services.
• Refugees and asylum seekers experience a wide variety of discrimination: Ranging from unfriendly behaviour over the refusal of services up to verbal and physical hostilities.
• Especially the interviews with asylum seekers show that the experience of being discriminated against has a strong impact on their well-being and their own behaviour: Experiences of discrimination lead to resignation or to behavioural restrictions as well as to sadness, anger or also to aggressions. Moreover, both enquiries illustrate that experiences of discrimination have a negative influence on the refugees' participation in society, for example by impediments in the access to the housing and labour market.

Support measures for refugees affected by discrimination

Among employees and refugees at contact agencies and counselling centres there is a strong motivation of offering refugees and asylum seekers support, also in cases of discrimination. The results impressively demonstrate that this has already been done in many cases - frequently in addition to the original tasks of the respective institution or even in spite of insufficient financial and/or personnel resources.

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Options for action

The General Equal Treatment Act as an important legal instrument to prevent and stop discrimination is playing a relatively minor role in the work of the contact agencies and counselling centres. All in all, at a little less than half of the institutions participating only, this Act is applied to their work. Therefore, support measures by training seminars on the basics of the General Equal Treatment Act are needed to strengthen the action skills for employees at contact agencies and counselling centres in the field of first counselling and referrals in cases of discrimination.

The enquiries have shown that asylum seekers are exposed to a high risk of discrimination and that a majority of them is not sufficiently informed about existing means of protection against discrimination and the possible courses of action. Consequently, it is absolutely necessary to carry out education and empowerment measures for refugees to better protect them against discrimination.

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