What kinds of discrimination did immigrants face in the new country?

In recently published reports, Department of Public Health Professor Maria-Elena Young, Public Health doctoral student Sharon Tafolla and colleagues at UCLA discovered that Latino and Asian immigrants in California have varied perceptions and experiences in the workplace, encountering law or immigration enforcement, accessing health care and using government benefits.

The findings were released by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and published in two fact sheets: one focused on immigrants' negative perceptions of the immigrant experience in the state and another focused on experiences with law and immigration enforcement.

Researchers found that 70% of the 2,000 people surveyed perceived that immigrants experienced discrimination in the workplace due to skin color or accent. Additionally, 65% felt they would be prevented from gaining legal U.S. immigration status if they used government benefits, such as income assistance, housing aid, health care and food programs.

The fact sheet showed that more Latino than Asian immigrants perceived that immigrants experience discrimination in the workplace, unequal access to health care, barriers to getting legal status, safety risks when calling the police for help and risk of being stopped by immigration officials while traveling.

Immigrants living in the San Joaquin Valley reported having more direct interactions with immigration and law enforcement officials than those living in the Bay Area and Southern California. In the Valley, 17% of residents said they had been racially profiled by law enforcement, compared to 14% in Southern California and 12% in the Bay Area.

A total of 42% of Latino immigrants reported knowing someone who had been deported from the U.S., compared to 13% of Asian immigrants.

The study centered on California because a quarter of the country's immigrants call the state home. Researchers said they focused on Latinos and Asians because they make up the two largest immigrant subgroups in the state.

The fact sheets are part of a series of studies that will emerge from the Center for Health Policy Research's Research on Immigrant Health and State Policy Study (RIGHTS).

"The data from the RIGHTS survey highlights the importance of understanding the range of experiences that immigrants have encountered under our state policies," said Young. "California has advanced many policy efforts to protect immigrants. Yet, immigrants' experiences are varied and understanding their perceptions sheds light on the drivers of persistent health inequities in the state."

Over one million people sought refuge in the EU in 2015, a fivefold increase from the year before. Several Member States made it clear that irregular and in particular Muslim migrants were not welcome. In its 2015-2016 Shadow Report on racism and discrimination against migrants, the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) highlights that african migrants in need of humanitarian protection, were framed as ‘economic’ or ‘illegal’ migrants without any political assessments of the push and pull factors. In this context, politicians and political and media commentators delivered anti-migrant statements and racist hate speech with impunity.

Support for far-right parties and groups in several countries is growing, setting the tone of the debate on immigration, particularly related to Muslim migrants. ENAR finds that this is resulting in anti-migrant discourses and policies being seen as acceptable across the political spectrum. With terrorist attacks in France and Belgium in 2015 and 2016, criminality and terrorism are increasingly racialised. The introduction of new border policies and counter-terrorism measures in some Member States led to ethnic profiling, discriminatory policing of migrants, as well as racist attacks against migrants, asylum seekers, refugees and their accommodation in EU Member States, the report shows.

In addition, integration approaches have been reported in some Member States as assimilation processes where newcomers must adapt to ‘our values’, and contribute to the host countries economy. However prioritising labour market integration can become problematic if the responsibility to be employed falls solely on the migrant, as a number of barriers – discrimination, labour market restrictions linked to migration status, lack of recognition of qualifications, language – need to be addressed. In the absence of integration plans against racial discrimination in employment, inclusion and progression in the labour market remain difficult for racialised migrants.

The report is based on national questionnaire responses from 26 EU Member States (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Slovenia, Sweden and United Kingdom).

ENAR shadow report 2015-2016

English

(3.47 MB - PDF)

Details

Authors

Ojeaku Nwabuzo and Lisa Schaeder

EU Wide

European Institutions/organisations

European Network Against Racism (ENAR)

Torrekens Corinne

Country Coordinator

[email protected]

EU Wide Research or Report (Anti-)discrimination Hate crime Employment Ethnic minorities Racism Religion

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