The best ways to address discrimination involve not only measures concretely tailored to combat it but also measures to promote the opposite dynamic, connecting people around an understanding of diversity that is balanced and acknowledges its benefits. The sections below explore both.

Anti-discrimination measures

Discrimination is largely related to perceptions of migrants and migration. Concerns around cultural identity and like-mindedness, especially when tied to fears related to security and economic stability, often frame migrants and migration as challenges to national identity. These concerns can be coupled with discriminatory attitudes.

Discrimination against migrants and xenophobia is often played down and sometimes denied by authorities (ILO et al., 2001; Gagnon and Khoudour-Castéras, 2012). In most countries, laws prohibit discrimination on the basis of nationality; however, in practice, such discrimination may still occur. This is significant because the effects of discrimination are the same, whether it is real or perceived.

Policies, practices and narratives that discriminate against migrants make social cohesion much more difficult to achieve. Discrimination, like xenophobia and racism, whether practiced in everyday interactions or through institutional settings, excludes migrants and fuels tensions (see Efstratios, Anastasios and Anastasios, 2014). It creates unequal, intolerant and fractured societies, where persistent problems around migrants’ integration risk deteriorating into tensions, unrest and violence.

Failing to address discrimination is a breach of international commitments (read more about how international migration law rests on the principle of non-discrimination in Human rights of migrants: An overview). It can also have consequences for not just the migrants but also for the country. For instance, it can limit social cohesion in the country. Additionally, it can prevent the country from achieving objectives in migration and other policy fields (such as development or labour market goals), because it can lead migrants and their families to move to more welcoming countries.

Anti-discrimination measures may require legal, policy, and institutional changes to remove barriers that inhibit migrants from accessing information, resources, and services. Such barriers may be legal, administrative or practical. Anti-discrimination measures may also include legislation preventing and penalizing discrimination. In addition to addressing hate speech and hate crimes, such efforts are needed to prohibit, prevent and address discrimination in schools, the labour market, services, and so on (see an example of a hotline and referral mechanism to combat discrimination in the field of accommodation in Sectoral approaches to integration). Complementary anti-discrimination measures should be developed to track and follow up compliance with the legislative framework. However, while mechanisms to set sanctions and penalties are indispensable to tackle, correct and punish discriminatory actions, anti-discriminatory frameworks cannot be based only on such mechanisms. Positive rewards for those who conduct anti-discriminatory plans or actions in social, economic or institutional spheres should also be recognized and praised.

Policy Approaches
Anti-discrimination measures
  • Review the existing legal and policy framework to establish that appropriate instruments are in place to address xenophobia and discrimination.
  • Ensure mechanisms are in place to detect and report instances of discrimination and to ensure compliance with anti-discrimination laws.
  • Ensure that victims of discrimination have information on their rights when discriminated against and have due access to justice and redress, including by providing legal representation, advice and assistance.
  • Support awareness-raising campaigns to clarify the rights and duties of all citizens, engaging them in combatting discrimination.
  • Provide the necessary capacity-building training to the staff of public institutions and services, so that they understand the types of discrimination and how to combat them.
  • Reward initiatives that combat discrimination.
To Go Further

As well, read more on Integration and social cohesion issues during the pandemic in the interlinkage Migrant integration during times of pandemic: Lessons learnt from COVID-19.

Initiatives to promote meaningful social mixing and community connections

Measures that help people to develop an understanding of diversity and its benefits, as well as measures that help people to experience these benefits, are complementary to anti-discrimination measures. Measures that promote meaningful social contact and connections counter divisive narratives setting “us” against “them” (read more in Migration narratives in Communicating on migration). They also create the conditions to develop a common vision of a cohesive and inclusive plural society. Understanding diversity and developing a common vision and objectives for the country are part of an often-neglected process of developing a framework for integration and inclusion policies (Appave and David, 2017).

Research shows that public attitude towards diversity is strongly influenced by the level of interaction between migrants and non-migrants. For integration to occur, creating the circumstances for encounter is central, since integration involves the “two-way process of mutual adaptation between migrants and the societies in which they live” (IOM, 2019b).

Initiatives and places that invite cultural exchange contribute to normalizing and valuing diversity. Sports have been a key site for this sort of cultural exchange, where negative perceptions can be overcome and difference can be recognized and valued. Migrant players can become cherished by whole nations when they help reach international awards, as was the case with the Egyptian football player Mohammed Salah who inspired fans to chant “if he scores another few, I’ll be Muslim too” (McAuliffe, Kitimbo and Khadria, 2019). Research into how these phenomena happen, so as to multiply their effect, can be useful as well.

Example
Initiatives promoting cultural exchange

HiMate!

The Berlin non-profit organization HiMate! aims to promote social cohesion by fostering cultural exchange between newcomers and locals. In addition to organizing community events, HiMate! offers an online platform that allows users to access vouchers to participate in cultural, sporting, and social activities free of charge. The goal is to enable those with limited financial means and those who are new to Germany to engage with others and more actively participate in German social and cultural life.

Theatre and intercultural dialogue

The Bristol based community theatre company acta has worked with migrant women from Somalia, Sudan, Bangladesh and the United Kingdom since 2016. One project brought women together in weekly sessions to create a piece based on their lives and experiences. Creating “It’s My Life” (started in 2017) involved discussion, exchange and co-creation through theatre improvisation and role-play exercises. The final result presents the stories of two women seeking a balance between what they envision for themselves and the expectations their families and cultures impose on them. The company runs other workshops with refugees and migrants, including fathers and local school staff as well as tenants from a social housing project.

Acta is part of the REACT Network, which supports refugees and integration through theatre arts.

Source

Intergovernmental Consultations on Migration, Asylum and Refugees (IGC), 2020;European Commission, 2018.

The feelings that fuel xenophobia, racism and discrimination are underpinned by perceptions and narratives. To address discrimination, therefore, we need to address these perceptions and narratives, discrediting the xenophobic ideas and myths and instead offering narratives of belonging. Stories of successful integration and harmonious, cohesive societies can further foster positive perceptions (read more about pro-migration and anti-migration narratives and how to manage them in Communicating on migration.

Example
Campaigns to change perceptions of migration

Barcelona Anti-rumours Network

The Barcelona Anti-rumour strategy is an initiative of the Barcelona Interculturality Plan. It was created in 2010, when it was recognized that one of the main obstacles to relations between people from different cultural contexts was lack of interaction, leading to distrust and fears. The Anti-rumours Network aims to raise awareness of and debunk these rumours, prejudices and stereotypes, to provide anti-rumour tools and resources and to promote dialogue and intercultural relations.

“It takes a community” campaign

“It takes a community“ is an awareness-raising campaign promoted by the Global Forum for Migration and Development (GFMD) Ad Hoc Working Group on Public Narratives on Migration, a multi-stakeholder initiative bringing together national governments, cities, businesses, civil society and international organizations to promote a balanced and evidence-based public narrative on migration. The online platform showcases stories of migrants and receiving communities who are working together to make the places where they live and work “more productive, innovative, caring, safe and welcoming”.

Source

Ajuntament Barcelona, n.d.;It takes a community.

In a similar way, incorporating diversity in pedagogical methods and curricula helps develop tangible understandings of diversity and how to live it, while countering xenophobia and discrimination. This can include, for instance, civic education modules that touch on migration issues through the lens of promoting human rights, democracy, and solidarity and that are practical and action oriented, based on examples. Another example is diversity and interculturality training for teachers, NGOs and others. (Read more on how governments should communicate on migration in Communicating on migration).

Finally, it is worth noting that initiatives promoting social mixing should be embedded in other approaches. They will not be sufficient on their own to break patterns of segregation and discrimination. It is therefore important that initiatives also stimulate local economic development, support civil society and strengthen the social fabric (OECD, 2018d).

Example
Tech Heroes

Tech Heroes is a project that aims to engage youth of diverse backgrounds, including migrant youth, in finding solutions for community problems and challenges through technological creations. Participants receive training in technological and software tools and design thinking before getting organized in teams and choosing a local issue to address. Each team submits a project for a competition. The initiative enables youth of migrant and other backgrounds to enrich their resumés with technological skills, an internationally recognized certification and a concrete project. The process fosters collaboration towards making a community better for all those who live in it.

At the time of writing, the project is sponsored by the British Embassy and implemented by IOM and Jcoders Academy.

Source

Tech Heroes.

To Go Further
Policy Approaches
Promoting social mixing and an understanding of diversity

Work with organizations and networks that have experience in combatting racism, discrimination, and behaviours that lead to exclusion, in order to:

  • Promote initiatives of intercultural dialogue, such as places, events or activities for cultural interchange and social mixing;
  • Support campaigns and interventions that tackle negative perceptions of migration, including by deconstructing misconceptions about migration and by fostering more inclusive and diverse narratives. Foster diversity in school curricula;
  • When possible, embed anti-discrimination interventions in more established social activities and local development, for the sake of sustainability.
Key messages
  • Intolerance, xenophobia, racism and overall discrimination of migrants and their descendants is both contrary to international migration law and jeopardizes social cohesion. It has negative consequences for migrants, and as well for societies, which will not seize the benefits of integration and, instead, may face tensions and even unrest and violence.
  • In most countries, laws prohibit discrimination on the basis of nationality; however, in practice, such discrimination can still occur. As well, feeling discriminated against has real impacts on people, whether discrimination actually happens or only seems to happen.
  • Anti-discrimination measures may require legal, policy, and institutional changes to prohibit, prevent and address instances of discrimination.
  • Promoting social mixing and a better understanding of how diversity can be lived and experienced in society helps fight prejudice and xenophobic attitudes, while promoting and fostering social cohesion. It complements anti-discrimination measures.
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