People of African descent are routinely met with unfair treatment and bias when seeking jobs or homes. Racial discrimination, harassment and violence continue to haunt their daily lives, according to the report, “Being Black in the EU.”
Finland is one of the most racist countries in the European Union. That’s according to the 2023 survey by the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA).
Finland ranks third in the report, which examines the challenges faced by people of African descent in Europe, including issues of racial discrimination, harassment and violence. Austria and Germany were the only two countries that ranked higher than Finland.
Some 54% of respondents in Finland said they had experienced racial discrimination in the past year and 63% had experienced such discrimination in the past five years.
Respondents included Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Poland, Spain and Sweden.
FRA collected data by surveying people living in these countries who were either from Africa or had at least one parent from Africa. The survey was conducted in 2022 and includes responses from more than 6,700 participants.
Overall, nearly half of respondents of African descent (47%) felt discriminated against on one or more grounds in the five years prior to the survey, and more than a third (36%) felt discriminated against in the year prior to the survey.
There was considerable variation in the overall prevalence of discrimination between countries.
The highest levels of discrimination on any ground in both periods were in Austria (67% in the 12 months before the survey and 76% in the 5 years before the survey) and Germany (65% and 77%). The next highest figures were in Finland (57% and 66%) and Denmark (47% and 61%).
Respondents in Portugal, Poland and Sweden reported the lowest levels of discrimination on any ground in both periods.
