Kwe’sx kiwe’s fxitxa fxizena

As with the area of employment, research on discrimination in housing tends to provide more evidence than is gleaned from complaints. For example, in

Spain, according to a study carried out by Colectivo IOE, 72 per cent of Africans, 40 per cent of Latin Americans and 25 per cent of Eastern Europeans state that they have faced such prejudiced reactions when seeking accommodation, some of

them on more than five occasions.299

In Germany, the latest findings of the seventh Multi-Topic Survey 2005 indicate that amongst the fields where discrimination takes place, discrimination whilst looking for an apartment ranked second (as in 2004), after discrimination in the workplace, school or university. Discrimination in the neighbourhood was

ranked in sixth place in 2005 (fifth place in 2004).300 _{Turks, who are the biggest}

minority ethnic group in Germany, are affected both by individual discrimination as well as by institutionalised forms of discrimination such as quotas on foreign

households established by housing associations.301 _{Evidence of direct discrimination}

in the housing market was corroborated by a study carried out in Cologne in

2006:302 _{An online survey was conducted among 209 people (landlords, estate}

agents, apartment supervisors etc) who placed flat advertisements on an online estate portal. By analysing their selection preferences and the extent of ethnic discrimination in the local housing market of Cologne the researchers showed that all foreign nationalities were assessed more negatively than German, but that

the assessment varied greatly between the individual nationalities.303 _Nationality

coupled with poor language proficiency affected the gate-keepers’ decision more strongly than the applicants’ social status.

A study on subjective experiences of racism and xenophobia carried

out in Portugal revealed significant levels of experiences of discrimination in the

housing sector, whilst the official records only registered 17 complaints for the

period 2002-2006.304 _{One of the findings was that experiences of discrimination}

are differentiated according to national groups. For example, Brazilians are more likely to experience discrimination in access to housing (44 per cent) than Cape- Verdeans and Guinea-Bissauans, and the least likely to experience discrimination

299 Colectivo IOE (2006) Inmigración y vivienda en España, Madrid: Ministerio de Trabajo y Asuntos Sociales, available at: http://www.colectivoioe.org/ficheros_externos/Inmigracion%20y%20vivienda%20en%20Espana_lib_ inm_viviend.pdf (30.06.2006).

300 A. Goldberg, M. Sauer (2006) Türkischstämmige Migranten in Nordrhein-Westfalen. Stand der Integration. Ein- stellungen und Meinungen. Inanspruchnahme von Unterstützung bei der Erziehung. Ergebnisse der 7. Mehrthemen- befragung Duisburg-Essen: Stiftung ZfT, pp. 245 and 36, available at: http://www.zft-online.de/UserFiles/File/ NRW%202005-Bericht5.pdf (26.05.2006)

30 N. Gestring, A. Janßen, A. Polat (2006) Prozesse der Integration und Ausgrenzung. Türkische Migranten der zweiten Generation, Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.

302 C. Kowalski et al. (2006) Die Wohnungssuche als Alltagsproblem von Menschen nicht-deutscher Herkunft? Eine empirische Untersuchung am Beispiel Köln, available at: http://www.migration-boell.de/downloads/diversity/ Bericht_Wohnungsvergabe.pdf (02.0.2006).

303 For the Japanese, nationality hardly has any impact, whereas for Russians their nationality had a greater impact on the decision of gate-keepers than the criteria of income.

304 EUMC (2006) Migrants’ Experiences of Racism and Xenophobia in 12 EU Member States. Pilot Study, available at: http://fra.europa.eu/fra/material/pub/merx/Migrants-Experiences-web.pdf (4.05.2007).

i n t h e m e m b e R s t a t e s o f t h e e U

are the Ukrainians. But the most significant finding is that roughly 60 per cent of Roma feel like they have been denied the opportunity to buy or rent an apartment

or house,305 _{making them the group that is most likely to have experienced higher}

levels of discrimination in housing.

In France in May 2006, the HALDE led a testing campaign of which was conducted by the market research firm ASDO in three regions to identify discrimination in access to private housing. It scrutinised 126 housing advertisements and tested 100 estate agents. Three profiles of potential victims of discrimination (North African origin, Sub-Saharan origin, and single-parent families) were compared to a reference candidate profile. All the candidates were French, earning equivalent income (three times the minimum wage), and had permanent contracts. Over the phone, the reference candidates were scheduled for a visit in 35 per cent of cases, whereas this was only 20 per cent for candidates of North African descent and 14 per cent for Black candidates. Upon visiting, reference candidates got a positive reply in 75 per cent of cases, whereas only 22 per cent of Black candidates and 17 per cent of candidates of North African origin got favourable answers. Differences are clear and may prove to be the result of discrimination. The HALDE will look into each discrimination case and follow up on them.

The example of Greece is another illustration of a disparity between

official data and data from surveys of experienced discrimination. Whilst Greece’s specialised body has received scarcely any complaints, according to a study on victims’ experiences of discrimination, a total of 66 per cent of the interviewees

declared having been denied accommodation in the past.306

In Latvia, according to a public opinion poll about discrimination in 2006 commissioned by the Latvian National Human Rights Office (the national equality body), 23 per cent of respondents claimed that they experienced unequal

treatment over the last three years.307 _{Among these, 3 per cent named housing as a}

problematic area. And in Estonia, a survey commissioned by the Legal Information

Centre for Human Rights carried out in Tallinn showed that 12.5 per cent of non- Estonians had experienced discrimination because of their ethnic origin within the last three years in the field of housing (e.g. upon renting or buying of apartments

or houses, contacts with landlords, communal services etc).308

In addition to the above surveys of minority experiences, there was one survey reported on the attitudes of the majority population to migrants and

minorities as neighbours. In Lithuania, in 2006 the Centre of Ethnic Studies carried

305 M. Lages (2006) Os imigrantes e a população Portuguesa. Imagens reciprocas, Lisboa: ACIME.

306 EUMC (2006) Migrants’ Experiences of Racism and Xenophobia in 12 EU Member States. Pilot Study, p. 4, avail- able at: http://fra.europa.eu/fra/material/pub/merx/Migrants-Experiences-web.pdf (4.05.2007).

307 Baltijas Sociālo Zinātņu institūts (2006) Pētījums par cilvēktiesībām Latvijā. Grafiku atskaite, available at: http://www.vcb.lv/zinojumi/Petijums_par_cilvektiesibam_Latvija_2006.doc (25.09.2006).

out a survey on attitudes towards minority groups in Lithuania. The results indicate that ethnic intolerance has been growing among general members of Lithuanian society, especially towards Roma, Chechens, refugees and Muslims. The results of the study show that 75 per cent of the interviewees were likely to refuse to live in the same neighbourhood with Roma people, 45 per cent were likely to refuse to live

with refugees and 58 per cent with Muslims.309