Nouria Ouali

Trade Unions and Racism in London, Brussels and Paris Public Transport

This article considers how trade unions respond to systemic racism at work. Based on case studies in the UK, Belgium and France, it identifies a gap between the national-level anti-racist policies of several European trade unions and local-level union workplace practices: direct racism is often denied and indirect racism rarely challenged. It describes and analyzes this gap arguing that unions must more consciously champion anti-racism and recommends a leadership role for workplace representatives.

Young Migrants in the Belgian Labour Market: Integration, Discrimination and Exclusion

It is not always possible to compare the situations of young migrants or young people from ethnic minorities in the labour markets of different European states. Such comparative analysis is difficult, basically because of the multiplicity of legal definitions of foreigner and of the terminology of nationality, which cover situations on grounds that differ enormously from one state to another. The same difficulty arises with the analysis of the labour market: the relationship between the education and production systems is so dependent on the type of structure and formation of nation-states that the international comparison of the job situations of young people, for example, is extremely complex. Such a comparison requires an initial step involving adjustment of the perception of how national realities come about. If a subject for study such as an international comparison of discrimination against foreigners in the labour market is to be established, it must necessarily involve the reconstitution of the structural elements of the labour market and of the composition of the populations within it. What might, in fact, look like a difference attributable to the characteristics of individuals — for example, young people have a lower unemployment rate in Germany than in France — may simply be a manifestation of a structural difference in the way the transition from school to work is organised.

Introduction: Discrimination and Diversity

During the past decade European countries have registered important changes in immigration experiences and in national migration policies which have had various consequences for the labour market. Five major developments have occurred. First, in countries where the first large-scale, postwar migrations took place (Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France), policies to encourage foreign residents to return to their country of origin were abandoned in the 1980s. Second, except for Ireland where the migration balance is still negative, all EU member states are now immigration countries, with the southern European countries experiencing migratory flows from Africa and Asia. Third, the number of asylum-seekers and refugees, notably from the former Yugoslavia, Africa and Asia, increased dramatically over this period (Salt 1992). Fourth, the collapse of the communist regimes, the conclusion of cooperation agreements between EU countries and some countries of Central Europe (Poland, Hungary, the Czech and Slovak Republics) and their future membership of the European Union have induced forms of ‘pendulum migration’ (De Wenden and Tanguy 1995). Fifth, the European states confronted with the new migration flows have attempted to control them according to an increasingly repressive ‘law and order’ or ‘securitaire’ logic (Bigo 1996).

Hard times for trade union anti-racism workplace strategies

This article reviews research into how European trade unions have responded to workplace racism against minority and migrant workers in the more difficult economic and political situation following the 2008 recession. Its main focus is on research carried out in Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Italy and the UK in 2003–2005, 2008–2009 and 2013. Union pressure for equal treatment had already weakened somewhat before the crisis. Subsequently, unemployment levels for ethnic minority and migrant workers rose much faster than for ‘national majority’ workers, and levels of tension in the workplace have often increased. The article distinguishes four main union responses: denial of racism and protection of the interests of national majority workers; the demand that minorities assimilate without special provisions; recognition of the need for minorities to have some special services and support; and the adoption of positive measures to promote equal treatment.

Migrant Women in Belgium: Identity Versus Feminism

For more than 60 years of post-war II migratory history, the sociological profiles, the social questions and the political stakes relating to the migrant women in Belgium have known deep transformations. This chapter identifies the feminist stakes of women migrant organisations and how their feminist claims have been ignored and reduced to identity claims. Based on the case of Brussels’ women migrant organisations, this chapter shows how women migrants contribute to fight for their equality and how the Belgian feminist movement started to include their demands. The main challenge of women migrants’ struggle is not only to show the universal patriarchal oppression but also how race and class impact on their social status.