Strategies for the Local Community : “Strategies & Actions”

Moderators : Dr. Jaap van Donselaar, Dr. Beate Winkler
Panelists: Panel A: Problems facing the local Community
Dr. Anna-Maria Blomgren, University of Trollhattan-Uddevalla,
Sweden
Prof. Wilhelm Heitmeyer, University of Bielefeld, Germany
Prof. Tim Miller, University of Kansas, USA

Panel B: Strategies and actions
Ms. Anne-Marie Begler, Director, National Council of Crime
Prevention, Sweden
Ms. Dilyana Giteva, Human Rights Project, Bulgaria
Prof. Robert Picht, Director, Deutsch-Französisches Institut, Germany
Mr. Cyriel Triesscheijn, Rotterdam Anti-Discrimination Council
(RADAR), The Netherlands

Panel C: Recommendations for the future
Prof. Roger Eatwell, University of Bath, UK
Dr. Robin Oakley, Independent Consultant, UK
Prof. Kyösti Pekonen, University of Helsinki, Finland
Rapporteurs: Marianne Kiil, Hans Ingvar Roth , Leena Salminen

INTRODUCTION
The issue of local communities was discussed in three interrelated seminars with the following titles: Problems facing the local community, Strategies and actions, and Recommendations for the future. In the first seminar the background and setting of racism and xenophobia in the local level had been addressed. The second seminar focused on which strategic actions can be developed at local level and what are the preconditions for successful local strategies. The third seminar dealt with recommendations for the future.

BACKGROUND AND SETTING
The seminars began by establishing the background and setting of racism and xenophobia. It was highlighted that racism and xenophobia are symptoms of a fragmented society with social and cultural exclusion. Moreover, history and international comparison show that racism, violence and extremism should not be considered in an isolated way. To combat racism you need a holistic approach and work towards an inclusive society. Feelings and ideology behind these phenomena must also be considered.

The seminars pointed out that the local level is important in a number of ways. In particular it was highlighted that:

- Incidents, confrontations, as well as most interventions and solutions to problems are practised in a local setting.

- At the local level, equal treatment has to be guaranteed in practice and the local level is the first level of intervention in cases of unequal treatment.

- The quality of local implementation is crucial for national legislation and other measures to combat discriminatory practices.

- The local level is also the level at which to experiment with new approaches and to find out what works and what does not.

The following key observation had been identified as regards local responses to incidents of racism and xenophobia:

- Responses are more often incident-oriented than pattern-oriented

- Responses are fragmented, many actors are involved in an unco-ordinated way

- Responses are more often focused on rapid response than on causes and underlying
processes.

ANALYZING THE SITUATION – Monitoring systems
It was generally highlighted that a precise overview of the situation is crucial in order to analyse it and work out precise measures. To accomplish this task it was generally acknowledged that local and national monitoring systems must be established and developed.

Systematic collection of data and information is particularly crucial, due to the present underreporting and under-recording of racism and xenophobia. Everyday racism also has to be included in this monitoring effort, and not only racist (violent) incidents. Furthermore, the concept of discrimination should also include more covert and indirect forms of racism and discrimination such as institutional racism and xenophobia.
An efficient monitoring system has several advantages. It gives a better and structural overview of the location and occurrence of different forms of discrimination. Putting together a multi-agency monitor, based on several information flows, contributes to the reliability and credibility of the observations and also provides information on the performance of different agencies involved. Traditionally, NGOs often are suspected of and blamed for exaggerating the number of discriminatory incidents. GOs, on the other hand, are liable to play things down.

A multi-agency monitor can help in objectifying this discussion and help us concentrate on recognising and solving the most severe problems. Moreover, it was considered very important to link local monitoring systems together in the national, European and international levels. Thirdly, a multi-agency monitor is a permanent system and will also create possibilities for assessing the development of discriminatory practices and the effectiveness of measures to combat discrimination over a prolonged period of time.
It was underlined that analyzing the situation demands addressing nearly all areas of society in a holistic way. One has to take into account that specific historic circumstances of local situation, e.g. the local economic conditions, relations between minorities and majority population. At the same time it has to be taken into account that no situation has purely local roots. Also external factors (such as the influence of the mass media) must be integrated in the analysis.

RECOMMENDATIONS
Recommendations must be addressed both to the political level and to actors in civil society. The discussion in the seminars highlighted the following practical and concrete recommendations to build up a successive policy against racism and xenophobia in the local level:

- Giving a very clear political orientation is the basic requirement in combating racism.

- New policies must be worked out and implemented: a politic for integration and recognition with the aim of an inclusive society.

- Local strategies must gain the support of local political and other leaders, and of local media, so that they gain maximum support and legitimacy among the population as a whole.

- The first step in coping with the problems of racism and xenophobia is to establish a multi-agency monitor on a permanent basis with the aim of fact-finding and early detection of possible problem areas.

- Local strategies should also be 'multi-agency': i.e. should involve in a coordinated way all those agencies with a capability for tackling racism, including NGOs and community groups. Local strategies should establish a common platform with the civil society (public and private sector, NGO’s) and establish networks.

- Local strategies must address all areas which are involved (e.g. politics, law, media, education)

- Local strategies should focus on areas of high intensity. The term refers to the simultaneous presence of numerous social problems including changing family structures and welfare dependency, emergence of racism, xenophobia and antidemocratic extremism. Areas of high intensity are places where already manifold interventions by the public, private and independent sectors are organised to address aspects of youth development and community renewal.

- To be successful, the local strategies have to be genuinely ‘strategic’, in both their thinking and their execution. Moreover, policy-making and analysis should be patternoriented and not focus only on violent acts or workings of the extreme right.

- Special attention has to be paid to the field of education, especially intercultural education and conflict management.

- Local strategies need to be preventive and not just reactive. However, it is also very important that the authorities should be able to provide justice and support for victims of racist acts, and sanctions for the perpetrators as well as to ensure that the victims have real opportunities of filing their complaints.

- Local strategies should give priority to empowering victims, NGO’s and the communities that experience racism, and their initiatives should be valued. There should be mechanisms for consultation and partnership with such communities, and to promote participation by members of minority groups. It is also important to equip governmental and other institutions to tackle the problem e.g. through training, specialist advice, and provision of resources.

- At the more personal level, citizens that strive to take responsibility need to engage in direct and forceful condemnation of racist attitudes and behaviour whenever these occur.

- Strategies must be based upon cooperation between policy makers and academics who have the ambition to formulate theories that can have clear practical implications for public policy.

- International comparative analysis of patterns of response to racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism on the local level should be initiated.

As local situations are to a large amount also affected by external factors, it is important that politicians at national level should also be committed to combating intolerance. This can happen especially in the field of education, e.g. by encouraging the culture of mutual recognition among various groups. Also, the government authorities were called to take clear leadership position to make efficient policy making and implementation possible. Cooperation should not stop short at national borders, networking for the exchange of ideas and information should also take place at European and international levels.

OPEN QUESTIONS
The following questions from the audience were felt to be important and to demand specific attention:

- How are we to overcome the passivity and silence surrounding racism? It was pointed out that some people decide to remain silent for fear of negative reactions.

- What are the factors that stand in the way of close cooperation between different instances?

- What level of tolerance can be accepted, or should we promote “zero-tolerance” of racist manifestations?

- What are the prospects of achieving unified action in these matters when countries have such different historical, legal and other traditions?

- Is there a relationship between organized forms of (often violent) racism and covert, day-to-day racism, and what are the characteristics?

- How do we deal with the dilemma that the media can play an important role in revealing the true goals of racist organisations and their links with nazi-oriented movements, while on the other hand racist organizations in general regard all media exposure as a form of success?