Anti-Racism in a Time of Crisis

In several EU Member States, the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermaths have triggered generalised budget cuts in public services, which have affected the poorest sectors of the population, also engendering ethnic rivalries and competition for welfare state resources.  This has impacted the civil society sector as a whole by reducing the amount of resources available but also by making its advocacy and service delivery work more relevant for vulnerable sectors of the population and yet culturally less accepted. This paper focuses on the difficulties of combating racism in a period of crisis.

On the basis of a set of key-actor interviews, this paper examines how key institutional actors in the Commission and the Parliament have reacted to the changing political and cultural climate. It investigates the impact of the crisis on the political opportunities of antiracist organisations at EU level.  It examines their governance relations with organisations in Member States. The paper focuses in particular on the test cases of Italy and the UK.