ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION RACISM HAS once more become a truly serious problem in Europe. It manifests itself in discrimination and social exclusion in the labour market, in segregation in the housing market, in unequal opportunities in the educational system, in marked differences in general health and well-being between migrant categories and majority populations, and in differential access to power and influence. Social stratification along these crucial variables is increasingly becoming determined by ‘perceived race’, culture, ethnicity and religion. Racism manifests itself in a new build-up of anti-Semitism, in popular demands to curb immigration and to repatriate migrants, and in the rise of National Front parties and it manifests itself in persecution of migrants and minorities, in threats and hostilities aimed at these people and in acts of political terrorism that include assault, arson and even murder. These developments in the member-states of the EU were accompanied in the 1990s by persecution and exclusion policies aimed at the Roma people in several central and Eastern European states.
