Briefing Papers - Europe
The only comprehensive digest of Europe’s changing climate of racism, with reports on asylum and immigration policy, the challenge to multiculturalism and the erosion of civil liberties.
April 4, 2013
Briefing Paper no. 6
State intelligence agencies and the far Right: A review of developments in Germany, Hungary and Austria examines the security services’ approach to the far Right and finds that far from clamping down on growing fascism, some of the tactics of security services are enhancing conditions for its growth.
June 15, 2012
Pedlars of Hate: the violent impact of the European far Right
Brings together over 100 cases, mostly from EU countries, but also Switzerland and Norway, which documents patterns of violence, from the peddling of hate online and the drawing up of lists of ‘national traitors’, to violence, arson and murder on the streets, and the stockpiling of weapons in preparation for ‘race war’.
September 1, 2011
Briefing Paper no. 5
Breivik, the conspiracy theory and the Oslo massacre provides the background and context of the extreme and aberrant actions of Anders Behring Breivik, perpetrator of a gruesome massacre on 22 July which claimed the lives of seventy-seven people, in two attacks, the first on government buildings in central Oslo, the second on the tiny island of Utøya, thirty-eight kilometres from Oslo.
March 3, 2011
Islamophobia, human rights and the anti-terrorist laws
Islamophobia, human rights and the anti-terrorist laws reveals how Islamophobia serves a function as propaganda for war. But anti-terrorist policies and emergency laws have also had the effect of turning Muslim communities all over Europe into ‘suspect communities’.
March 3, 2011
Islamophobia and progressive values
Islamophobia and progressive values draws attention to the specific role that a discourse on progressive values is playing in shaping Islamophobia.
October 7, 2010
Briefing Paper no. 4
Accelerated removals: a study of the human cost of EU deportation policies, 2009-2010 examines the 38 asylum and immigration-related deaths in Europe over an 18-month period and shows the human cost of EU moves to slash budgets for refugee integration and accelerate the pace of removals – thereby undermining international conventions.
July 19, 2010
Alternative Voices on Integration
This report identifies alternative voices on integration, in five European countries, bringing together the interviews and news stories with representative organisations.
April 28, 2010
Briefing Paper No. 3
The background to the French parliamentary commission on the burqa and niqab examines how André Gerin, the Communist Party mayor of Vénissieux, ignited the debate on the voile intégral in a country where, it is estimated, that a total of 2,000 women wear the burqa. It describes the various arguments used to justify the ban from upholding laïcité to opposing the rise of Salafism and defending the freedom and dignity of women.
February 12, 2010
Briefing Paper No. 2
Direct democracy, racism and the extreme Right documents forty cases, involving either petitions or citizens' initiative referenda, that have been held to curtail the basic rights of BME communities, asylum seekers, migrant workers, foreign residents and European Muslims. Drawing attention to the ways in which extreme-Right and anti-immigrant parties are manipulating particular forms of direct democracy in ways that put representative democracies under threat.
February 11, 2010
Briefing Paper No. 1
The Swiss referendum on minarets: background and aftermath provides comprehensive documentation of the Swiss referendum on 29 November 2009 which was was backed by a strong majority as it became the first country in Europe to vote to curb the religious practices of Muslims, banning the construction of minarets on mosques.