Introduction

• Pages: 5-7

5

Introduction

Women and men with imm igrant backgrounds ac ross

the European Union (EU) ex perience how their rights are

respected in dif ferent ways, FRA’s second EU Minori-

ties and Discrim ination survey (EU-MI DIS II) shows.

The agency pub lished its main resul ts in 2017.1 This

report summar ises some of the most releva nt survey

f‌indings with rega rd to differences in women’s and

men’s experiences. They show the need for targeted,

gender-sensitive measures that p romote the integra-

tion of– specif‌i cally– women w ho are immigrant s or

descendants of imm igrants. Such a ction would also

contribute to Member State s’ efforts to reach the U N

Sustainable Deve lopment Goals (SDG) of the gl obal

Agenda 2030– i n particular SD G5 , which requires

countries to ‘achieve gender eq uality and empower all

women and girls’; and SDG10, which requi res countries

to ‘reduce inequality within and among countries’.2

The need for such measu res was already highlighted in

aprevious FRA report,3 which examined national action

plans and strategi es on the integration of third-countr y

nationals and found little evidence of any gendered

approach or speci f‌ic focus on women, despi te arange

of positive initiatives a nd good practices (mostly at local

level).4 More recently, in May2018, the European Court

of Auditors in their brief‌ing paper on immigrant inte-

gration also found t hat only seven EU countries include

specif‌ic action s or an important part of fu nding target-

ing women migrant s in their integration policies.5

This report exam ines the results of EU-MIDIS II in rela-

tion to immigrant s and descendants of immigr ants6 in 19

EU Member States (Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Germany,

Denmark, Gree ce, Spain, Finland , France, Ireland, Italy,

Luxembourg, Malt a, Netherlands, Po land, Portugal ,

Sweden, Slovenia and the Uni ted Kingdom).7 Among

the 16,149 EU-MIDISII responde nts with an immig rant

background, half are wome n (50%); however, there are

substantial var iations across countries and the sur vey’s

1 FRA (2017a).

2 United Nations, Ge neral Assembly, Reso lution (2015),

Transforming o ur world: the 2030 Agend a for Sustainable

Development,A/RES/70/1.

3 FRA (2017b), p. 7 and pp. 30-31.

4 See exampl es of such initiatives o n the European website on

integration.

5 Europ ean Court of Auditors (20 18), p1.

6 See Annex I I of EU-MIDISII main resu lts report (FRA 201 7a)

for more inform ation on the compositi on of the EU-MIDIS II

sample, whi ch was drawn on the basis of re gion/country of

origin and n ot on the basis of legal st atus.

7 The EU-MI DIS II survey covered Roma m inorities in nine EU

Member States . In April 2019, FRA is sued areport on Roma

women based on t he survey results.

target gro ups.8 The ana lysis examines th e situation of

the women surveyed as comp ared to that of men, as

well as compared with the situation of women from

the general pop ulation, where feasible. T his evidence

is useful for European in stitutions – in particul ar the

Commission, which promotes more gender sensi-

tive migrant integrat ion policies throu gh its ongoing

dialogue with Member States, especially concerning

actions co-f‌inanced through EU funds.9 The data, disag-

gregated by gender and by t arget group, are, however,

particularl y useful for Member States, as they can as sist

them in designing gender sensitive measures targeting

the different needs of wom en of diverse immigr ant

origins living i n the EU.

The report buil ds on earlier publi cations based on EU-

MIDISII survey data10 and examines the following areas

in aseries of chapters:

•Legal status and ma in reason for migrating;

•Education;

•Employment;

•Discriminatio n, harassment, vio lence and rights

awareness;

•Values and attitudes.

International h uman rights fram ework and EU policy

and law on gender a nd migrant integration

Respecting and p romoting gender e quality and th e

empowerment of women and g irls is an issue of funda-

mental human rig hts. All EU Member States are bound

by the principle of no n-discrimination on the grou nd of

sex as f‌irmly entrench ed in all core international human

rights instru ments, such as the International Covenant

on Civil and Politi cal Rights,11 the International Covenant

on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,12 the Conven-

tion on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination

8 For exampl e, in Cyprus the share of women su rveyed (of

Asian desce nt) was 64% of the sample, whi le in Ireland,

56% of persons of Af rican descent surveye d were women,

and in the Uni ted Kingdom, 55%. On t he other hand, the

proporti on of women in the sampl e was lower than that of

men among pe rsons of African desce nt in Denmark (31%)

and in Austri a (26%). In two countries the propo rtion of

women in the sa mple was particu larly low: in Greece,

concerning im migrants of south A sian origin (5%); and in

Malta, concer ning immigrant s of Sub-Saharan Africa n origin

(6%). See Annex II of the EU-M IDISII main result s report for

adescriptio n of the sample, inclu ding countries/regio ns of

origin in eac h Member State covered in this s urvey.

9 European Comm ission (2016).

10 FRA (2017a), FRA (2 017b), FRA (2018).

11 Internation al Covenant on Civil and Po litical Rights, A rt. 2, 3

and 26.

12 Internation al Covenant on Economic, S ocial and Cultural

Rights, Art. 2(2).