On 10 April the French national statistics institute INSEE published a compilation of 11 different studies measuring the influence of gender, ethnic origin, sexual orientation and health status on inequalities in different areas of society. The interesting conclusions that can be drawn from this research include the existence of striking differences in treatment that can’t be explained by other factors than discrimination, in areas such as access to social housing, employment and education. The general conclusion which is drawn is that the white, heterosexual male aged 30-50 remains privileged compared to all other groups of people in today’s society.

These data corroborate previous findings of the European Network of Legal Experts in the non-discrimination field, such as for instance those of the recent thematic report Discrimination in housing, authored by Nicolas Bernard and Julie Ringelheim in 2013. It also demonstrates the importance of having relevant equality data to be able to prove the existence of discrimination, and to raise an effective fight against it. This is the main aim of the Equality Data Initiative of the Open Society Foundations, MPG and ENAR, which focuses on equality data collection in seven European countries, including France.

The UK Joint Committee on Human Rights has published a report scrutinizing the Government’s proposed Immigration Bill, which was introduced in the House of Commons on 10 October. The report highlights that the provisions of the bill which would bar some people from renting or occupying property in the private rented property sector based on their immigration status could give rise to discrimination on the grounds of racial or ethnic origin in the field of housing. This same conclusion was made during the Legal Seminar organised by the European Network of Legal Experts in the non-discrimination field, managed by MPG, in cooperation with the European Network of Legal Experts in the field of gender equality, held in Brussels on 29 November.

The proposed bill, whose official aim is to “make the UK the least attractive destination for illegal migrants”, would prohibit property owners from renting private property to illegal migrants as part of a series of provisions aiming at excluding them from public and private services. The report underlines however, as did participants of the recent Legal Seminar, the heightened risk of discrimination on racial grounds in the private tenancy sector caused by this proposed provision.

During one of the workshops of the Seminar, the potential consequences of the Immigration Bill were explored by one of the speakers, Ms Sue Lukes, who presented her experiences from working with issues related to housing for migrants. During the same workshop, the findings of a recent publication of the Network, Discrimination in Housing, were presented by one of its co-authors Julie Ringelheim, including the discrimination faced in many European countries by vulnerable groups in the specific field of housing. Discrimination on the ground of racial or ethnic origin is prohibited in the field of housing by the Racial Equality Directive and its transposing legislation in all EU Member States, including the UK Equality Act 2010.