Promising Practice

Potential victims’ perception of discrimination based on racial or ethnic origin, 2020

The study’s main goal is to gain insight into how potential victims perceive racial or ethnic discrimination and how this has evolved over time in terms of extent and intensity, and to identify the areas, circumstances and specific manifestations of discrimination, with a special focus on the field of employment and training for employment. Employment and training are of particular interest, as this is one of the areas where higher levels of discrimination were detected in the latest editions of this report.
Country
Spain
Type
Operational guidelines
Mainstream equality data
Ensure regular and timely data collection
Improve comparability
Category
Racial or ethnic origin
Sex

 


In this page:


Why was the practice needed?

This study is the result of an initiative of the Council for the Elimination of Racial and Ethnic Discrimination, a representative council of the General State Administration attached to the Ministry of Equality through the Directorate-General for Equal Treatment and Ethnic and Racial Diversity.

This practice was implemented to address how the prevalence of discrimination based on ethnic origin evolved from 2010, 2011 and 2013 to 2020 – especially as reported in the last two studies – among the eight defined groups (Afro-Caribbeans and Afro-Latin-Americans (Afro-descendants), non-Mediterranean Africans, Indians and Pakistanis, Eastern Europeans, Maghrebis, Asians, Andean Latin-Americans and Roma).

The aim is to further the understanding of this phenomenon by analysing the extent to which and the intensity with which people experience discrimination in Spain. To that end, a representative survey was conducted nationally, covering Spain’s 17 autonomous communities and two autonomous cities.

How was it implemented?

As in previous editions of this report, and to provide continuity to this longitudinal study, information was gathered from the same eight population groups of diverse ethnic and territorial origins with a view to gaining insight into how they perceive discrimination. The groups are Afro-Caribbeans and Afro-Latin-Americans (Afro-descendants), non-Mediterranean Africans, Indians and Pakistanis, Eastern Europeans, Maghrebis, Asians, Andean Latin-Americans and Roma.

A total of 1,624 interviews have been carried out in all the autonomous communities and two autonomous cities of the Spanish state. They have been answered by people who are part of the eight population groups defined previously.

Outputs

  • The study report speaks of the degree of exclusion that exists in Spain due to the different forms of racism embedded in society, among which institutional racism is the most insidious of all. The situation manifests itself in serious invisibility, lack of representation and a social barrier effect that has consequences for job promotion and full enjoyment of rights.
  • The executive summary is available in English.

Key success factors

  • Data are comparable with previous studies (2010, 2011 and 2013).
  • The report is the most complete of the four, since it proposes a longitudinal analysis of the different markers of discrimination and exclusion with respect to the previous studies.
  • Important qualitative improvements were introduced that make it possible to search for explanations of the discrimination phenomena in most of the areas of study, especially in the employment, training and housing areas.
  • Information regarding institutional racism in different aspects and the level of underreporting of cases of racism was included.
  • Data were disaggregated by ethnicity.
  • The specificity and/or added value of the study lies in the analysis of the evolution of ethnic and racial discrimination from the subjective perception that possible victims have of it, in its double dimension of what is perceived and what is subjectively experienced.

Technical information

  • Data sources covered: Household or individual surveys; Attitudinal surveys; Qualitative research
  • Areas of life covered: Employment; Education; Health; Housing and living conditions; Access to goods and services; Hate crime
  • Target audience: General public
  • Duration: 6 months
  • Geographical scope: National
  • Leading institution: Council for the Elimination of Racial and Ethnic Discrimination
  • Other organisations involved/consulted: Ministry of Equality
  • Financial & human resources: Budget: €69,400; Source of the budget: Ministry of Equality, Directorate-General for Equal Treatment and Ethnic and Racial Diversity; Staff: External; public contract; Development: The development was done through public procurement in close collaboration with the authors of the study in order to guide the priorities and objectives of the study

Contacts

Carlos Morán Ferrés
Deputy A. Director-General for Equal Treatment and Ethnic Diversity
Ministry of Equality
Calle Alcalá 37, Madrid
Tel. 915243286
cmoran@igualdad.gob.es