UKREN

Lemn Sissay’s powerful stage adaption of Benjamin Zephaniah's novel Refugee Boy is currently showing at the West Yorkshire Playhouse.

The play tells the story of 14 year old Alem, brought to the UK by his father due to the persecution faced by the family because of their Eritrean-Ethiopian make-up and Alem’s mixed race heritage.

“The EU is more than a market” argued Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Justice, Citizenship and Fundamental Rights, at the 2013 launch of the European Year of Citizens. She is right of course, but the challenge for those working in the field of equality is to raise awareness and demonstrate the EU’s value to all its citizens.

Carlos Saavedra, national coordinator of United We Dream has been giving seminars around the UK on a tour organised by Hope not hate. Last week he was welcomed to speak at a seminar in Leeds hosted by Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and Regional Asylum Activism. Carlos’ inspiring story held many lessons for activists and campaigners on migrants’ rights.

The French dramedy Untouchable has become one of the highest-grossing non-English speaking movies of all time. Almost 40 million Europeans have now seen this story about the friendship between a young French man of Senegalese descent and a disabled aristocrat.

The London Met University protest against visa restrictions echoes last year’s demonstration of overseas students in France against a governmental decision not to deliver work permits for most international students after they complete their degree.

A report prepared by the European Commission reviews the situation of young people across Europe. Status of the situation of young people in the European portrays trends and developments in young people's conditions in different areas – namely education and training, employment and entrepreneurship, social inclusion, health and well-being,  participation, culture and creativity, volunteering, and youth and the world.

The French Government has announced it will push for a change in citizenship law so that Non EU citizens, also referred to as third-country nationals are granted the right to vote for local council elections.

Racism is very much alive in sport, despite it being one of the few remaining public spaces for anti-racism, and new forms of racism are emerging. So said Professor Ben Carrington at a Europe House discussion on racism in sport held last week, in partnership with Runnymede. So, is the debate actually progressing and how can we move forward?

The UK’s response to EU efforts to improve the situation of Roma people in Europe suggests there is some bafflement within government departments as to what the basic issues are. The big move in Europe came with efforts to raise the profile of the Roma during the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion in 2010.

Things are getting tougher for the increasing number of migrants in European countries who are falling into irregular immigration status as a result of the pressures generated by the economic crisis and the austerity policies of government.

A session of the European Parliament meeting in Strasbourg last week has promised the Danish Presidency of the EU Council that it will fight its recent decision to grant member states the power to suspend Schengen arrangements and reintroduce border checks.

EU ministers voted last week to allow member states to reintroduce checks at their frontiers in 'exceptional circumstances'. But the haze and confusion about what this might mean leaves the entire region exposed to precipitous reaction by a rogue right wing government and an escalation of anti-immigration hysteria.

Last week I attended the seventh meeting of the European Integration Forum in Brussels, which took the form of a hearing on the right to family reunification to discuss whether EU legislation was sufficient in this area or whether it needed to be revised.

Austerity has been the main prescription across Europe for dealing with the continent's nearly three-year-old debt crisis, but what impact is it having on ethnic minorities and anti-racism work across the EU?

IARS often finds that the young people we work with feel a lack of connection between their lives in the UK and what is happening in other European countries. To understand this better, we conducted a survey with 70 young people to see if there was a link between education and young people’s perception of their place in Europe.

The government of Greece is planning a programme of mass incarceration of tens of thousands of migrants and asylum seekers residing within its borders.

The end of March saw a surge of protests in Malta as migrants, and supporters of migrants’ rights took a stand against racism and inequality in Malta’s institutions.

As I write these words, we now know that as predicted, socialist François Hollande and conservative Nicolas Sarkozy, the current president of France, will be competing against each other to become the next President of France.

In March 2011, 72 African refugees set sail on a small boat from Tripoli to the small Italian island of Lampedusa. Running out of fuel after 18 hours at sea, the boat was left adrift for 2 weeks despite a distress call logged by the Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre, eventually claiming the lives of 63 of the passengers.

Ethnic profiling in policing and border control is illegal in most countries in Europe. Nonetheless it continues to be a problem that minority and marginalised groups struggle with on a daily basis.

Last Sunday was not just Easter; it was International Roma Day. April the 8th marks the anniversary of the first major international meeting of Roma representatives in 1971.

The current housing situation of migrants in Spain is in many ways a bleak reflection of Europe’s economic crisis.

Today is the UN International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. This date – 21 March – was not chosen randomly; on that day in 1960, the police opened fire and killed 69 people at a peaceful demonstration against the apartheid ‘pass laws’ in the South African township of Sharpeville.

The publication of the department for Communities and Local Government strategy on integration back at the end of February attracted a sizeable amount of criticism at the time.

In the past few months several developments have reignited concerns about the prevalence of racist murders and the role of the far-right across Europe. 

Any general election or presidential campaign is interesting for many reasons, not least the fact that this is the time when different parties and candidates lay out their plans, vision and aspirations and put forward their case for being elected.