The global financial crisis has hardened attitudes towards race, especially in the developed world, according to Professor Githu Muigai, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Racism. “When people are threatened, they become more insular and more xenophobic. They begin to argue that their jobs are being taken away by others, and governments have a responsibility to educate their citizens and help to curb attacks on migrants.”
European political parties with anti-immigration policies have been making significant electoral gains. Two seats in the European Parliament have been won by the British National Party, an organisation which wants to provide incentives for non-white immigrants and their descendants to “return home”. Parties with anti-immigration policies have also gained recent electoral success in Switzerland and Austria.
As a result, the lives of migrants in their host countries has become more complicated. Around one in seven people in the world are migrants, according to this year’s UN Human Development Report. Professor Muigai said: “The mainstreaming of political parties whose agenda is overtly racist can erode all the years of progress in combating racism and is a problem that should concern us all.”