Four Country Survey on Racism and Discrimination

TORONTO, Jan. 21, 2011 /CNW/ – Canadian Race Relations Foundation and the Association for Canadian Studies release the results of a four country Survey on Racism and Discrimination.

Racism remains a problem with which many nations continue to grapple. Understanding the views of the population around racism and its incidence is an issue crucial to the well-being of societies like Canada where a vast majority of newcomers identify as a visible minority and where visible minorities will constitute an increasingly important percentage of the population. In several countries, debate around racism is polarized with some contending that the phenomenon is all rampant and others denying its very existence.

To address this diagnosis, the Canadian Race Relations Foundation and the Association for Canadian Studies commissioned a four-country survey during the months of September and October 2010 to look at various aspects of the issues of racism and discrimination. Today, we release the analysis of the results for Canada, Spain, Germany and the United States.

Amongst the highlights:

• Two in three Canadians agree that visible minorities and whites are treated equally in their place of work. Percentage is higher for those of working age.
• German respondents more likely than Canadian, American and Spanish respondents to think that visible minorities and whites are treated equally at work place.
• One in three Canadian, American and Spanish respondents claimed they witnessed a racist incident in the past year.
• Canadians evenly divided over whether racism is on the rise in the country .
• Opposition to Interracial Marriage lowest in Canada, highest in Spain.
• Spanish and German respondents more likely than American and Canadian respondents to agree that national government should take the lead in combating discrimination.