Last year, significantly more people turned to the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency because of experiences of discrimination than in the year before. In 2023, there were 10,772 requests for advice, around 2,000 more than in the previous year and another record. This is according to the agency’s annual report, which the Federal Anti-Discrimination Commissioner, Ferda Ataman, presented in Berlin on Tuesday. Ataman spoke of an alarming trend.
Racism is more open, direct and harsh, she said. “We are not only observing a ‘foreigners out’ mood and increasing contempt for humanity when partying on Sylt or at folk festivals.” Migrants, people with disabilities and queer people experience this very concretely in their everyday lives. Ataman mentioned discrimination at work or when looking for accommodation, for example. Those affected feel increasingly left alone.
According to the General Equal Treatment Act (AGG), people may not be discriminated against “on the grounds of race or ethnic origin, gender, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual identity.” Most inquiries to the anti-discrimination agency with regard to this law related to racist or anti-Semitic discrimination (41 percent). 25 percent of the cases concerned discrimination on the grounds of disability, 24 percent on the grounds of gender. 14 percent of the inquiries related to discrimination on the grounds of age.
According to the report, discrimination continues to occur particularly frequently in working life: one third (2,646) of the cases described concerned negative experiences at work. The second largest proportion of the counseling cases (1,525) related to experiences of exclusion in everyday life, for example in restaurants, when shopping or on public transport. In third place are bad experiences with offices, authorities, police and the judiciary (1,146).
“The figures do not provide a representative picture of discrimination cases in Germany,” the report states. In addition to the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency, there are other contact points that people can turn to. In addition, most of those affected do not report discrimination at all. “We must therefore assume that there is a high number of unreported cases.” The increase in figures does not allow any conclusions to be drawn as to whether discrimination in society is actually increasing. The increase in figures may also be related to the fact that more people know about the service and use it, or more people have the courage to turn to the advice center.
The report highlights a number of examples of those affected. For example, a black man contacted the anti-discrimination office. According to the report, he was the only person who was asked to show his ID by the store detective when entering a department store. The detective justified this by saying that thefts by black people were more common. In another case, a retired teacher reported that she had been turned down after applying for a substitute position because the teaching staff were young and older teachers “couldn’t cope” there.
Since 2006, the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency has been advising those affected on the enforcement of their rights on the basis of the General Equal Treatment Act. The agency also obtains statements from the opposing side and mediates amicable settlements. Over the years, the total number of requests for advice has continued to rise.