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Anti-discrimination legislation alone however is not sufficient. We have to ask: Why a youngster of Turkish background even in the third generation does not automatically get the German citizenship? How long will stateless Roma people be expelled from one EU country to the other? Why can a residence permit in France be withdrawn after 20 years, because of accommodating an 'illegal' immigrant? Putting a stop to the restrictive naturalisation policies would mean to show solidarity with the different minority groups. We call on all NGOs, parliamentarians, political parties, journalists and human rights activists to make the governments understand that minority groups can not simply be viewed as workers who do not require political and social rights. While respecting the different cultures all possibilities for voluntary integration have to be offered and the access to equal rights must be secured. A necessary legal condition would be to develop a wide concept of extended EU citizenship for all people who live in the EU. For nationals of EU member states this will mean complementary rights to the rights they already have. For all other people living in the EU, it will mean full access to citizen's rights. The EU citizenship should
be granted to everybody, who has been born in an EU member state or who
has lived in the EU for at least 3 years. This wide concept of EU
citizenship would therefore be applicable to: # EU citizens residing
in another member state (5.5 million)
To fight for equal rights
with this concept has the significant advantage that all specific demands
of minorities can be deduced from the EU citizenship:
As anti-racist and human rights organisations we cannot exclude any group from our solidarity. That is why we include specifically the so called 'illegal' immigrants into our concept. They are the most exploited, living under inhuman conditions and having to fight day by day for their survival. In total there are several millions in the EU, including an estimated 0.3 million in France and half a million in Germany. They desperately need a regularisation of their status, such as has taken place in Portugal, Spain and Italy in 1996. To lobby for extended EU citizenship is of course difficult, but we should not orientate too much to the 'realistic', which is often very cautious, but to what is desperately needed by the discriminated groups. If many of the problems, that minorities face in the EU, are created by an unjust global economy, we should not hesitate to force the persons responsible to carry the consequences. Citizenship and equal rights should not stay an utopia, but become a normality. Knowing of the different political discussion in the EU countries, we invite everybody to help mobilising for as many of the above demands as possible. Please address your comments
to UNITED. English, French or German versions of this leaflet can
be ordered here:
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