NGOjobs for Europe
07.02.2022

Elisabeth from Austria, job at Claim Allianz in Berlin

From Vienna to Berlin

On the one hand, the move from Berlin to Vienna was difficult for me because I was leaving good friendships behind. On the other hand, a vibrant city with a wide variety of scenes and cultural offerings as well as an exciting job awaited me in Berlin.

In addition, some people from my circle of acquaintances had moved to Berlin, who welcomed me very warmly into their lives, given my background. These circumstances and the fact that Berlin is culturally very similar to Vienna made it easier for me to arrive in Berlin and find a place.

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My work at Claim Allianz

At Claim Allianz, I have been responsible for leading community-based monitoring since mid-September 2021.

The project aims to record anti-Muslim racism nationwide, comprehensively and uniformly.

Why is this important?

Anti-Muslim-motivated physical and psychological attacks and discrimination in education, healthcare, the housing market and labor market, and in public spaces have been at a high level for years. In 2020, the Federal Ministry of the Interior, for Building and the Homeland in Germany registered at least 901 Islamophobic crimes nationwide (preliminary status)[1]. However, a survey by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) suggests a much higher number of unreported cases. Registered cases are to be classified as a tip of the iceberg of anti-Muslim crimes that Muslim*s and people read as Muslim*s experience on a daily basis.

Anti-Muslim motivated assaults and discriminations are therefore an everyday problem in Germany, which in their extent and impact still represent a high dark field. Prevention and protection against anti-Muslim attacks and discrimination requires clarity about the phenomenon and the actual extent. For this, on the one hand, a uniform and established understanding of anti-Muslim racism is necessary, as well as uniform indicators that serve to identify and classify an anti-Muslim content of an act in practice. On the other hand, a systematic, comprehensive and coherent recording of anti-Muslim incidents is necessary. This is where community-based monitoring comes in.

I am responsible for the development of a national cooperation structure between counseling and documentation centers. To ensure that all document according to a uniform system, I coordinate the participatory development of uniform standards as well as the elaboration of a training on the topics of anti-Muslim racism, intersectionality and case recording.

[1]The figure of 901 is provisional, as experience shows that subsequent reports are added. The number of offenses is the sum of the preliminary quarterly figures for 2020, which the Left Party asks for on a quarterly basis: Bundestag Printed Paper 19/26359, p. 2; 19/24774, p. 2; 19/22886, p. 2; 19/20631, p. 2.

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