Input for the EU Anti-Racism Strategy: Addressing Discrimination Based onWork and Descent in Europe

Discrimination based on work and descent remains a largely unaddressed form of structural racism in Europe, disproportionately affecting Roma, Dalit, Haratine, and other caste-like communities who face exclusion rooted in inherited status, ancestral occupation, and caste-based hierarchies.

The input highlights how these groups continue to experience segregation, barriers to education, housing and employment, political underrepresentation, and widespread social stigma, often reinforced by notions of purity and pollution. It stresses that women and girls face particularly severe, intersectional forms of violence and discrimination, and that the lack of data and explicit recognition of CDWD in EU frameworks perpetuates invisibility.

Strengthening the EU Anti-Racism Strategy requires acknowledging these communities, integrating intersectional and gender-responsive measures, improving data collection, and ensuring meaningful participation of CDWD communities in policy design and monitoring.