or deported from the country. Asylum seekers are now placed in special camps across the whole country (easing the burden on the Paris region), and under threat of losing social assistance and other privileges. In addition, the French parliament started considering a new bill on the rights of foreign nationals.[23]
The third group of legislative changes adopted in 2015 was aimed at streamlined integration of legal immigrants.
In June 2015, Greece adopted a law that automatically granted Greek citizenship to children of foreign nationals born in the country. This bill affects almost 200,000 second-generation immigrants.[24]
A similar bill was adopted in Italy. At the time of writing, it is awaiting the Senate’s approval. The so called ius soli act also provides citizenship to children of foreign nationals, provided they are permanent residents in the country. The law specifically mentions that it is targeted at non-EU citizens.[25] Experts believe that this law means that the new generation of Italians who are almost fully integrated into society (with knowledge of language, traditions, and having received education in Italy) will finally be able to identify themselves as part of the nation.
European governments have been taking measures to encourage immigrants to adapt to new realities. However, these measures often result in outright forced denouncement of their identities. This was most apparent in the Netherlands, which adopted amendments to its integration legislation that affected non-EU citizens seeking residency. The new bill requires people who have been residing in the Netherlands for several years to pass a language exam and demonstrate knowledge of the local labour market. Some human rights observers believe that these exams are of no practical help to immigrants; rather, they demonstrate negative attitudes towards immigrants and facilitate isolationist tendencies. For example, migrants from Maghreb and Africa are asked what they would do “if they saw two men kissing on the street.” Expressing negative views in this case often results in failing the exam.[26] As a result, many refuse to take the exam altogether.
This is a typical example of how European governments try to speed up the integration of legal immigrants, where integration comes in the form of assimilation and loss of traditional identities.
Russia has been seeking to improve the conditions for the employment of migrant workers. Since January 2015, people from countries with a visa-free agreement with Russia can seek employment outside quotas by acquiring a work patent (permit), provided they have indicated “work” as the reason for entry in the country. Thus migrant workers have been divided into two categories, which was supposed to improve the position of migrants from visa-free countries. However, the project turned out to be fraught with bureaucratic problems (see Section 2).
Finally, the fourth legislative trend in 2015 was related to combating radicalisation, racism, xenophobia, and facilitating peaceful religious relations.
On September 25, 2015, Poland introduced amendments to the Law on National, Ethnic Minorities, and Regional Languages (January 6, 2005). The proposed Article 9 of the Law on Supported Languages states that a minority language may be used in communication with municipal authorities to the same extent as the official language. This condition applies to municipalities where a “supported” linguistic minority group constitutes for 20 % of the population or above.[27] President Duda, however, had vetoed the bill citing the “high cost of implementation.” It is to be reviewed in parliament in 2016.[28]
In 2015, the German Criminal Code was amended with Art. 46.2, which instructed the courts to consider racist, xenophobic, or other discriminatory motives as aggravating circumstances in the commission of a crime.[29] This is an important development, since previous German legislation did not cover these factors when dealing with violent crime, stating instead that the courts may take them into consideration during sentencing.
In Greece, a proposed amendment to the Criminal Code (Article 361B) introduced criminal responsibility for refusing goods and services on the basis of race, colour, national or ethnic origins, religion, disability, sexual orientation, and gender identity. The article came into force in July 2016[30], and is predominantly aimed against the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, which regularly organised giveaways to “pure” Greeks during Orthodox holidays.[31]
The decade-long debates surrounding the construction of a cathedral mosque and a mosque at a Muslim cemetery in Athens continued in the Greek parliament throughout 2015. The issue was first raised in 2006 and finally approved by parliament on August 3, 2016.[32] Advocates for the mosque argue that the project has more social than religious connotations, as it is aimed to improve the position of minorities in Greece. Education and Religious Affairs Minister Nikos Filis argued that Greece should avoid mistakes made by other European policymakers that left many migrant communities socially isolated and vulnerable to the threat of extremism. «It is truly the elephant in room: Europe has not accepted that Islam is a reality,» he told parliament. “The existence of makeshift mosques (in Athens) is a disgrace for our country.”[33]
France has taken significant steps in combating xenophobia and hate crime in 2015, introducing the New National Plan of Action to Counter Racism and Anti-Semitism for the period until 2017.[34] The plan was published on April 17, 2015 and contains the following elements: organisation of a public awareness campaign in support of national minorities; physical protection of Jewish and Islamic schools, places of worship, etc.; establishment of a national department to combat hate speech online, and others. However, more importantly, the plan proposes a prompt modification of the French criminal law to introduce racism and anti-Semitism as aggravating circumstances in all violations. On October 8, 2015, President Hollande instructed the Justice Minister to prepare a formal proposal of this bill by the end of the year.[35] The bill is currently being reviewed by parliament. There is also a possibility that sexism will be included, alongside racism as an aggravating circumstance in the commission of a crime.[36]
On November 23, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law that prohibited recognising the main Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and Buddhist texts as extremist. The law will apply to the Bible, Koran, Tanakh, and Kangyur.[37] The law became necessary when Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk City Court recognised a Muslim book “Dua to God: its purpose and place in Islam” as extremist, finding that the book promoted the superiority of Islam over other religions. In November, the decision was overruled, and the bill prohibiting the recognition of ancient religious texts as extremist followed shortly afterwards.[38]
In 2015, a whole range of bills aimed at harmonising ethnic and religious relations have been adopted in Ukraine. However, some of them have sparked criticism among human rights activists and minority groups. On August 25, 2015, President Petro Poroshenko signed the Decree № 501/2015 “On the Approval of the National Human Rights Strategy”.[39] The strategy listed several systemic problems in Ukraine related to human rights and freedoms and focused on preventing and combating discrimination, as well as “ensuring the rights of indigenous peoples and national minorities”, aiming to bring Ukraine’s anti-discrimination legislation in line with international standards.
On November 12, 2015, the Ukrainian parliament (Verkhovna Rada) introduced amendments to the Labour Code in order to harmonise anti-discrimination legislation with the European Union.[40] The bill prohibited any form of discrimination in the workplace, including sexual orientation, gender identity, disability and others.[41]
In December 2015,