HUMAN RIGHTS AND EQUALITY
Until now, the different forms of discrimination have generally been treated separately but the interaction of multiple forms is beginning to receive increasing attention in European anti-discrimination directives and their application (European Commission, 2007; Verloo, 2006). The creation of a single equalities body creates the potential to draw greater attention to the ways in which multiple forms of discrimination compound each other and intersect, reflecting both a legal and a political issue (United Kingdom Race & Europe Network, 13 March 2008). Kimberley Crenshaw (1989), a North American academic lawyer, first defined the term intersectionality to define a situation in which several grounds of discrimination interact concurrently. In a European context, Makkonen (2002) clarified the distinction between compound discrimination, in which one or more grounds add to each other, and intersectional discrimination, where several grounds operate simultaneously and interact with one another. Much of the academic and policy thinking has emanated from studies of gender and its intersection with other social divisions. For example, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (2007) showed how women’s experiences of racism and other forms of discrimination often differed from those of men due to the interplay of gender with their ethnic and racial origin, religion and belief, disability, age and sexual orientation. They cited examples related to employment, family reunification, trafficking, age, domestic violence and access to health care by Roma women. In the UK, the Fawcett Society (Moosa, 2008) has argued for the need to examine the intersection of gender and race, the latter using ethnic minorities as a category. 4.4 Conclusions The interplay between human rights and discrimination, and the intersectionality of different forms of discrimination, are relatively recent areas of study and concern in the UK, and migrants (and their treatment, especially by public authorities) are certainly at the centre of them. The systems of monitoring that had been promoted by the CRE, EOC and others, however, do not enable the effective monitoring of discrimination against migrants, and there are general problems with monitoring other types of discrimination as well. The inclusion of nationality as a routine category on which to monitor will both enable employers and service-providers to identify potential discrimination on these grounds and give them a possible defence against discrimination proceedings. It will be important to consider the context in which this could be introduced and to establish how such monitoring can be distinguished from eligibility and immigration enquiries. It is also important to consider ways in which human rights legislation can be used to support migrants who face exploitation and discrimination but are unable to use the legislation because of actual or perceived barriers.
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