Black Europeans

Last updated

Black Europeans
Total population
~8,000,000–9,000,000
(2019 est.; 1.07–1.21% of the total population of Europe) [lower-alpha 1]
Religion
Christianity, Islam [2]
Related ethnic groups
African diaspora

Black Europeans, or sometimes Afro-Europeans or Afropeans, [3] refers to Europeans of the African diaspora. [4]

Contents

European Union

Summer Carnival in Rotterdam Flickr - FaceMePLS - Zomercarnaval Rotterdam 2010 (20).jpg
Summer Carnival in Rotterdam

In the European Union (EU) as of 2019, there is a record of approximately 9.6 million people of Sub-Saharan African or Afro-Caribbean descent, comprising around 2% of the total population, with over 50% located in France. The countries with the largest Black European population in the EU are:

CountryPopulation % of country's population [lower-alpha 2] YearComments / source
Flag of Austria.svg Austria 40,000 [6] 0.5%2020Estimate making use of current Sub-Saharan born population (68,843), Caribbean born (21,730) for total foreign born black population (90,573) and approximate progeny born and their descendants based on historical migration and birth statistics. A multiple of 1.4x is used as migration has shorter time background. See here for access to country of birth data. This is a precise estimate.
Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Belgium 410,000 [7] 3.6%2019Estimate making use of current sub-Saharan born population (240,069) and approximate progeny born and their descendants based on historical migration and birth statistics. Most have roots in the former Belgian colonies of the Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi as well as other French-speaking African countries. This is an estimate, likely a slight overestimate (error: ± 25,000).
Flag of Denmark.svg Denmark 52,795 [8] 0.9%2019Sub-Saharan Africans and their descendants, alongside any by racial or mixed race of African heritage are counted. Irregular migrants are counted in this due to the use of the Schengen Information System markers - as overstays are counted as "present" in one given country - and thus the European estimate evens out). This is a precise census number.
Flag of Finland.svg Finland At least 53,296 [9] 1.0%2022I.e., according to Statistics Finland, people in Finland:
  whose both parents are Sub-Saharan African-born (SSA; i.e., all other African countries but Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia),
  or whose only known parent was born in SSA,
  or who were born in SSA and whose parents' countries of birth are unknown.
Thus, for example, people with one Finnish parent and one SSA parent or people with more distant SSA ancestry are not included in this country-based non-ethnic figure. Because the figure is country-based, it may include some Sub-Saharan people in Africa of European ancestry. Also, SSA-born adoptees' backgrounds are determined by their adoptive parents, not by their biological parents. [10] They are mainly from Somalia, Nigeria, DR Congo, Ethiopia, and Ghana. This is a census number.
Flag of France.svg France 3,000,000–5,000,000 [11] [12] 4.7–7.8%2009
Flag of Germany.svg Germany 1,000,0001.2%2020The German census does not use race as a category. [13] The number of persons "having an extended migrant background" (mit Migrationshintergrund im weiteren Sinn, meaning having at least one grandparent born outside Germany), is given as 529,000. [14] The Initiative Schwarzer Deutscher ("Black German Initiative") estimates the total of Black Germans to be about 1,000,000 persons. [15]
Flag of Ireland.svg Ireland 64,639 [16] 1.7%2016Sub-Saharan Africans and their descendants, alongside any by racial or mixed race of African heritage are counted. 2016 Census is used. This is a precise census number.
Flag of Italy.svg Italy 463,425 [17] 0.8%2020
Flag of Luxembourg.svg Luxembourg 30,000 [6] 4.9%2019Estimate making use of current Sub-Saharan born population (18,253) and approximate progeny born and their descendants based on historical migration and birth statistics.
Flag of the Netherlands.svg Netherlands 731,444 [18] 4.2%2021First or second generation migration background from Africa. No classification according to skin colour given.
Flag of Portugal.svg Portugal ~230,000 [19] 2.2%2023Extrapolated using statistics on ethnicity of Portuguese people aged 18–74 for the entire population of 10.3 million.
Flag of Sweden.svg Sweden ~200,490 [20] 1.9%2020Sub-Saharan Africans and their descendants, alongside any by racial or mixed race of African heritage are counted. Consists mostly of recent immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. Most of them are from Somalia, Eritrea and countries around. Some French and British nationals of African descent can be found in Malmö and Stockholm, as well as many African-Americans in the country playing diverse sports like Basketball that stand in the country for all life. This is a precise census number.

The remaining (excluding Spain that is not listed above) 14 states of the European Union have fewer than 100,000 individuals of Sub-Saharan African descent all together. [21] As countries such as Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Romania and Greece have received little to no immigration from Sub-Saharan Africa or interaction that would have caused the formation of black or mixed race communities, Black populations, inclusive of descendants, mixed race people, and temporary students, number fewer than 10,000 in each of these states. [21]

Other European countries


Switzerland and Norway have 114,000 [22] and 115,000 people of Sub-Saharan African descent, respectively; primarily composed of refugees and their descendants, but this is only the numbers for first generation migrants and second generation migrants with two parents from a different country. There are no official numbers in Norway regarding Afro-Norwegians, as Norway does not have census regarding race or ethnicity. However, Norway collects data on migrants up to the second generation, which can be used to accurately estimate the effective Black population. [23]

According to state-owned Anadolu Agency, government data suggests that there are 1.5 million Africans living all across Turkey as of 2017, with 25% of them in Istanbul. [6] [24] Other studies state the majority of Africans in Turkey lives in Istanbul and report Tarlabaşı, Dolapdere, Kumkapı, Yenikapı and Kurtuluş as having a strong African presence. [6] Estimates of the number of Africans living in Istanbul varies between 50,000 and 200,000. [25] Ankara also has a sizeable Somali community. [26] In addition to this African migrant population, there are 20,000 Afro-Turks.

More than 1,000,000 sub-Saharan Africans had settled in Europe between 2010 and 2017. [27]

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom has approximately 2.5 million black people, inclusive of mixed race, according to the 2011 Census. Black people from the EU who have settled in the UK are also included such as the Black Anglo-Deutsch. Liverpool's Black community (Black Liverpudlians) is Britain's oldest Black community dating back to the 1700s. This dates back to Black Loyalists who settled in Liverpool after the American Revolutionary War, and the community expanded with immigration of Afro-Caribbean people and later Black African people. [22]

List of subgroups

Racism and social status

Discrimination and stigmatisation of Black Europeans based on physical characteristics or visibility, regardless of nationality or immigration status, is a common experience. [28]

Discrimination in the workplace is widespread, and barriers are constructed at every stage to prevent black individuals from obtaining jobs that match their talents and expertise. Black individuals are also more vulnerable to police violence, racial profiling, and racist violence and abuse from other members of the community. Racism against black students in schools includes racist bullying as well as biased instructional materials and practices. This has important ramifications for Black people's educational attainment and life opportunities. Other forms of discrimination include the withholding of health care to Black Europeans and prejudice displayed by health care workers; considerable discrimination in the private renting market; and stereotypical representations in the media. [28]

There is currently no EU or national policy aimed specifically at combating racism and prejudice against Black Europeans. Despite EU and state legislation offering legal remedies for discrimination, anti-Black racism in the EU persists. [28]

In 2020, President von der Leyen launched a new EU anti-racism Action Plan, outlining a number of initiatives for 2020-2025. The Commission will ensure that Member States fully implement relevant EU law and, where necessary, strengthen the legal framework. This could happen, particularly in areas not yet covered by anti-discrimination legislation, such as law enforcement. The Action Plan brings together players at all levels to better effectively combat racism in Europe, including the implementation of national anti-racism policies. [29] EU member states were called upon to adopt national action plans against racism (NAPARs) by the end of 2022. As of March 2023, in Germany, Spain and Sweden, a comprehensive publicly-available National Action Plan Against Racism (NAPAR) has been adopted by the government and parliament. [30]

See also

Notes

  1. Europe's total population was 746,189,645 in 2019. [1]
  2. Countries' total populations:
    Austria: 8.9 million in 2020 according to UN DESA.
    Belgium: 11.4 million in 2019 according to the World Bank.
    Denmark: 5.8 million in 2019.
    Finland: 5,563,970 in 2022. [5]
    France: 64.4 million in 2009 according to the World Bank.
    Germany: 83 million in 2020 according to UN DESA.
    Ireland: 4.76 million people according to the April 2016 census.
    Italy: 60.3 million in 2020 according to UN DESA.
    Luxembourg: 613,894 in 2019.
    Netherlands: 17.5 million in 2021 according to the World Bank.
    Portugal: 10,247,605 in 2023 according to Worldometer.
    Spain: 47.3 million in 2020 according to UN DESA.
    Sweden: 10.4 million in 2020 according to UN DESA.

Related Research Articles

Black is a racialized classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid- to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin; in certain countries, often in socially based systems of racial classification in the Western world, the term "black" is used to describe persons who are perceived as dark-skinned compared to other populations. It is most commonly used for people of sub-Saharan African ancestry, Indigenous Australians and Melanesians, though it has been applied in many contexts to other groups, and is no indicator of any close ancestral relationship whatsoever. Indigenous African societies do not use the term black as a racial identity outside of influences brought by Western cultures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Xenophobia</span> Dislike of that which is perceived to be foreign or strange

Xenophobia is the fear or dislike of anything which is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression which is based on the perception that a conflict exists between an in-group and an out-group and it may manifest itself in suspicion of one group's activities by members of the other group, a desire to eliminate the presence of the group which is the target of suspicion, and fear of losing a national, ethnic, or racial identity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Demographics of Norway</span>

Demographic features of the population of Norway, including Jan Mayen, and Svalbard, where the hospital is not equipped for births, include population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">African diaspora</span> People descending from indigenous Africans living outside Africa

The globalAfrican diaspora is the worldwide collection of communities descended from people from Africa, predominantly in the Americas. The African populations in the Americas are descended from haplogroup L genetic groups of native Africans. The term most commonly refers to the descendants of the native West and Central Africans who were enslaved and shipped to the Americas via the Atlantic slave trade between the 16th and 19th centuries, with their largest populations in the United States, Brazil, and Haiti. However, the term can also be used to refer to African descendants who immigrated to other parts of the world consensually. Some scholars identify "four circulatory phases" of this migration out of Africa. The phrase African diaspora gradually entered common usage at the turn of the 21st century. The term diaspora originates from the Greek διασπορά which gained popularity in English in reference to the Jewish diaspora before being more broadly applied to other populations.

Afro–Latin Americans or Black Latin Americans are Latin Americans of full or mainly sub-Saharan African ancestry.

African immigrants in Europe are individuals residing in Europe who were born in Africa. This includes both individuals born in North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa.

African Australians are Australians descended from the any peoples of Sub-Saharan Africa, including naturalised Australians who are immigrants from various regions in Sub-Saharan Africa and descendants of such immigrants. At the 2021 census, the number of ancestry responses categorised within Sub-Saharan African ancestral groups as a proportion of the total population amounted to 1.3%.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Afro-Argentines</span> Argentines of Sub-Saharan African descent

Afro-Argentines are Argentines of primarily Sub-Saharan African descent. The Afro-Argentine population is the result of people being brought over during the transatlantic slave trade during the centuries of Spanish domination in the region and immigration from Africa.

Afro-Portuguese(Afro portugueses or Lusoafricanos), African-Portuguese(Portugueses com ascendência africana), or Black Portuguese are Portuguese people with total or partial ancestry from any of the Sub-Saharan ethnic groups of Africa.

Europeans are the focus of European ethnology, the field of anthropology related to the various ethnic groups that reside in the states of Europe. Groups may be defined by common genetic ancestry, common language, or both.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Immigration to Europe</span>

Immigration to Europe has a long history, but increased substantially after World War II. Western European countries, especially, saw high growth in immigration post 1945, and many European nations today have sizeable immigrant populations, both of European and non-European origin. In contemporary globalization, migrations to Europe have accelerated in speed and scale. Over the last decades, there has been an increase in negative attitudes towards immigration, and many studies have emphasized marked differences in the strength of anti-immigrant attitudes among European countries.

Racism has been a recurring part of the history of Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jamaicans</span> Citizens of Jamaica and their descendants

Jamaicans are the citizens of Jamaica and their descendants in the Jamaican diaspora. The vast majority of Jamaicans are of Sub-Saharan African descent, with minorities of Europeans, Indians, Chinese, Middle Eastern, and others of mixed ancestry. The bulk of the Jamaican diaspora resides in other Anglophone countries, namely Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. Jamaican populations are also prominent in other Caribbean countries, territories and Commonwealth realms, where in the Cayman Islands, born Jamaicans, as well as Caymanians of Jamaican origin, make up 26.8% of the population. Outside of Anglophone countries, the largest Jamaican diaspora community lives in Costa Rica, where Jamaicans make up a significant percentage of the population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emigration from Africa</span> Overview of emigration from Africa

During the period of 1965 – 2021, an estimated 440,000 people per year emigrated from Africa; a total number of 17 million migrants within Africa was estimated for 2005. The figure of 0.44 million African emigrants per year pales in comparison to the annual population growth of about 2.6%, indicating that only about 2% of Africa's population growth is compensated for by emigration.

Afro-Haitians or Black Haitians are Haitians who trace their full or partial ancestry to Sub-Saharan Africa. They form the largest racial group in Haiti and together with other Afro-Caribbean groups, the largest racial group in the region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Africans in Turkey</span> Racial and multiethnic group in Turkey

Africans in Turkey, are people of Sub-Saharan African descent who are citizens or residents of Turkey. They are comprised of immigrant and refugee communities mostly from Western, Central and Eastern Africa. African immigrants are distinct to Afro-Turks, which number around 20,000. As of 2017, there are 1.5 million Africans living across Turkey, with 1 in 4 residing in Istanbul.

The International Decade for People of African Descent, 2015–2024, was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in a Resolution (68/237) adopted on 23 December 2013. The theme of the International Decade is "People of African descent: recognition, justice and development".

Afrophobia, Afroscepticism, or Anti-African sentiment is prejudice, hostility, discrimination, or racism towards people and cultures of Africa and the African diaspora.

The African diaspora in Finland refers to the residents of Finland of full or partial African ancestry, mostly from Sub-Saharan Africa. According to Statistics Finland, the total number of people in Finland with a close African background was 57,496 in 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Afro-Austrians</span> Austrians with African descent

The term Afro-Austrian or Black Austrian refers to Austrians of African descent. In a broader sense, people of sub-Saharan origin who live in Austria but do not have Austrian citizenship are also called Afro-Austrians.

References

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  3. "Afropean: your guide to the Afro European diaspora and beyond". 2023-10-25. Retrieved 2024-03-26.
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  23. "2020-03-09". ssb.no. Retrieved 2020-06-20.
  24. "Africans in Turkey leave lasting impression on locals". 11 December 2017.
  25. "Stuck in Istanbul, African migrants suffer mistreatment". Ahval. Retrieved 2021-08-22.
  26. "Başkentteki Somalililerin kültürel izlerini taşıyan dükkanları şehre hareketlilik katıyor". www.aa.com.tr. Retrieved 2021-08-22.
  27. "At Least a Million Sub-Saharan Africans Moved to Europe Since 2010". Pew Research Center . 22 March 2018. Archived from the original on 1 March 2019. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
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