Македонски центар за меѓународна соработка - МЦМС

Author: Aleksandar Krzalovski
Date: March, 2011
ISBN: 978-608-4617-10-5
PDF:   discrimination-based-on-ethnic-affiliation-2011.pdf

This Report is giving an analysis of the findings from the survey conducted during the research on "Discrimination in Macedonia on the Grounds of Ethnic Origin".

The majority of citizens (53.3%) believe that there is discrimination in Macedonia, while the ground of ethnic discrimination, is the second most represented (subsequent to the political party affiliation).

The registered perceived discrimination of 67.7% is more than double by its extent than the experienced discrimination (as a victim or witness) – 31.9%. The opinion prevails that during the past five years, the discrimination was more frequent.

According to the citizens' personal experiences, the most usual areas of discrimination on the grounds of ethnic origin are: working relations (employment), services in the public sector (public administration, and, in particular, police and health services), but also in private services (café-bars, discotheques, swimming-pools), as well as the education.

Opinions prevail that there is discrimination in all surveyed individual sectors, while in four sectors (health, education, judiciary and security/police) those are majority opinions (over 50% of the respondents). In addition, the ethnic Albanians believe that, due to the ethnic origin there is more pronounced discrimination in the sectors of agriculture and culture. Most of the citizens (79%) believe that the discrimination in the area of employment is more frequent in the state sector, than in the private sector (54%).

In general, there is still majority support (57.9%) for a member of other ethnic community to be elected for high-ranking political function, although such support has been reduced in comparison with 2009 (66%).

The significant majority of 72% citizens would report a case of discrimination on the grounds of ethnic origin if it happened to them, or if they were witnesses. This is not in accordance with their answers to the questions about their personal experiences with cases of discrimination and the practice (the number of cases reported to the institutions during the recent years, of approximately 20 cases annually – all to the Ombudsman of the Republic of Macedonia). In contrast to its perceived discriminatory treatment, the Police is an institution to which most of the citizens would refer to in case of discrimination.

The survey was conducted by the Institute for Democracy Societas Civilis – Skopje (IDSCS), in December 2010, on a national representative sample of 1.074 respondents. In addition, two focus-groups were set-up to validate the findings.