E/CN.4/2004/18/Add.2 page 16 E. Racism and socio-economic indicators 47. Reports and testimonies received by the Special Rapporteur revealed that members of racialized groups tend to be discriminated on the employment market and are overrepresented in low-paying occupations, unemployment and other poverty indicators. Recent studies by the Canadian Race Relations Foundation11 found that despite human rights legislation in various jurisdictions across Canada, and a variety of employment equity and equal opportunity policies that has been enacted over the last decades, racial discrimination and harassment in workplaces continue to exist in Canada today, “visible minorities” trail behind “non-racialized” groups in terms of employment and income. Not only are aboriginal people and foreign-born visible minorities overrepresented in the lowest 20 per cent of the income scale but, given a university education, non-racialized groups are three times as likely as aboriginal people and about twice as likely as foreign-born visible minorities to have incomes in the top 20 per cent of the income scale. Foreign-born visible minorities earned, on average, 78 cents for every Canadian dollar earned by the foreign-born non-racialized groups.12 48. The same study found that, after accounting for educational level, the unemployment rate is highest among aboriginal people followed by foreign-born visible minorities and Canadian-born visible minorities. For example, among those who are university educated, aboriginal people are four times as likely as the Canadian-born non-racialized group to be unemployed, and foreign-born visible minorities are at least twice as likely as the Canadian-born non-racialized group to be unemployed. 49. The Canadian Human Rights Commission, in its 2002 annual report, states that despite increasing representation of visible minorities in the public service (in 1987, visible minorities held 2.7 per cent of all positions in the federal public service, by 31 March 2002, their representation had increased to 6.8 per cent, the ambitious goals of the Government’s Embracing Change initiative are not being met and will require further action to achieve. The underrepresentation of visible minorities in the public service can also be found in provincial authorities. For example, a 2001 study by the British Columbia Human Rights Commission entitled “Not good enough” found that “visible minorities” make up 6.4 per cent of the British Columbia government workforce even though they make up for 20 per cent of the population. The underrepresentation of visible minorities is also evident in the Foreign Service. The 2001-2002 federal employment equity annual report to Parliament says the Department of Foreign Affairs has 3,689 employees of whom 6.2 per cent, or 230, are visible minorities. The department has recognized this problem and is planning to address it. Several public servants have complained to the Special Rapporteur about harassment and retaliation against members of visible minorities who complain about racial discrimination in the public service. 50. Several studies point to a higher incidence of poverty among racialized groups. For example, according to 1995 Statistics Canada data, 35.6 per cent of members of visible minority groups lived under the poverty line, compared to 17.6 per cent of the general population. 51. For example, the African communities from the most recent immigrant streams arriving in Quebec consider themselves to be marginalized, despite the high qualifications of many of their members. Most members of these communities experience unemployment, job instability, underemployment and poverty. Apart from the special case of the African communities, several