E/CN.4/1996/72/Add.2 page 24 Annex IV MEASURES TO COMBAT RACISM AND ANIMOSITY TOWARDS FOREIGNERS IN BERLIN Situation in the reunified city of Berlin 1. The political changes that have taken place in eastern and south-eastern Europe since the disappearance of the inter-German frontier and the opening of eastern European frontiers have led to a major influx of immigrants from those regions into the Federal Republic of Germany. Berlin, as the European metropolis nearest to the east, and the city with the largest population of settled minorities coming from those countries, is particularly affected by immigration. The influx may perhaps tend to diminish but, depending on circumstances, it might increase still further. 2. The authoritarian structures built into society under the former German Democratic Republic, founded as they were largely on indoctrination and the rejection of everything foreign, have produced certain recognizable differences in the attitudes of the inhabitants of East Berlin as compared with their counterparts in West Berlin on the question of non-Germans residing in Germany. Most acts of criminal violence involving young Germans of the far right have occurred in East Berlin. 3. We cannot, however, label as xenophobic the entire population of East Berlin. The latest opinion polls show that the differences between East and West in terms of degree of open-mindedness towards foreigners have become less marked. It must, however, be noted that this open-mindedness does not, in the east, go as far as wanting to have closer contacts (for example, ties of friendship, marriage, etc.) with non-Germans. Facts and figures 4. Berlin has a foreign population of about 11 per cent, or in absolute figures some 385,000 persons. 5. Only between 2 and 3 per cent of non-Germans live in the eastern part of the city; most of those are former contract workers from Viet Nam, Angola, Mozambique and Poland. 6. There are currently in Berlin some 45,000 refugees and asylum-seekers, most of whom are housed at emergency reception centres and receive a social security allowance. Animosity towards foreigners, discrimination and tolerance 7. From the complaints lodged with the Office of the Commissioner for Migrants we can identify several areas in which ethnic discrimination has been in evidence. 15 These findings correspond for the most part to those of the commissions for equality of chances and non-discrimination set up a few years ago in certain countries of Europe.