Sometimes it is quite difficult for migrants to rent housing in Germany
“Room, kitchen, bathroom, 40 square meters, urgent, only for Germans.” That was roughly the text of an advertisement for an apartment in the Bavarian city of Augsburg. The offer interested Hamado Dipama, a native of Burkina Faso. Without thinking twice, he picked up the phone and dialed the landlord’s number. However, the conversation did not go well: the apartment owner hung up as soon as he heard the potential tenant’s name.
It turned out that Dipama had not read the advertisement carefully and missed the stipulation “only for Germans.” And indeed: when a little later his German friend called the same number as an experiment, he was immediately invited to view the apartment.
As Deutsche Welle notes, such cases have long become commonplace in Germany. This conclusion was also reached by the authors of a study recently commissioned by the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency.
According to the survey, every third resident of Germany with a migrant background (35 percent) has experienced discrimination when searching for housing. “Often an unusual name is enough to not be invited to view an apartment or for an interview,” explains the head of the agency, Bernhard Franke.
However, not all landlords clearly indicate in advertisements that they are only willing to rent to Germans. 53 percent of respondents noted that they encountered discrimination at a later stage. About a quarter stated that they were offered to rent or buy an apartment at a higher price than ethnic Germans.
But such behavior by landlords is a violation of the General Equal Treatment Act (das Allgemeine Gleichbehandlungsgesetz), which protects the country’s residents from discrimination on grounds such as ethnic origin, religion, worldview, gender, sexual identity, age, and health status. Its provisions cover areas of labor and civil law and apply to many spheres of everyday life, including rental housing. The problem, however, is that according to the study, nearly half of respondents have never heard of such a law.
The number of those who actually complain about discrimination is even smaller. Moreover, the Equal Treatment Act has many exceptions—one of them, for example, concerns private landlords who own only one apartment in one building, says Bernhard Franke.
Ignorance of the laws, however, is not the only reason for their non-compliance. “Many feel helpless in front of the landlord,” states Ulrich Schneider, head of the public organization German Parity Welfare Association (Deutsche Paritätische Wohlfahrtsverband). In addition, discrimination is also facilitated by the excessively high demand for housing in Germany. “If there were enough apartments for everyone in Germany, the issue of discrimination would not arise at all,” Schneider is convinced.
The study revealed surprising things. The vast majority of respondents (83 percent) acknowledge that discrimination against foreigners or representatives of certain ethnic groups is widespread in the German rental housing market. At the same time, 41 percent of respondents have doubts or concerns about the possibility of renting housing to a migrant.
Bernhard Franke, however, is not surprised by this. Despite awareness of the problem, many in Germany still hold prejudices about migrants: they intensify if the situation affects a person personally, the expert explains.
Ulrich Schneider believes that the study results reflect structural problems existing in German society. “Very strong prejudices against foreigners or people with migrant backgrounds are widespread in Germany,” he laments and emphasizes that this, for example, contributed to the growing popularity of the right-wing populist party Alternative for Germany (AfD).
In turn, Bernhard Franke believes that to solve the problem of discrimination in the housing market, information campaigns need to be conducted: “Landlords must know what is allowed and what is prohibited. And those who are looking for housing must know their rights.”
It is worth noting that Hamado Dipama from Burkina Faso, who was rejected by the landlord, successfully defended his rights. In December 2019, the Augsburg court fined the apartment owner 1,000 euros.