Italy's first black minister, Congolese-born Cecile Kyenge, declares she is proud to be black, and that Italy is not really a racist country.

Singer Eunice Olumide - sweeTs, of the popular hip-hop duo NorthernXposure - like others is working towards a multicultural Scotland.

Racist, anti-Semitic and Islamophobic acts and threats have risen steeply in France, according to a report published by the country's racism watchdog.

The Spanish clothing brand "Mango" has apologised on its French web site for selling jewelry advertised as "slave style" due to a translation error. French anti-racism associations are not amused.

Being young, confident and clever helped propel Chuka Umunna from being a new backbench MP to Ed Miliband's top team in less than two years - as well as prompting comparisons with the rise of Barack Obama.

Northern Ireland's black community is coming into its own. Though modest in numbers, members are building networks to address everything from unemployment to health issues to finding a place in the wider society.

French activist and media personality Rokhaya Diallo, 33, is a new force in the country's media. She is also the creator of Les Indivisibles (The Indivisible), an organization which uses humour to fight racism. Each year it presents its annual Y'a Bon Awards, which highlights the most racist statements of the year.

Racism is on the rise in Italy, especially in the media and on the Internet, said a report by the National Office against Racial Discrimination (UNAR) presented to Parliament recently.

This episode of the series examines, the pressure Africans in Europe feel to earn money and send it back home, driving some of them to the dark underworld of drugs and prostitution.

Germany was shocked to learn the extent of the crimes committed by a recently uncovered right-wing extremist group. But the experience of one East African woman and her family shows just how widespread prejudice and hate really is.

Offenders from ethnic minorities are more likely than their white counterparts to be sentenced to prison for certain categories of crimes, according to an analysis of more than one million court records. in 2010, black offenders were 17% more likely to be imprisoned than white offenders.

Manuel Bauer was once a neo-Nazi thug, heavily involved in far-right paramilitary organizations and guilty of numerous assaults against foreigners and immigrants in Germany. He has since turned his back on the scene.

Ahmed Hassan was nine when he arrived in Finland as a refugee from Somalia. He says Finnish-Swedish culture is a part of his life. He is an active member of the Swedish People's Party and works with helping foreigners integrate into Finland.

France is making it harder for foreigners to seek French citizenship. Critics say the new requirements, which include tough language tests and allegiance to "French values", are an electoral ploy that panders to the far right.

An sociologist has questioned the results of a disputed study on Austrian teens' attitudes towards race.

Stephen Lawrence's murder and the failure of the subsequent investigation raised stark questions about race relations in Britain and the treatment of ethnic minorities by the police.

French police use broad powers to conduct abusive identity checks on black and Arab young men and boys despite the absence of any evidence of wrongdoing, according to a recent Human Rights Watch report.

More than half of young black men available for work in Britain are now unemployed, according to unpublished government statistics, which show the recession is hitting young black people disproportionately hard.

African immigrants in Greece, like Tanzanian-born Irene Thawe, face a difficult life, one worsened by the country's economic crisis.

Black and mixed-ethnic Britons are less satisfied with their lives on average than the UK population as a whole, a survey suggests.

A black man arrested in the week of the London riots has described how he was subjected to racial abuse, which he says he recorded on his mobile phone.

Hundreds of immigrants to Spain, like Luisa from the Dominican Republic, unable to pay their mortgages are facing eviction from their homes purchased during country's pre-recession boom years.

The slave trade once made the people of Nantes rich, but the French city covered up its dark history for decades. It recently erected a memorial to the victims in a project believed to be the first of its kind in Europe.

Greece has opened its first purpose-built detention centre for illegal migrants, drawing criticism from human rights groups. Illegal immigration is a key issue in the run-up to the national election which is on May 6.

Rapper and activist Fofo Adom'Megaa aka Rost worked closely with the new French president Francois Hollande to make sure his party didn't forget about people on the country's housing estates. His exclusive interview here.

An EXCLUSIVE interview with UK Member of Parliament, David Lammy, who represents the London area where riots sparked last July. Topics include problems facing people of colour in his area and the possibility of a black Prime Minister in his lifetime.

The reign of Elizabeth I saw the beginning of Britain's first black community. It's a fascinating story for modern Britons.

Just one person with Surinamese or Antillean origins is likely to be elected to the 150-seat parliament in the September general election, while the number of people with business experience is likely to be halved.

Skin color alone is insufficient grounds for a police spot check, a German court has ruled. Human rights activists have welcomed the decision, which overturns a previous ruling in the case.

For much of the last year, Italian filmmaker Fred Kuwornu has been on the road with his movie "18 Ius Soli" to raise awareness of the law which forces the Italian-born children of immigrants to apply for citizenship at 18.

A black rights group has slammed the latest Miss France competition for producing a "white as snow" winner from a field it claimed was unrepresentative of the country's ethnic make-up.

Espana 2000 is Spain's answer to the Front Nationale and is seeing its membership grow by about 40 new members a week.

The mother of UK murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence has revealed that she and her other son have felt threatened because they have complained about police harassment.

African workers in Italian orchards still exploitedAt the end of 2009, Africans working in the orchards of Calabria rebelled against the inhuman living and working conditions, reopening the debate in Italy on seasonal work. Three years on, the public initiatives have failed and the migrants are still being exploited.

A work-in-progress documentary about a coterie of dreamers, Black American professionals who left their homeland for the Soviet Union in search of an ideal and saw Stalinist Russia as a promised land.

Figures obtained under Freedom of Information Act reveal white applicants up to twice as likely to get place, despite same grades at Britain's top university.

A Conservative MP mentioned as a potential future leader of the party has said he has "no ambition for any particular position."

A new report by the Dutch government's socio-cultural policy unit SCP paints a disturbing picture of the position of immigrant youngsters in Dutch society, according to television news companies which have seen a leaked copy.

Thousands of young girls in Spain could be at risk of undergoing female circumcision without an anesthetic when they reach puberty, disturbing figures show.

Somalis have lived in Britain for hundreds of years. Somali seamen are said to have fought in the battle of Trafalgar. But as a group, they still struggle to find their way.

UK police forces are up to 28 times more likely to use stop-and-search powers against black people than white people and may be breaking the law, new research from the official human rights body reveals.

The new French parliament following recent election will have only 10 MPs from minorities in the 577-seat chamber, a number deemed inadequate by a rights group.

A black teenager who says he has been stopped about 50 times by the Metropolitan police is planning to sue the force, claiming he has suffered almost four years of harassment and false charges, which he believes have been motivated by racism.

Though his reputation among blacks and Arabs in France is showing ever-so-slight signs of wear and tear, US President Barack Obama remains a powerful symbol for French citizens of colour.

Black British churches are being encouraged to create a new black electorate of a million voters in two years and to swing the outcome in dozens of constituencies at the next general election.

The city of Northampton in the East Midlands region of England is home to the UK's largest concentration of Malawians. Discover their stories here.

Leading black academics are calling for an urgent culture change at UK universities as figures show there are just 50 black British professors out of more than 14,000.

England's state schools are far more ethnically diverse than they were five years ago, with almost a quarter of all pupils in primary and secondaries from an ethnic minority, official statistics show.

In the past, Germany's far-right NPD party was associated with skinheads and violent thugs. In recent years, however, the party has been trying to appeal to mainstream voters by cultivating a respectable image and campaigning on populist issues.

The 2012 Olympics has again seen black athletes commanding the sprint events. For French journalist Jean-Philippe Leclaire, author of "Why Whites Run Slower," this superiority can be explained by a combination of the right genes and hard work.

A court in Moscow has sentenced five members of a neo-Nazi gang to life in prison for the racially motivated murders of 27 people.

Native-born Finns have started to move out of suburbs in the greater Helsinki area, where the proportion of foreign-born residents is increasing. The trend is reflected in a sharp increase in residents speaking languages other than Finnish or Swedish.

It's still unclear what actually provoked some policemen in Verona to invade a Nigerian run immigrant bar in Borgo Roma, few kilometers from the city center.

In the last few days, right-wing extremists in Athens, Greece have launched program-like attacks on immigrants in the downtown Athens area following the stabing death of a Greek man.

Kenyan-born Malice Omondi is a presenter at Afriradio, an online radio station in Italy. She said the station wants to change Africa's negative image in Europe and around the world

True Finns Party chair Timo Soini has reprimanded one of the party's new MPs. In an interview, Teuvo Hakkarainen complained about "Negros" arriving at Finland's borders.

The eurosceptic and anti-immigration True Finns have taken nearly a fifth of votes in Finland's general election, reflecting a trend across Nordic and Western European countries.

The multicultural neighborhood, the Bijlmermeer in Amsterdam, is not only well known for its 100 plus nationalities but also for its gun battles and high unemployment rate. Now officials and residents hope a recent major overhaul will bring stability and prosperity to the area.

Oxford's record on diversity is under the spotlight after the British prime minister described his alma mater's admissions figures as "disgraceful." But for black applicants to Britain's oldest university, the barriers can be as much about class as race

Amsterdam and Rotterdam are to join forces in the fight against ethnic divisions in Dutch society and the promotion of the integration of migrants. Newspaper de Volkskrant reports that senior civil servants and politicians from the two cities have held a closed meeting in Rotterdam.

A study that measures integration policies has said Germany is only just above the EU average. The MIPEX study looks at migrants' opportunities to participate in society and governments' commitment to integration.

Patras,Greece, is a Port City and major transit point for hundreds of migrants from across Africa and Asia into Europe. Mojahed from Sudan arrived here a few months ago after escaping the violence in his native Darfur. Watch his harrowing story of life on the streets.

It is 30 years since Brixton was torn apart by riots. Today it is a place transformed - but drastic cuts and rising unemployment are threatening its renaissance.

The number of foreign students and their dependants coming to Britain could be cut by around 100,000 a year under plans unveiled by the government has said.

Amid a hardening of national identities throughout Europe, recent debate in many countries has focused on integration and immigration. In Denmark, many non-Europeans say this has translated into antipathy towards them.

The economic crisis has caused unemployment in Portugal to climb in recent months. Particularly hard hit are immigrant workers. Some want to return home, but can't afford to. For some of them, help is available.

Swedish researchers want to gain access to a databank of blood tests taken from all babies born in Sweden in order to shed light on an apparent heightened incidence of autism among the country's Somali population.

Migrants from the eight countries which joined the EU in 2004 will be able to claim full benefits in the UK for the first time from May.

Boris Dengsten from Congo came to Russia in 2008 to go to university. In May 2010, he was beaten up by more than 12 Russian students after they saw him and another Congolese student talking to a Russian girl. His is just one story of discrimination faced by ethnic minority students at Russian universities.

In Morroco, thousands of Africans seek to enter Europe literally by foot each year.., Joshua, a young Nigerian has been on the road for more than five years. Find out about his harrowing journey.

Bankers, lawyers and other high-earning migrants coming to Britain to work in jobs carrying salaries of £150,000 a year or more are to be exempt from the annual limit on immigration.

A replacement municipal councillor for the Sweden Democrats in eastern Sweden may be expelled from the party after writing in an online forum that he is against "race mixing" and that Europeans have children with "ni----s, Asians, etc."

French President Nicolas Sarkozy recently declared that multiculturalism had failed, joining a growing number of European leaders or ex-leaders who have condemned it.

Carlene Firmin, 27, who founded the group Girls Against Gangs will receive an MBE for services to girls and women. She is the youngest black woman to get the honor.

The news that Dutch police had arrested 12 Somali men suspected of plotting an imminent terrorist attack made global headlines. However, the men's release attracted less media attention, which Somalis living in the Netherlands fear damaged their reputation.

Sweden's outgoing Green Party has announced that it wants to reduce or even remove conditions for immigration on the grounds of family reunification.

In recent years, Finland's largest cities have developed areas where more than a fifth of the population is of foreign origin. In these cities the original Finnish population also continues to decrease.

Most Europeans don't know Damon Buffini. But for a decade this half African-American, half British billionaire businessman headed the powerful buyout firm Permira. In 2010, Buffini left the spotlight and has now launched a fund to help social enterprises.

The spontaneous flow of Somali and Iraqi immigrants moving to the small town of Lieksa in Finland is causing some disharmony among local residents. According to the town council, Lieksa has benefited around 200,000 euros from its new immigrant population. But local critics say immigrants are taking away jobs and housing from residents.

Hitler salutes in the street and firing practice in the forest: Neo-Nazis have taken over an entire village in Germany, and authorities appear to have given up efforts to combat the problem. The place has come to symbolize the far right's growing influence in parts of the former communist east.

The UK government's recent decision to allow universities to increase fees to 9,000 (GBP) a year will hit black students particularly hard, warns the National Union of Students (NUS).

When black French businessman Alain Dolium ran as the top candidate for centrist Democratic Movement Party in 2010, he drew comparisons to U.S. President Barack Obama. Though he did not win, Dolium has emerged as a new force in French politics.

They welcomed them with open arms when times were good - but since the global downturn, many European countries like Spain, no longer need to attract immigrants to fill their workforce.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that attempts to build a multicultural society in Germany have "utterly failed." Is this true?

Young Austrians of African origin say they are rejected by both societies. Vienna-born of Ghanaian descent, 25-year-old Kofi Akwanpa, describes living between two cultures.

Ricardo Lumengo made history on Oct. 21 2007 when he was elected Switzerland's first-ever national parliamentarian of African origin. Since then, the lawyer has been transformed into a prominent public figure in the Alpine country.

In July 2010, in Novozavidovo, a village 100 kilometers (65 miles) north of Moscow, Jean Gregoire Sagbo became the first black to be elected to office in Russia.

Despite recent racial unrest in Italy, African communities continue to forge ties in the ‘bel paese.' Many West Africans are making the multicultural area around Viale Gramsci in Modena, northern Italy home.

Geert Wilders, the Dutch anti-immigration MP is the subject of a movie. Watch the trailer with English subtitles here.

He's been called the new face of France's Socialist party. In late March Ali Soumaré help lead his party to victory against the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) at regional elections.

Melilla sits on the north coast of Africa, near Morocco. For African and Asian migrants, it has a compulsive attraction; due to a military conquest more than 500 years ago, this city which is geographically African is legally part of Spain - making it a safe bridge into Europe.

Yes, Norway has a multicultural population. Read these profiles of four well-known Norwegians of color.

Belgium is home to many multicultural communities. We have profiled some of these talented residents who are making contributions to the country.

African migrant workers rioted in the Italian town of Rosarno in Calabria, after two of them were shot with airguns. This Médecins Sans Frontières video, shot in Rosarno in December 2009, lifts the curtain on their deplorable living and working conditions.

A CNN profile of Jean Léonard Touadi, the first black member of the Italian parliament.

The constant fear of being attacked in the street or anywhere has become a way of life among Africans living in Russia - the majority of the attacks are racial motivated. "Street Life Moscow: Strange Land, An African in Russia" examines the lives of those who face the problem.

Night Life