Abstract:
In European countries (excluding the UK), official statistics do not use racial or ethnic categories, but instead rely on proxies to collect data on discrimination. In the German microcensus, the proxy category used is 'migration background' (Migrationshintergrund): an individual has a 'migration background' if one or more of his or her parents did not have German citizenship at birth. We apply a coupled ethical-epistemic analysis to the category of 'migration background' to shed light on how the epistemic issues contribute to the ethical ones. Our central claim is that these ethical-epistemic issues with the category 'migration background' are best analysed in terms of Charles Mills' white ignorance. We draw on Annette Martín's structural account of white ignorance to highlight the cyclical reinforcement of ignorance and racial injustice in the use of the 'migrant background' variable. Colourblind eliminativism about race perpetuates the use of 'immigrant background', which in turn perpetuates and intensifies racial injustice.
We find that representatives of Romani and Sinti initiatives and organisations do not support data collection for fear of further discrimination by the state. It would therefore be very valuable for us to discuss this at the seminar.

Daniel James is a postdoctoral fellow and research associate at the Technische Universität Dresden, Germany. He studied philosophy and musicology at the University of Bonn and the Humboldt University of Berlin. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Konstanz in 2017 with a dissertation on the metaphysical foundations of Hegel's theory of 'ethisches Leben'. His research focuses on 19th-century German philosophy, especially Hegel, as well as social philosophy and the philosophy of social science. Daniel's research focuses on classical German philosophy, particularly Hegel, social philosophy with an emphasis on the philosophy of race, and the philosophy of social science. He also has academic interests in Africana and feminist philosophy, as well as Marx and Marxism.

Tereza Hendl is a philosopher and bioethicist. She holds a PhD in Philosophy from Macquarie University, Sydney. Her research spans moral and political philosophy, philosophy of technology, feminist philosophy, normative ethics, and public health ethics. She works on issues of justice, vulnerability, empowerment, and solidarity, and the ethics and epistemology of health technologies and interventions. She is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher and project co-leader on the project "META - mHealth: Ethical, legal and societal aspects in the technological age" at the University of Augsburg and Research Associate at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich. She is the founder of the CEE Feminist Research Network, which supports feminist researchers from Central and Eastern Europe, counters the epistemic marginalisation of CEE scholarship, and strengthens CEE critiques of structural oppression and coloniality, including in knowledge production.

Morgan Thompson is a philosopher whose research lies at the intersection of philosophy of science, feminist philosophy, and the use of the concepts of 'race' and 'racism' in science. She holds a Ph.D. in the history and philosophy of science from the University of Pittsburgh. Before coming to Cornell, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Bielefeld in Germany on the project "Integrating Ethics and Epistemology of Scientific Research". She is particularly interested in the problems of measuring socially relevant constructs such as microaggressions, implicit attitudes, intersectionality, and racial discrimination.

Tina Magazzini is a political scientist whose research focuses on migration and inclusion policies, identity politics, and how categories of inclusion and exclusion are framed and maintained in different settings in a comparative perspective. She holds a PhD in Human Rights from the University of Deusto, where she focused on Roma integration frameworks in Southern Europe, questioning the political dynamics that drive the framing of certain minorities as 'in need of integration'.
She is currently a senior researcher in a project on transcontinental processes of ethno-racial identities (Romani Atlantic, Czech Academy of Sciences) and in the Societies in Motion research group at the University of A Coruña, and has worked outside academia for a number of NGOs, the European Commission, the Council of Europe and UNESCO.