The Tevinter Empire enslaves elves in our world. Elves have a hard time of it in other nations as well, though. In the cities they're largely confined to the alienages, and the ones who aren't are normally servants. The Dalish elves are migratory, and live in clans and avoid interaction with humans for the most part. The prejudice against them is a lot of foolishness, but like so much foolishness it unfortunately continues.