Measuring discrimination facing ethnic minority job applicants: an Irish experiment

Abstract

The role of employer discrimination in labour market matching is often acknowledged but challenging to quantify. What part of the ‘ethnic penalty’ in the labour market is due to recruitment discrimination? This experiment, the first of its kind in Ireland, explicitly measured this by sending out nearly 500 equivalent CVs from Irish and minority candidates in response to advertised vacancies in the greater Dublin area. We find that candidates with Irish names are over twice as likely to be called to interview as are candidates with an African, Asian or German name. This discrimination rate is high by international standards, and does not vary between minority groups. We develop the discussion of the role of prejudice and stereotypes in discrimination in this article, arguing that our findings may be linked to the fact that Ireland is a ‘new immigration’ country, with no established minority groups and a cohesive national identity.

Who experiences discrimination in Ireland? Evidence from the QNHS Equality Modules

“…The finding of women reporting more discrimination in the workplace but not in recruitment finds support in studies of gender differences in labour market outcomes in Ireland and international studies of recruitment discrimination (Rich et al, 2014). The findings about ethnic group differences in recruitment are not entirely consistent with the 2008 field experiment in Ireland (McGinnity and Lunn, 2011), which found similar rates of discrimination among non-Irish European, Asian and African candidates -though evidence of change over time suggests the White Non-Irish have experienced a fall in discrimination since then. In addition, unsuccessful jobseekers may be unaware that their failure was due to discrimination, and not report it, given recruitment tends to take place 'behind closed doors'.…”

“…Such surveys provide an insight into the attitudinal climate towards particular groups, but holding negative attitudes to a group is not the same as treating them unfairly, though these may be related (McGinnity and Lunn, 2011).…”

“…Significant levels of racial and ethnic discrimination in recruitment have been detected in 18 countries; typically, discrimination is higher towards non-white minorities in Western countries (Zschirnt and Ruedin, 2016). In Ireland, McGinnity and Lunn (2011) found that candidates with Irish names were over twice as likely to be invited to interview for advertised jobs as candidates with identifiably non-Irish names (Asian, African or European), even though both submitted equivalent CVs. 13 Experiments have also been used to test recruitment discrimination on the basis of gender, age, religion, disability, family status and sexual orientation, and in credit and mortgage applications (Rich, 2014).…”

Discrimination of tenants with a visual impairment on the housing market: Empirical evidence from correspondence tests

“…Moreover, the net discrimination rate is comparable to previous research on rental housing discrimination against ethnic minorities in Europe, and in some cases even higher. 4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14 The argument by Gordon and Rosenblum 3 that discrimination against individuals with a visual impairment might be compared to discrimination based on other criteria seems defensible, at least in order of magnitude. Our results confirm that the discrimination of individuals with a visual impairment is a tangible problem.…”

“…An obvious form of social exclusion is discrimination on the labour and housing markets. Although there are numerous empirical studies in Europe about discrimination on the basis of ethnicity 4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14 , gender 4,7,8,15 and sexual orientation 16,17,18,19 , research into discrimination of people with a disability is scarce. A meta-analysis of discrimination research conducted since 2000 showed that there were only four studies on disability 20 : two studies on housing discrimination in the United States 21,22 , one study on hiring discrimination in Scotland 23 , and one study on product market discrimination in the United States 24 .…”