Thèmes transversaux

"Theoretical background and objectives Survey data are one way to study labour market disadvantages of immigrants. But they have the disadvantage that not all differences with natives can be explained away with the available variables. Hence, there is no way to determine with certainty whether the residual gaps are due to discrimination or to other unobserved variables. Audit and correspondence studies have become popular responses to this problem and have demonstrated for a wide range of ethnic groups and countries that discrimination occurs. So far studies have almost exclusively used a paired application design, in which two applications, one native and one from a selected minority group, are sent, which apart from cosmetic details differ only in the ethnicity of the applicant. Widespread as it may be, this design has the major disadvantage that it is diagnostic rather than analytic. It can demonstrate beyond reasonable doubt that discrimination occurs – at least for a selected ethnic group – but not whether taste or statistical mechanisms are behind discrimination, nor which characteristics of applicants – their race, religion, cultural or linguistic distance, or specific ethnicity – provoke discrimination. In this project that was started in late 2014 we want to move beyond these limitations by using an unpaired multiple-group, multiple-treatment design in which we vary racial phenotype, religion, as well as ethnicity. Native ethnics are compared to second generation applicants from 34 immigrant ethnic groups. For her dissertation, Ruta Yemane will implement a similar design in the USA in cooperation with Harvard University. The German study allows a direct measurement of racial discrimination because in Germany photographs are allowed or required in the application process. In the USA race will be indirectly signaled by names and ethnic language. The multiple-group design allows regression analyses testing for taste or statistical discrimination, for instance by relating callback rates to cultural distance to the countries of origin (using World Values Survey data) or to group educational and labour market status averages (e.g., using the German Mikrozensus). Findings In order to investigate the drivers of discrimination against second generation immigrant job applicants, we sent thousands of applications from fictitious persons to real job openings in eight professions all over Germany. Next to job applicants’ ethnicity (German or migration background in one out of 34 origin countries), phenotype (Asian, Black, White), and religious affiliation (none, Buddhist or Hindu, Christian, or Muslim), we varied several other characteristics of the applications, such as applicants’ gender, final grades, whether or not a reference letter was included, as well as information about applicants’ current contract. Our results confirm that employers discriminate against immigrant job applicants. The magnitude of discrimination, however, varies strongly between origin groups. Whereas employers do not discriminate against Western and Southern European and East Asian immigrants, other origin groups experience significant disadvantages. In addition, we observe substantial disadvantages for Black and Muslim job applicants. With respect to classic theories about the drivers of discrimination on the labor market, that is, taste-based and statistical discrimination, we find that the cultural distance between origin countries and Germany explains discrimination against different groups much better than productivity-related group characteristics, such as average levels of education. Consequently, our empirical findings are more supportive of taste-based discrimination than they are of statistical discrimination theories."

The project investigates new forms of sociality that young people with migrant background are producing in the context of urban club cultures in three European cities. It comparatively studies the phenomenon of ethnic club scenes with Turkish, South Asian and Maghrebi orientations in Berlin, London and Paris, corresponding to the major immigrant groups in each city and country. The project aims to explore how migrants participate in forms of social engagement and cultural experimentation that are specific to metropolitan city life, but have so far been not been addressed as relevant to the lives of ethnic minorities. Research seeks to shift attention from the predominant research focus on migrant identity to a focus on migrant practices of sociality, countering the heavy bias towards the study of attitudes and cultural identifications that tends to dominate across different disciplines. Its novel approach combines a focus on socio-cultural practices with an interest in urban scenes as fluid social formations that are semi-public and lack defined membership or criteria of belonging. Through ethnographic case studies carried out with a team of researchers in and across the three cities, the project explores the potential of urban club scenes for producing and experiencing different kinds of solidarity and encounter among disadvantaged groups.

This project investigates ethnic identity and its intersection with gender, religious affiliation and socio-economic position in comparative perspective. It will explore how the identity of members of minority ethnic groups is shaped and re-formed over generations, including being reformulated as religious identity. It will examine how identification is mediated by gender. The research will take a comparative approach investigating the role of national context in ethnic and religious identification. The programme of research will comprise the following interlocking and complementary components: 1. an investigation of the ways in which those of migrant background identify in terms of national identity and values, and the intersection between religious and ethnic identification: exploring variation in relation to socio-economic position; 2. a study of children of interethnic unions: their ethnicity and their socio-economic position relative to children from ethnically homogamous unions; 3. consideration of the ways in which ethnic and religious identification vary by gender, of the relevance of gender and gender roles in mediating ethnic and religious identification and of the ways in which this varies with background and socioeconomic context. This quantitative sociological project will be carried out using secondary analysis of survey data for a number of European countries and employing advanced statistical techniques. Its rationale and approach will be founded in sociological theories of identity, ethnicity and social stratification, but will draw on insights from economics and psychology.

"Theoretical background and objectives Existing research on the labour market integration of immigrants usually focuses on male immigrants, comparing them to native males. So far, only few studies have addressed the labour market integration of female immigrants and again, these studies are mostly limited to comparisons between women with and without a migration background. The aim of this project is to conduct a double comparison and to analyse the joint effects of gender and migration background on a number of labour market outcomes. A double comparison is needed because native women and men differ in their labour market behaviour, yet it is not known to what extent these gender differences extend to the migrant population – in fact, gender differences may be larger or smaller among immigrants and their descendants than in the native origin population. Research design, data and methodology Data from the most recent German microcensus are used to analyse the research question. In addition to providing abundant information about labour market behaviour, this data source makes it possible to identify foreign-born immigrants and local-born children of immigrants and to distinguish a number of migrant groups based on their country or region of origin. Thus, we can examine whether gender differences in labour market behaviour differ between migrants and non-migrants and between different subgroups of migrants. Findings We find considerable variation in gender gaps in labour market behaviour between East and West Germany, across ethnic groups and across generations. Intergenerational comparisons show that most ethnic minorities assimilate towards German patterns of gendered labour market attainment."

The 2007 EC Report “Tackling Multiple Discrimination” addressed for the first time at the EU level the issue of intersectionality, an approach that seeks to understand several forms of discrimination (based on gender, “race”/ethnicity, class and so forth) as the results of intersecting biases rather than of single sources of inequality. This represents a significant step towards increasing awareness of the interrelation of different types of discrimination, enabling policy makers to tackle it in a more effective manner. This research project, using an interdisciplinary approach that combines intersectionality theory and “racial-sexual contract” analysis, aims to contribute to this debate by focusing on gender and “race”/ethnicity biases in the care-domestic labour sector in the UK. It is of the greatest importance to consider the combined impact of gender and “racial”/ethnic factors on a labour market that has witnessed dramatic growth in the participation of women of ethnic minority background across all EU Member States in recent years. The study of the care-domestic sector in the UK is of particular interest due to the more advanced and articulated character of this phenomenon in the UK, and the responses it has elicited on both the policy and theoretical level. The research project introduces the new concept of “intersectional contract” and operationalizes it for empirical research. A mixed-method approach is employed, including the gathering of quantitative data, qualitative in-depth interviews with key actors (domestic placement agencies’ owners, employers, employees and policy makers), and critical discourse analysis of regulations and policy documents. This research project will consolidate the researcher’s profile as an expert sociologist of gender and migration, enable the acquisition of new competencies and interdisciplinary skills and position the researcher as a leading scholar of themes of current dramatic socio-economic relevance.

This project is one of six projects within the six year programme: The Challenges of Polarization on the Swedish Labour Market at the Department of Sociology and Work Science funded by the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare, Forte. This project addresses the integration of migrants and minorities into the Swedish labour market by assessing the extent, implications and experiences of ethnic polarisation across different dimensions; that is, between majority and minority populations (first and second generations); and the diversity within the migrant workforce and its distribution across the occupational structure. Classical migration theory holds that migrants are recruited to perform jobs in the lower sections of the labour market that native workers avoid (Piore 1979; Massey et al. 1998). This also applies to Sweden, where many migrants are employed in low-wage and insecure employment (Johansson & Vingård, 2012). Comparisons of Western Europe countries have show that labour markets are polarised because ethnic minorities do not compete on equal terms with majority populations, and experience a substantial ‘ethnic penalty’ in the second generation (Heath & Cheung 2007; Johnson 2010). Given such patterns, important question arise concerning the prospects of migrants (both first and second generations) to transition into better-paid segments of the labour market and what strategies migrants develop to reduce the impact of discrimination (Modood 2015; Elgenius 2017). Sweden is considered one of the most gendered labour markets in the world (Charles & Grusky 2004) and intersections of ethnicity and gender need be considered as a ‘double disadvantage’ (Bradley & Healy 2008). However, the tendency towards polarisation within the migrant workforce is another focus for this project as diversity-within is visible with an increasing share of highly skilled migrants in Sweden; for example, computing professionals from India. Thus, the fact that migrant groups are unevenly distributed across the occupational structure requires further attention. For instance, the largest share of migrants within the construction sector is from Eastern Europe, whereas Indian nationals are concentrated in the IT sector (Migrationsverket). This project will critically appraise migrants’ occupational status, prospects and experiences in the Swedish labour market by focusing on diversity within the migrant workforce and the experiences of ethnic penalties in first and second generations (see, e.g., Elgenius 2011, 2017; Frank 2012, 2014; Omanović 2009, 2013, Knights and Omanović 2016).