Tag: discrimination

Haderup Larsen, Mikkel & Schaeffer, Merlin. Healthcare chauvinism during the COVID-19 pandemic. (2021). [PDF]

~ mortenstinus

Haderup Larsen, Mikkel & Schaeffer, Merlin. Healthcare chauvinism during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 47(7), 2021, 1455–1473.

Social science research has produced evidence of welfare chauvinism whereby citizens turn against social policies that disproportionately benefit immigrants and their descendants. Some policymakers advocate welfare chauvinism as a means to incentivize fast labour market integration and assimilation into the mainstream more generally. These contested arguments about integration incentives can hardly be extended to the case of hospital treatment of an acute COVID-19 infection. On that premise we conducted a pre-registered online survey experiment among a representative sample of the Danish population about healthcare chauvinism against recent immigrants and Muslim minorities during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic of spring 2020. Our results show no evidence of blatant racism-driven healthcare chauvinism against acute COVID-19 patients with a Muslim name who were born in Denmark. However, we do find evidence of healthcare chauvinism against patients with a Danish/Nordic name who immigrated to Denmark only a year ago. Moreover, healthcare chauvinism against recently immigrated COVID-19 patients doubles in strength if they have a Muslim name. Our findings thus suggest that there is general reciprocity-motivated welfare chauvinism against recent immigrants who have not contributed to the welfare state for long and that racism against Muslims strongly catalyses this form of welfare chauvinism.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2020.1860742

PDF: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348057345_Healthcare_chauvinism_during_the_COVID-19_pandemic

Esmark, Anders, & Mikkel Bech Liengaard. Does Ethnicity Affect Allocation of Unemployment-Related Benefits to Job Center Clients? A Survey-Experimental Study of Representative Bureaucracy in Denmark. (2022).

~ mortenstinus

Esmark, Anders, & Mikkel Bech Liengaard. Does Ethnicity Affect Allocation of Unemployment-Related Benefits to Job Center Clients? A Survey-Experimental Study of Representative Bureaucracy in Denmark. Journal of Social Policy, 2022, 1–22.

The role of street-level bureaucracy in social policy has been taken up by two relatively distinct streams of research, based on Lipsky’s foundational work (2010). One group of literature has focused on the organizational working conditions, practices and coping mechanisms of street-level bureaucrats, their impact on the implementation of political programs and reforms, and the scope for discretion in the face of political pressures and institutional demands (Brodkin and Marston, 2013; Jessen and Tufte, 2014; Breit et al., 2016; Van Berkel et al., 2017; van Berkel, 2020). Starting from a focus on interaction with clients and the direct impact of discretionary decisions ‘on people’s lives’ (Lipsky, 2010, 8), a second group of studies has focused more on differences in allocation of benefits caused by perceived ‘deservingness’ and discrimination among street-level bureaucrats (Altreiter and Leibetseder, 2014; Terum et al., 2018; Jilke and Tummers, 2018).

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047279422000034

Dahl, Malte. Alike but Different: How Cultural Distinctiveness Shapes Immigrant-Origin Minorities’ Access to the Labour Market. (2022)

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Dahl, Malte. Alike but Different: How Cultural Distinctiveness Shapes Immigrant-Origin Minorities’ Access to the Labour Market. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 23(4), 2022, 2269–2287.

Does cultural dissimilarity explain discrimination against immigrant-origin minorities in the labour market? I conducted a factorial field experiment (N = 1350) to explore how explicit group cues trigger differential treatment and whether individuating information that counters cultural-based stereotypical representations mitigate discrimination. Employers were randomly assigned a job application with a putative female ethnic majority or immigrant-origin minority alias and CV photographs portraying the minority candidate with or without a headscarf—perhaps the quintessential marker of Muslim identity. Moreover, half the job applications conveyed information intended to reduce cultural distance by indicating a liberal lifestyle and civic participation. The results demonstrate that immigrant-origin women are significantly less likely to receive an invitation to a job interview, especially if they also wear a headscarf. Contrary to expectations, the differential treatment is not moderated by the individuating information in the applications. This indicates that the differential treatment is persistent and also targets immigrant-origin minorities who have acquired soft skills and signals cultural proximity.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-021-00844-y

Bischoff, Carina Saxlund, Anders Ejrnæs & Olivier Rubin. A quasi-experimental study of ethnic and gender bias in university grading. (2021) [PDF]

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Bischoff, Carina Saxlund, Anders Ejrnæs & Olivier Rubin. A quasi-experimental study of ethnic and gender bias in university grading. PLOS ONE, 16(7), 2021, e0254422.

This paper contributes to the debate on race- and gender-based discrimination in grading. We apply a quasi-experimental research design exploiting a shift from open grading in 2018 (examinee’s name clearly visible on written assignments), to blind grading in 2019 (only student ID number visible). The analysis thus informs name-based stereotyping and discrimination, where student ethnicity and gender are derived from their names on written assignments. The case is a quantitative methods exam at Roskilde University (Denmark). We rely on OLS regression models with interaction terms to analyze whether blind grading has any impact on the relative grading differences between the sexes (female vs. male examinees) and/or between the two core ethnic groups (ethnic minorities vs. ethnic majority examinees). The results show no evidence of gender or ethnic bias based on names in the grading process. The results were validated by several checks for robustness. We argue that the weaker evidence of ethnic discrimination in grading vis-à-vis discrimination in employment and housing suggests the relevance of gauging the stakes involved in potentially discriminatory activities.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0254422

PDF: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0254422

Hedegaard, Morten Størling & Jean-Robert Tyran. The Price of Prejudice. (2018). [PDF]

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Hedegaard, M. S., & Tyran, J.-R. (2018). The Price of Prejudice. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 10(1), 40–63.

We present a new type of field experiment to investigate ethnic prejudice in the workplace. Our design allows us to study how potential discriminators respond to changes in the cost of discrimination. We find that ethnic discrimination is common but highly responsive to the “price of prejudice,” i.e., to the opportunity cost of choosing a less productive worker on ethnic grounds. Discriminators are on average willing to forego 8 percent of their earnings to avoid a coworker of the other ethnic type. The evidence suggests that animus rather than statistical discrimination explains observed behavior.

PDF: https://doi.org/10.1257/app.20150241

Kende, Judit, Julia Reiter, Canan Coşkan, Bertjan Doosje, and Eva G. T. Green, The Role of Minority Discrimination and Political Participation in Shaping Majority Perceptions of Discrimination: Two Cross-National Studies. (2022) [PDF]

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Kende, Judit, Julia Reiter, Canan Coşkan, Bertjan Doosje, and Eva G. T. Green, The Role of Minority Discrimination and Political Participation in Shaping Majority Perceptions of Discrimination: Two Cross-National Studies, Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 2022

We develop a minority influence approach to multilevel intergroup research and examine whether country-level minority norms shape majority members? perceptions of discrimination. Defining minority norms via actual minority discrimination and political participation, we hypothesized that in national contexts with greater minority experiences of discrimination and greater minority political participation, majority perceptions of discrimination should be higher. We implemented two cross-national multilevel studies drawing on the European Social Survey and Eurobarometer data with 19,392 participants in 22 countries in Study 1, and with 17,651 participants in 19 countries in Study 2. Higher aggregate levels of minority discrimination were not related to greater acknowledgment of discrimination among majority members. However, higher aggregate minority political participation did relate to higher perceptions of discrimination in Studies 1 and 2. We conclude that country-level minority norms are consequential for majority attitudes, but these norms need to be actively communicated through political participation.

PDF: https://doi.org/10.1177/13684302221075711

Rafiqi, Arzoo, and Jens Peter Frølund Thomsen, Group Discrimination, Intergroup Contact, and Ethnic Minority Members’ Reactions toward the Majority. (2021) [PDF]

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Rafiqi, Arzoo, and Jens Peter Frølund Thomsen, Group Discrimination, Intergroup Contact, and Ethnic Minority Members’ Reactions toward the Majority, Ethnicities, 21.1 (2021), 3–22

This study expands research on how intergroup contact makes ethnic minority members less prejudiced toward the majority group. Specifically, we propose that perceived group discrimination may serve as an essential boundary condition of the friendship?prejudice relationship. Accordingly, analyses show that: (a) cross-group friendship predicts less prejudice, (b) perceived group discrimination relates to greater prejudice only among noncontacted ethnic minority members, and (c) greater perceived group discrimination enhances the ability of cross-group friendship to predict reduced prejudice toward majority members. The enhancing effect is inconsistent with previous research. Moreover, we show that perceived personal discrimination does not moderate the friendship-prejudice relationship. Finally, analyses confirm the unique qualities of cross-group friendship, as perceived group discrimination does not predict greater prejudice when this type of contact is most intense. Analyses are performed on an unusually rich, national probability sample of ethnic minority members fielded in 2017 including 1211 respondents from Denmark. We conclude with discussion of the implications of our findings.

PDF: https://doi.org/10.1177/1468796820909493

Saarikkomäki, Elsa, Randi Solhjell, and David Wästerfors, Dealing with Police Stops: How Young People with Ethnic Minority Backgrounds Narrate Their Ways of Managing over-Policing in the Nordic Countries. (2023)

~ mortenstinus

Saarikkomäki, Elsa, Randi Solhjell, and David Wästerfors, Dealing with Police Stops: How Young People with Ethnic Minority Backgrounds Narrate Their Ways of Managing over-Policing in the Nordic Countries, Policing and Society, 0.0 (2023), 1–16

Research shows that young people within ethnic minorities are subjected to police control more often than others, which seems to have a damaging effect on their trust in the police as well as on their wider sense of belonging. What is less often researched is how these young people deal with being over-policed. This article explores narratives of over-policing from those targeted by the police in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. By highlighting the patterns in these narratives in cross-national interview data, we seek to understand how young people manage interactions with the police and being stigmatised and ethnically profiled. The article distinguishes between three categories of narratives, (a) practical (b) emotional and (c) analytical, which the young people invoke and employ when they discuss their experiences and assessments of the police. The article concludes that we need a more dynamic perspective to understand and analyse how targeted groups constitute agency, resistance and active responses to ethnic profiling or labelling. Being young and belonging to an ethnic minority in the Nordic countries means developing and employing everyday tactics to both manage and account for the risk of police encounters.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2023.2216838

Skadegård, M. C., Slipping and Sliding: Wielding Power with Slippery Constructions of Danishness. (2022) [PDF]

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Skadegård, M. C., Slipping and Sliding: Wielding Power with Slippery Constructions of Danishness, Journal of Critical Mixed Race Studies, 1.2 (2022), 158–80.

This article addresses implicit and underlying discrimination in public and private interactions in Denmark. In particular, it examines racial structural discrimination in regard to citizenship and belonging in Danish contexts. Two cases are presented in this analysis, both from the fall of 2015, in which mixed race figures either directly or indirectly. The first case is a public debate concerning Danish citizenship as presented in news coverage and the second is an everyday private interaction at a dinner party in which the author was a participant. The study assesses how (racialized) Danishness, citizenship, and entitlement are constructed in the two cases. Further, it introduces the notion of “slipperiness” as a mechanism in discriminatory interactions (in regard to defining “Danishness”) and discusses how this notion functions to maintain and enforce racial discrimination.

PDF: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5m3202b5

Søgaard, Thomas Friis, Torsten Kolind, Mie Birk Haller, Tobias Kammersgaard, and Geoffrey Hunt, ‘Filming Is Our Only Weapon Against the Police’: Ethnic Minorities and Police Encounters in the New Visibility Era. (2022)

~ mortenstinus

Søgaard, Thomas Friis, Torsten Kolind, Mie Birk Haller, Tobias Kammersgaard, and Geoffrey Hunt, ‘Filming Is Our Only Weapon Against the Police’: Ethnic Minorities and Police Encounters in the New Visibility Era, The British Journal of Criminology, 2022, azac056.

Based on Goldsmith’s (2010, ‘Policing’s New Visibility’, British Journal of Criminology, 50: 914–34) assertion that police work has acquired a ‘new visibility’ with the ubiquity of cell phone cameras, recent studies have explored how ‘video activists’ often film the police as means of protecting marginalised ethno-racial communities. However, limited research exists on how non-activist ethno-racial minority young people use cell phone cameras in encounters with the police. Based on 37 interviews conducted in Denmark, this paper explores the multifaceted nature of marginalised ethnic minority young people’s use of cell phone cameras in police encounters. We demonstrate how the filming of officers is interwoven with the young people’s street culture, and how the use of cameras holds the potential to counter traditional power imbalances, while nevertheless, potentially exacerbating their antagonism towards the police.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azac056

Spaas, Caroline et al. Mental Health of Refugee and Non-Refugee Migrant Young People in European Secondary Education: The Role of Family Separation, Daily Material Stress and Perceived Discrimination in Resettlement. (2022) [PDF]

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Spaas, Caroline, An Verelst, Ines Devlieger, Sanni Aalto, Arnfinn Andersen, Natalie Durbeej, and others, Mental Health of Refugee and Non-Refugee Migrant Young People in European Secondary Education: The Role of Family Separation, Daily Material Stress and Perceived Discrimination in Resettlement, Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 51 (2022), 1–23

While scholarly literature indicates that both refugee and non-refugee migrant young people display increased levels of psychosocial vulnerability, studies comparing the mental health of the two groups remain scarce. This study aims to further the existing evidence by examining refugee and non-refugee migrants’ mental health, in relation to their migration history and resettlement conditions. The mental health of 883 refugee and 483 non-refugee migrants (mean age 15.41, range 11-24, 45.9% girls, average length of stay in the host country 3.75 years) in five European countries was studied in their relation to family separation, daily material stress and perceived discrimination in resettlement. All participants reported high levels of post-traumatic stress symptoms. Family separation predicted post-trauma and internalizing behavioral difficulties only in refugees. Daily material stress related to lower levels of overall well-being in all participants, and higher levels of internalizing and externalizing behavioral difficulties in refugees. Perceived discrimination was associated with increased levels of mental health problems for refugees and non-refugee migrants. The relationship between perceived discrimination and post-traumatic stress symptoms in non-refugee migrants, together with the high levels of post-traumatic stress symptoms in this subsample, raises important questions on the nature of trauma exposure in non-refugee migrants, as well as the ways in which experiences of discrimination may interact with other traumatic stressors in predicting mental health.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-021-01515-y

PDF: https://europepmc.org/article/med/34686949

Koob, Sigrid Alexandra, Marie Skibsted, Rasmus Brygger, Sofia Manili, and Mads Andreasen, Oplevet Etnisk Diskrimination i Danmark. (2023) [PDF]

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Koob, Sigrid Alexandra, Marie Skibsted, Rasmus Brygger, Sofia Manili, and Mads Andreasen, Oplevet Etnisk Diskrimination i Danmark (Institut for Menneskerettigheder, 2023)

RESUMÉ
Institut for Menneskerettigheder er Danmarks nationale ligebehandlingsorgan.
Gennem undersøgelser og anbefalinger arbejder vi for at beskytte og fremme
ligebehandling i Danmark på tværs af etnicitet, køn, seksualitet og handicap.
Hvad angår ligebehandling af etniske minoriteter, har instituttet gennem talrige
undersøgelser dokumenteret, at der på flere specifikke samfundsområder er
udfordringer med diskrimination på baggrund af etnicitet.
Der er dog få undersøgelser i dansk kontekst, der forsøger at måle omfanget af
etnisk diskrimination på tværs af samfundsområder. Diskrimination er sjældent en
enkeltstående og isoleret hændelse, men forekommer ofte gentagne gange og
ofte på tværs af arbejdsliv, fritidsliv, uddannelse, sundhed med videre. Det er derfor
nødvendigt at forstå den samfundsmæssige kontekst, diskriminationen opstår i,
og hvordan normer og fordomme, der går på tværs af samfundet, kan medføre
diskrimination på tværs.

MeToo-bevægelsen rejste en vigtig diskussion om sexisme på det samfundsmæssige plan. #MeToo viste, hvor udbredt problemerne med sexisme er i samfundet, og hvorfor der er behov for handling. På samme måde er forhåbningen, at denne rapport kan være med til at tydeliggøre, at racisme er et problem i det danske samfund, som ligeledes kræver handling.
Racisme forstås i denne rapport bredt som diskrimination eller fordomme på grund af etnicitet. Racisme indebærer således ikke nødvendigvis et ønske om at stille etniske minoriteter ringere end andre. Diskrimination og fordomme kan også opstå på grund af misforståelser, manglende kendskab og unødige generaliseringer. Uagtet årsag kan racisme få alvorlige konsekvenser for dem, der bliver berørt.
Denne rapport udgør den hidtil mest omfattende undersøgelse af racisme i Danmark
med udgangspunkt i oplevet diskrimination og fordomme. Mens enkeltpersoners egne oplevelser ikke kan give et præcist billede af det faktiske omfang af diskrimination og fordomme, så kan oplevelser i kombination med den omfangsrige forskning, der henvises til i rapporten, tydeliggøre, at der er problemer, der skal løses.
Undersøgelsen tager udgangspunkt i voksne minoritetsetniske personer med
opvækst i Danmark – dvs. personer der enten er født i Danmark eller kommet hertil
som børn (herefter betegnet som minoritetsetniske personer). Overordnet viser
besvarelserne i undersøgelsen, at over 8 ud af 10 minoritetsetniske personer angiver,
at de har oplevet diskrimination eller fordomme inden for det seneste år. Over 6 ud af 10 minoritetsetniske personer angiver, at de har oplevelser, man som udgangspunkt kan karakterisere som ulovlig diskrimination. For mange er der ikke tale om en enkelt hændelse, men gentagne negative oplevelser på tværs af bl.a. arbejdsmarkedet, i det offentlige rum og i kontakten med myndigheder.

Det kan have omfattende konsekvenser for dem, der bliver udsat for diskrimination
eller fordomme. Undersøgelsen viser, at hver anden minoritetsetnisk person har
ændret adfærd, når de færdes i offentligheden. Samtidig føles behandlingen så
voldsom, at det har fået omkring hver tredje til at overveje at forlade Danmark.
Dette svarer til ca. 51.000-55.000 personer, der i 8 ud af 10 tilfælde enten er under
uddannelse eller i beskæftigelse i Danmark, men som føler sig fremmedgjorte i det
land, de er opvokset i.
Undersøgelsen finder bl.a.:

  • 84 procent af minoritetsetniske personer angiver, at de har oplevet diskrimination og fordomme på grund af deres etniske baggrund
  • 65 procent angiver, at de har oplevet (ulovlig) diskrimination på grund af deres
    etniske baggrund
  • Minoritetsetniske personer med synlige udtryk, der kan adskille dem fra resten af befolkningen (såsom fuldskæg og tørklæde) angiver i højere grad, at de oplever
    diskrimination og fordomme.
  • Omkring hver anden (48 procent) af dem, der har sendt en ansøgning, angiver, at de har oplevet at få afslag på grund af deres etniske baggrund. Dette gør sig særligt gældende ift. job, oplæring, bolig og bank.
  • Hver anden (49 procent) angiver, at de har fået dårligere service eller betjening
    på grund af deres etniske baggrund. Dette er bl.a. i butikker og spisesteder samt i sundhedsvæsenet og på uddannelsessteder.
  • Omkring hver fjerde (28 procent) angiver, at de er blevet nægtet adgang til steder, hvor andre gerne må komme ind på grund af deres etniske baggrund. Dette er
    særligt tilfældet i nattelivet.
  • Omkring hver tredje (29 procent) angiver, at de på grund af deres etniske baggrund er blevet stoppet af politiet uden anden umiddelbar årsag.
  • Hver ottende (12 procent) angiver, at de er blevet udsat for vold eller trusler
    på grund af deres etniske baggrund (hadforbrydelser). Voldsofre angiver, at
    forbipasserende sjældent griber ind.
  • 80 procent angiver, at de enten er blevet udsat for fornærmende ord, udelukket fra fællesskaber eller mødt med fordomme. Særligt unge mænd angiver derudover, at folk opfører sig, som om de er bange for dem.
  • Kun 11 procent af ofre for diskrimination angiver, at de har klaget efterfølgende.
    Dette skyldes særligt, at mange ikke har tiltro til, at det nytter noget.
  • 55 procent af minoritetsetniske personer angiver, at de på grund af deres etniske baggrund har ændret adfærd i det offentlige rum. Mange tilpasser hvordan de går, taler eller fremstår eller undgår at tale deres families modersmål i det offentlige
    rum. Flere angiver, at de har skiftet navn eller undgår at bære religiøse symboler.
  • 38 procent angiver, at de overvejer at forlade Danmark som følge af deres
    oplevelser med diskrimination og fordomme.
    ANBEFALING
    Den daværende socialdemokratiske regering indgik en aftale med
    SF, Radikale Venstre, Enhedslisten, Alternativet og Kristendemokraterne om, at
    der med midler fra Finansloven 2022 skulle udarbejdes en handlingsplan mod
    racisme. Formålet med en handlingsplan er at bekæmpe racisme bredt i samfundet og omhandle arbejdsmarkedet, kulturlivet og indsatsen mod hadforbrydelser mv.
    Samtidig skal racismens omfang og karakter kortlægges. Handlingsplanen er endnu ikke udarbejdet.
    På baggrund af de omfangsrige oplevelser med diskrimination og fordomme på
    baggrund af etnicitet vist i denne rapport vurderer instituttet, at der fortsat er behov for en ambitiøs handlingsplan. Den skal sikre en koordineret indsats på tværs af samfundsområder og kunne håndtere de beskrevne problemer med racisme mod minoritetsetniske personer i Danmark.
    Institut for Menneskerettigheder anbefaler, at:
  • Udlændinge- og Integrationsministeriet udarbejder en handlingsplan mod racisme.
    LÆSEVEJLEDNING
    Rapportens første kapitel beskriver undersøgelsens metode og centrale begreber,
    mens andet kapitel gennemgår den retlige ramme, bl.a. menneskeretten og
    centrale juridiske begreber. Kapitel 3 præsenterer undersøgelsens hovedresultater.
    Her kortlægges omfanget af diskrimination og fordomme bredt set på tværs af de forskellige samfundsområder. Derudover gennemgår kapitlet de generelle tendenser, hvad angår, hvem der oftest oplever diskrimination eller fordomme. Kapitel 4-9 fokuserer hver især på de enkelte områder (afslag på ansøgninger, dårligere service,
    nægtet adgang, etnisk profilering, voldelige hadforbrydelser samt fordomme). Hvert kapitel præsenterer hovedtendenserne samt opsummerer den relevante viden og lovgivning på området og indeholder hertil en udvalgt personlig fortælling, der berører kapitlets tematik. Endelig præsenterer kapitel 10 reaktioner på diskrimination og fordomme, mens kapitel 11 præsenterer konsekvenser i form af ændret adfærd

PDF: https://menneskeret.dk/udgivelser/oplevet-etnisk-diskrimination-danmark

Thijssen, Lex, Frank van Tubergen, Marcel Coenders, Robert Hellpap, and Suzanne Jak, Discrimination of Black and Muslim Minority Groups in Western Societies: Evidence From a Meta-Analysis of Field Experiments. (2022) [PDF]

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Thijssen, Lex, Frank van Tubergen, Marcel Coenders, Robert Hellpap, and Suzanne Jak, Discrimination of Black and Muslim Minority Groups in Western Societies: Evidence From a Meta-Analysis of Field Experiments, International Migration Review, 56.3 (2022), 843–80

This article examines discrimination against black and Muslim minority groups in 20 Western labor markets. We analyze the outcomes of 94 field experiments, conducted between 1973 and 2016 and representing ?240,000 fictitious job applications. Using meta-analysis, we find that black minority groups are more strongly discriminated against than non-black minority groups. The degree of discrimination of black minority groups varies cross-nationally, whereas Muslim minority groups are equally discriminated across national contexts. Unexpectedly, discrimination against black minority groups in the United States is mostly lower than in European countries. These findings suggest that racial-ethnic discrimination in hiring can be better understood by taking a multigroup and cross-country perspective.

PDF: https://doi.org/10.1177/01979183211045044

Pedersen, Mogens Jin, and Vibeke Lehmann Nielsen, Understanding Discrimination: Outcome-Relevant Information Does Not Mitigate Discrimination. (2022)

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Pedersen, Mogens Jin, and Vibeke Lehmann Nielsen, Understanding Discrimination: Outcome-Relevant Information Does Not Mitigate Discrimination, Social Problems, 2022, spac006

People experience discrimination across a variety of domains, including at work and in dealings with public institutions, but what makes some individuals discriminate against others? Two dominant scholarly approaches—“statistical” and “taste-based”—offer different explanations. Statistical discrimination models imply that discrimination occurs because of incomplete information (informational bias), whereas taste-based discrimination models emphasize more elusive and deep-rooted cognitive biases. Adding new insights into whether discrimination is “statistical” or “taste-based,” this article examines how providing information that reduces informational bias affects discrimination. Using a preregistered survey experimental design, a representative sample of Danish residents (n = 2,024) are exposed to three unique vignettes, each involving a choice of service provider (general practitioner, babysitter, and house cleaner). Relating to gender and nativity stereotypes, we manipulate the gender of the general practitioners and the babysitters, and the country of origin of the house cleaners. Moreover, we manipulate exposure to rating cues about the service providers’ task performance, thus mitigating informational bias to some extent. Contrasting the expectations of statistical discrimination models, the performance ratings cues do not mitigate discrimination. Across all three vignettes, the participants exhibit stereotypical preferences, and the performance rating cues do not affect these discriminatory biases.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spac006

Gomez-Gonzalez, Carlos, Cornel Nesseler & Helmut M. Dietl, Mapping discrimination in Europe through a field experiment in amateur sport. (2021) [PDF]

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Gomez-Gonzalez, Carlos, Cornel Nesseler & Helmut M. Dietl (2021). Mapping discrimination in Europe through a field experiment in amateur sport. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 8(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-021-00773-2

Societies are increasingly multicultural and diverse, consisting of members who migrated from various other countries. However, immigrants and ethnic minorities often face discrimination in the form of fewer opportunities for labor and housing, as well as limitations on interactions in other social domains. Using mock email accounts with typical native-sounding and foreign-sounding names, we contacted 23,020 amateur football clubs in 22 European countries, asking to participate in a training session. Response rates differed across countries and were, on average, about 10% lower for foreign-sounding names. The present field experiment reveals discrimination against ethnic minority groups, uncovering organizational deficiencies in a system trusted to foster social interactions.

PDF: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-021-00773-2

Batsaikhan et al. Daycare Choice and Ethnic Diversity: Evidence from a Randomized Survey. (2019) [PDF]

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Batsaikhan, M., Gørtz, M., Kennes, J. R., Lyng, R. S., Monte, D., & Tumennasan, N. (2019). Daycare Choice and Ethnic Diversity: Evidence from a Randomized Survey. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3507520

Discrimination among individuals is very well documented in the literature, but much less is known about how discrimination is passed down through generations. By designing and conducting a randomized survey to study daycare choices and ethnic diversity, we provide evidence of how biases against ethnic minorities affect parental choices of early childhood education. We asked parents in Copenhagen to choose between two daycares — structured vs. free-play. Each daycare had testimonials from (fictive) parents whose child allegedly attended the daycare, and the survey randomized the names of the testifying parents across the sample. Another novelty of our study is that we are able to capture how discriminatory attitudes towards ethnic minorities interact with preferences for specific teaching styles. In our results we find bias against ethnic minorities among parents who prefer the structured daycare. We validate our results through data on willingness to travel to the preferred daycare, which is higher for parents who prefer the structured daycare when there was an ethnic minority name associated with the free-play daycare.

PDF: https://www.econ.ku.dk/cebi/publikationer/working-papers/CEBI_-_WP_14-19.pdf

Tygstrup, Tea Hansen, & Olsen, Asmus Leth Citizens’ Discrimination against Street-level Bureaucrats. (2019). [PDF]

~ mortenstinus

Tygstrup, Tea Hansen, & Olsen, Asmus Leth (2019). Citizens’ Discrimination against Street-level Bureaucrats. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/WTN3S

Extensive experimental work documents discrimination against minorities in their interaction with the state. The increased reliance on citizen choice of service provider increasing allow discrimination to run the other way: Do citizens discriminate against street-level bureaucrats? Using two discrete choice designs in a single survey (N=1,027) we study ethnic discrimination in citizens’ choice of general practioner (GP) in a Nordic welfare state. We find strong evidence of discrimination as GPs with Muslim names are chosen 14 percentage point less than Danish named GPs with similar characteristics. Choice models are often accompanied with quality performance indicators but additional analysis show that discrimination is not reduced if a performance measure for the GP is provided to citizens. The results question the effectiveness of traditional policy tools to combat discrimination in increasingly more diverse public sector with more emphasis on citizens choice.   

PDF: https://osf.io/wtn3s/

Larsen, Mikkel Haderup, and Merlin Schaeffer. ‘Healthcare Chauvinism during the COVID-19 Pandemic’. (2020) [PDF]

~ mortenstinus

Larsen, Mikkel Haderup, and Merlin Schaeffer. ‘Healthcare Chauvinism during the COVID-19 Pandemic’. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Routledge, Dec. 2020.

Social science research has produced evidence of welfare chauvinism whereby citizens turn against social policies that disproportionately benefit immigrants and their descendants. Some policymakers advocate welfare chauvinism as a means to incentivize fast labour market integration and assimilation into the mainstream more generally. These contested arguments about integration incentives can hardly be extended to the case of hospital treatment of an acute COVID-19 infection. On that premise we conducted a pre-registered online survey experiment among a representative sample of the Danish population about healthcare chauvinism against recent immigrants and Muslim minorities during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic of spring 2020. Our results show no evidence of blatant racism-driven healthcare chauvinism against acute COVID-19 patients with a Muslim name who were born in Denmark. However, we do find evidence of healthcare chauvinism against patients with a Danish/Nordic name who immigrated to Denmark only a year ago. Moreover, healthcare chauvinism against recently-immigrated COVID-19 patients doubles in strength if they have a Muslim name. Our findings thus suggest that there is general reciprocity-motivated welfare chauvinism against recent immigrants who have not contributed to the welfare state for long and that racism against Muslims strongly catalyses this form of welfare chauvinism.

PDF: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2020.1860742.

Dinesen, Peter Thisted, Malte Dahl, and Mikkel Schiøler. ‘When Are Legislators Responsive to Ethnic Minorities? Testing the Role of Electoral Incentives and Candidate Selection for Mitigating Ethnocentric Responsiveness’. (2021) [PDF]

~ mortenstinus

Dinesen, Peter Thisted, Malte Dahl, and Mikkel Schiøler. ‘When Are Legislators Responsive to Ethnic Minorities? Testing the Role of Electoral Incentives and Candidate Selection for Mitigating Ethnocentric Responsiveness’. American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, 2021.

Previous studies have documented ethnic/racial bias in politicians’ constituency service, but less is known about the circumstances under which such ethnocentric responsiveness is curbed. We propose and test two hypotheses in this regard: the electoral incentives hypothesis, predicting that incentives for (re)election crowd out politicians’ potential biases, and the candidate selection hypothesis, stipulating that minority constituents can identify responsive legislators by using candidates’ partisan affiliation and stated policy preferences as heuristics. We test these hypotheses through a field experiment on the responsiveness of incumbent local politicians in Denmark (N = 2,395), varying ethnicity, gender, and intention to vote for the candidate in the upcoming election, merged with data on their electoral performance and their stated policy preferences from a voting advice application. We observe marked ethnocentric responsiveness and find no indication that electoral incentives mitigate this behavior. However, minority voters can use parties’ and individual candidates’ stances on immigration to identify responsive politicians.

doi:10.1017/S0003055420001070.

PDF: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/when-are-legislators-responsive-to-ethnic-minorities-testing-the-role-of-electoral-incentives-and-candidate-selection-for-mitigating-ethnocentric-responsiveness/06D0BD53A0AA819DEADFC4A5F38B73FD.

Coming of Age in Exile: Health and Socio-Economic Inequalities in Young Refugees in the Nordic Welfare Societies. (2020) [PDF]

~ mortenstinus

Coming of Age in Exile: Health and Socio-Economic Inequalities in Young Refugees in the Nordic Welfare Societies. NordForsk, 2020,

Coming of Age in Exile (CAGE) has been a multidisciplinary research project, funded by the Nordic Research Council (NordForsk) during 2015-2020, for more information see https://cage.ku.dk/. CAGE has been led by the Danish Research Centre for Migration, Ethnicity and Health (MESU) at the Department of Public Health at the University of Copenhagen and carried out in collaboration with researchers at the Migration Institute of Finland, Turku; the Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies (NKVTS), Oslo; the University of South-Eastern Norway, University of Bergen, University of Gothenburg, and the Centre for Health Equity Studies (CHESS), Stockholm University/Karolinska Institutet. 

During the last fifty years, the number of people moving to the Nordic countries has increased. From the 1970s onwards, a large part of non-Nordic immigration has consisted of refugees and their families. Children below 18 years of age comprise a sizable proportion of refugee immigrants, i.e. 25-35% of the refugees in the Nordic countries, and about twice as many when children born in exile are also included. In welfare typologies, the Nordic countries are often considered as similar in terms of their welfare state policies, but there are also important differences between countries in terms of immigration policy and economic context. The Migration Integration Policy Index (MIPEX), a comparative policy analysis tool used by the European Union, has shown that during the period in which the CAGE study was conducted, Denmark ranked far behind the other Nordic countries, with more restrictive integration policies related to financial support, family reunification, and possibilities for naturalisation. Key economic factors also differ considerably between countries, with Sweden and Finland having had higher rates of youth unemployment during recent decades. The Nordic countries, with their excellent national registers, provide a unique arena for comparative studies of refugee children and youth in order to obtain an understanding of contextual factors in the reception countries for the integration of young refugees. 

The aim of the CAGE project has been to investigate inequalities in education, labour market participation, and health during the formative years in young refugees, and how they relate to national policies and other contextual factors. CAGE has used a mixed methods strategy built around a core of cross-country comparative quantitative register studies in national cohorts of refugees who were granted residency as children (0-17 years) during 1986-2005 in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, with follow-up until 2015. These quantitative register studies have been complimented with policy analyses and qualitative studies of key mechanisms involved in the development of these inequalities.

PDF: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ketil_Eide/publication/348357687_CAGE_Final_Report_2015-2020/links/5ffa113692851c13feffbbe2/CAGE-Final-Report-2015-2020.pdf.

Thomsen, Jens Peter, Bolette Moldenhawer, and Tine Kallehave. Ethnic Differences in Education in Denmark: Survey Report. (2010) [PDF]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Thomsen, Jens Peter, Bolette Moldenhawer, and Tine Kallehave. Ethnic Differences in Education in Denmark: Survey Report. EDUMIGROM, 2010.

The primary purpose of this report is to give a descriptive and analytical account of the lives of minority urban youth at the end of their primary schooling by looking at their school experiences and achievements, plans for future education and work life, attitudes towards school, and relations to peers, as well as the shaping of identity among minority students. Focusing on youth in the 8th and 9th grades in primary school in Copenhagen, Denmark, the report not only differentiates among ethnic groups in order to identify significant social patterns among groups, but also explores how ethnic differentiations intersect with other variables relating to the students’ background (gender, parents’ socio-economic status and educational level, and so on), and characteristics of everyday social life (social interaction, peer relations, etc). The report aims to contribute to a growing body of research on early identity formation and interethnic relations among young people in primary schools as a way of understanding how and why social positions of young people are structured the way they are. 

PDF: https://ec.europa.eu/migrant-integration/?action=media.download&uuid=29EB1415-BE22-3ABB-578DDD71283F13E4

Simonsen, Kristina Bakkær. ‘The Democratic Consequences of Anti-Immigrant Political Rhetoric: A Mixed Methods Study of Immigrants’ Political Belonging’. (2019) [PDF]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Simonsen, Kristina Bakkær. ‘The Democratic Consequences of Anti-Immigrant Political Rhetoric: A Mixed Methods Study of Immigrants’ Political Belonging’. Political Behavior, May 2019.

Anti-immigrant political rhetoric is proliferating in Europe, inspiring research to examine the potential effects on public opinion. However, studies of the reactions of first- and second-generation immigrants—the objects of this rhetoric—remain scarce. This article argues that political rhetoric should be treated as a context of integration affecting political outcomes, in particular political belonging. To that end, the article combines qualitative evidence from focus group discussions conducted in Denmark, a high-salience context, and quantitative evidence from cross-national survey and party manifesto data from 18 Western European countries over a 12-year period. In addition to demonstrating a negative mean effect, the analyses show that those most in focus of contemporary political messages (Muslims and immigrants with shorter educations) are most affected, suggesting a sophisticated processing of political rhetoric. In contrast, traditional explanations concerning structural incorporation, generational integration, and exposure to rhetoric are not supported. The article discusses the implications of the results for democratic inclusion in contemporary Europe.

doi:10.1007/s11109-019-09549-6.

PDF: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-019-09549-6.

Simonsen, Kristina Bakkær. ‘Ripple Effects: An Exclusive Host National Context Produces More Perceived Discrimination among Immigrants’. (2016)

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Simonsen, Kristina Bakkær. ‘Ripple Effects: An Exclusive Host National Context Produces More Perceived Discrimination among Immigrants’. European Journal of Political Research, vol. 55, no. 2, 2016, pp. 374–390.

This article examines the perceived discrimination of immigrants – a group for whom experiences of discrimination can be damaging for their long-term commitment and identification with the national core group. Taking its point of departure in the literature on national identity, the article argues that perceived discrimination should be strongest among immigrants in host national societies with an exclusive self-image. This hypothesis is examined by use of multilevel regressions on cross-national survey data from 18 Western European countries. It is found that where exclusive attitudes are widespread in the host population, the percentage of immigrants who perceive themselves to be part of a group discriminated against is significantly greater, all else being equal. In addition, there is a cross-level interaction effect of host national inclusivity and ethnic minority identity which suggests that individual-level determinants of perceived discrimination do not ‘work’ in the same way in normatively different contexts. In terms of the implications of these findings, the article points to the importance of contextualising individual-level accounts of perceived discrimination, with particular focus on the power of a society’s attitudinal milieu to affect individual feelings of inclusion and exclusion.

doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6765.12131.

https://ejpr.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1475-6765.12131.

Gilliam, Laura. Minoritetsdanske drenge i skolen: modvilje og forskelsbehandling. (2018)

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Gilliam, Laura. Minoritetsdanske drenge i skolen: modvilje og forskelsbehandling. Aarhus: Aarhus Universitetsforlag, 2018.

Minoritetsdanske drenge eller ’indvandrerdrenge’, som de typisk kaldes i den offentlige debat, forbindes ofte med dårlige skoleresultater, ballade og kriminalitet. Samtidig peger flere undersøgelser på, at drengene mødes med negative forventninger og oplever at blive set skævt til og forskelsbehandlet i skolen. 

I Minoritetsdanske drenge i skolen. Modvilje og forskelsbehandling ser Laura Gilliam nærmere på drengenes position, selvforståelser og skolestrategier og diskuterer de sociale og kulturelle dynamikker, der er omkring etnicitet, racialisering, køn og skole. Med afsæt i interviews med 18 minoritetsdanske drenge beskriver hun, hvordan drengenes oplevelser af lærernes forventninger, modvilje og velvilje får betydning for deres præstationer og engagement i undervisningen. Positive forventninger og dialog om etnicitet og forskelsbehandling er afgørende, hvis de onde cirkler skal brydes. 

https://unipress.dk/udgivelser/m/minoritetsdanske-drenge-i-skolen/

PDF med forord og indholdsfortegnelse: http://samples.pubhub.dk/9788771848274.pdf .