Gomez-Gonzalez, C., Nesseler, C., & Dietl, H. M. (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
Tag: kvantitativ
Larsen, Mikkel Haderup, and Merlin Schaeffer. ‘Healthcare Chauvinism during the COVID-19 Pandemic’. (2020) [PDF]
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.
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]
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.
Coming of Age in Exile: Health and Socio-Economic Inequalities in Young Refugees in the Nordic Welfare Societies. (2020) [PDF]
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.
Breidahl, Karen Nielsen, Troels Fage Hedegaard, Kristian Kongshøj, and Christian Albrekt Larsen. Migrants’ Attitudes and the Welfare State: The Danish Melting Pot. (2021)
Breidahl, Karen Nielsen, Troels Fage Hedegaard, Kristian Kongshøj, and Christian Albrekt Larsen. Migrants’ Attitudes and the Welfare State: The Danish Melting Pot. Northampton: Edward Elgar Pub, 2021,
Analysing two major surveys of 14 different migrant groups connected to Danish register data, this insightful book explores what migrants think of the welfare state. It investigates the question of whether migrants assimilate to the ideas of extensive state intervention in markets and families or if they retain the attitudes and values that are prevalent in their countries of origin.The authors examine what various migrant groups from countries including Poland, Romania, Spain, the UK, China, Japan, Turkey, Russia, the US, Pakistan, Lebanon, Iraq and the former-Yugoslavia living in Denmark think about the trustworthiness of state institutions, state responsibility, economic redistribution, female employment and childcare. Chapters also cover the key issues of national identification, social trust and welfare nationalism. Concluding that migrants from diverse backgrounds assimilate well into the welfare attitudes, norms and values of the Danish people in several areas, the book points to the potential assimilative impact of the welfare state. Incorporating new theoretical discussions, this book will be critical reading for academics and students studying migration and welfare states. It will also be a useful resource for comparative migration researchers interested in the impact of the host country context on migrants’ assimilation patterns.
https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/migrants-attitudes-and-the-welfare-state-9781800376335.html.
Sigurbergsson, Gudbjartur Ingi, and Leon Derczynski. ‘Offensive Language and Hate Speech Detection for Danish’. (2020) [PDF]
Sigurbergsson, Gudbjartur Ingi, and Leon Derczynski. ‘Offensive Language and Hate Speech Detection for Danish’. Proceedings of the 12th Language Resources and Evaluation Conference, Marseille, France: European Language Resources Association, 2020, pp. 3498–3508.
The presence of offensive language on social media platforms and the implications this poses is becoming a major concern in modern society. Given the enormous amount of content created every day, automatic methods are required to detect and deal with this type of content. Until now, most of the research has focused on solving the problem for the English language, while the problem is multilingual. We construct a Danish dataset DKhate containing user-generated comments from various social media platforms, and to our knowledge, the first of its kind, annotated for various types and target of offensive language. We develop four automatic classification systems, each designed to work for both the English and the Danish language. In the detection of offensive language in English, the best performing system achieves a macro averaged F1-score of 0.74, and the best performing system for Danish achieves a macro averaged F1-score of 0.70. In the detection of whether or not an offensive post is targeted, the best performing system for English achieves a macro averaged F1-score of 0.62, while the best performing system for Danish achieves a macro averaged F1-score of 0.73. Finally, in the detection of the target type in a targeted offensive post, the best performing system for English achieves a macro averaged F1-score of 0.56, and the best performing system for Danish achieves a macro averaged F1-score of 0.63. Our work for both the English and the Danish language captures the type and targets of offensive language, and present automatic methods for detecting different kinds of offensive language such as hate speech and cyberbullying.
Simonsen, Kristina Bakkær, and Bart Bonikowski. ‘Is Civic Nationalism Necessarily Inclusive? Conceptions of Nationhood and Anti-Muslim Attitudes in Europe’. (2020)
Simonsen, Kristina Bakkær, and Bart Bonikowski. ‘Is Civic Nationalism Necessarily Inclusive? Conceptions of Nationhood and Anti-Muslim Attitudes in Europe’. European Journal of Political Research, vol. 59, no. 1, 2020, pp. 114–136.
Despite the centrality of national identity in the exclusionary discourse of the European radical right, scholars have not investigated how popular definitions of nationhood are connected to dispositions toward Muslims. Moreover, survey-based studies tend to conflate anti-Muslim attitudes with general anti-immigrant sentiments. This article contributes to research on nationalism and out-group attitudes by demonstrating that varieties of national self-understanding are predictive of anti-Muslim attitudes, above and beyond dispositions toward immigrants. Using latent class analysis and regression models of survey data from 41 European countries, it demonstrates that conceptions of nationhood are heterogeneous within countries and that their relationship with anti-Muslim attitudes is contextually variable. Consistent with expectations, in most countries, anti-Muslim attitudes are positively associated with ascriptive – and negatively associated with elective (including civic) – conceptions of nationhood. Northwestern Europe, however, is an exception to this pattern: in this region, civic nationalism is linked to greater antipathy toward Muslims. It is suggested that in this region, elective criteria of belonging have become fused with exclusionary notions of national culture that portray Muslims as incompatible with European liberal values, effectively legitimating anti-Muslim sentiments in mainstream political culture. This may heighten the appeal of anti-Muslim sentiments not only on the radical right, but also among mainstream segments of the Northwestern European public, with important implications for social exclusion and political behaviour.
doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6765.12337.
https://ejpr.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1475-6765.12337.
Simonsen, Kristina Bakkær. ‘The Democratic Consequences of Anti-Immigrant Political Rhetoric: A Mixed Methods Study of Immigrants’ Political Belonging’. (2019) [PDF]
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.
Simonsen, Kristina Bakkær. ‘Ripple Effects: An Exclusive Host National Context Produces More Perceived Discrimination among Immigrants’. (2016)
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.
Brodmann, Stefanie, and Javier G. Polavieja. ‘Immigrants in Denmark: Access to Employment, Class Attainment and Earnings in a High-Skilled Economy’. (2011) [PDF]
Brodmann, Stefanie, and Javier G. Polavieja. ‘Immigrants in Denmark: Access to Employment, Class Attainment and Earnings in a High-Skilled Economy’. International Migration, vol. 49, no. 1, 2011, pp. 58–90.
This study examines employment access, class attainment, and earnings among native-born and first-generation immigrants in Denmark using Danish administrative data from 2002. Results suggest large gaps in employment access between native-born Danes and immigrants, as well as among immigrant groups by country of origin and time of arrival. Non-Western immigrants and those arriving after 1984 are at a particular disadvantage compared to other immigrants, a finding not explained by education differences. Immigrants are more likely to be employed in unskilled manual jobs and less likely to be employed in professional and intermediate-level positions than native-born Danes, although the likelihood of obtaining higher-level positions increases as immigrants’ time in Denmark lengthens. Class attainment and accumulated work experience explain a significant portion of native-immigrant gaps in earnings, but work experience reduces native-immigrant gaps in class attainment for lower-level positions only. The Danish “flexicurity” model and its implications for immigrants living in Denmark are discussed.
doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2435.2010.00608.x.
PDF: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1468-2435.2010.00608.x.
Nielsen, Helena Skyt, Michael Rosholm, Nina Smith, and Leif Husted. ‘Qualifications, Discrimination, or Assimilation? An Extended Framework for Analysing Immigrant Wage (2004) [PDF]
Nielsen, Helena Skyt, Michael Rosholm, Nina Smith, and Leif Husted. ‘Qualifications, Discrimination, or Assimilation? An Extended Framework for Analysing Immigrant Wage Gaps’. Empirical Economics, vol. 29, no. 4, Dec. 2004, pp. 855–883.
In this paper, we analyze immigrant wage gaps and propose an extension of the traditional wage decomposition technique, which is a synthesis from two strains of literature on ethnic/immigrant wage differences, namely the ‘assimilation literature’ and the ‘discrimination literature’. We estimate separate wage equations for natives and a number of immigrant groups using panel data sample selection models. Based on the estimations, we find that the immigrant wage gap is caused by a lack of qualifications and incomplete assimilation, and that a large fraction of that gap would disappear if only immigrants could find employment and thus accumulate work experience.
Herby, Jonas, and Ulrik Haagen Nielsen. Omfanget Af Forskelsbehandling Af Nydanskere: Et Felteksperiment På Lejeboligmarkedet. (2015) [PDF]
Herby, Jonas, and Ulrik Haagen Nielsen. Omfanget Af Forskelsbehandling Af Nydanskere: Et Felteksperiment På Lejeboligmarkedet. Holte: Ankestyrelsen, 3 Nov. 2015,
Boligsøgende med mellemøstligt klingende navne skal i snit søge om 27 % flere boliger end boligsøgende med et danskklingende navn for at have ligeså gode chancer for at få tilbudt en lejebolig eller en fremvisning. Det vil sige, at når en boligsøgende med et danskklingende navn har sendt 4 ansøgninger, skal en boligsøgende med et mellemøstligt klingende navn søge om 5 boliger for at have lige så gode muligheder for at se eller få den tilbudt.
Hovden, Jan Fredrik, and Hilmar Mjelde. ‘Increasingly Controversial, Cultural, and Political: The Immigration Debate in Scandinavian Newspapers 1970–2016’. (2019)
Hovden, Jan Fredrik, and Hilmar Mjelde. ‘Increasingly Controversial, Cultural, and Political: The Immigration Debate in Scandinavian Newspapers 1970–2016’. Javnost – The Public, vol. 26, no. 2, Apr. 2019, pp. 138–157.
Earlier accounts of the immigration debate in Scandinavia have suggested that despite the countries’ many similarities, Swedish newspapers are dominated by immigration friendly views, that Danish papers are very open to strongly negative views on immigration, and that Norwegian press occupies a middle position. However, this argument has until now not been tested through a large systematic, comparative, and historical study of newspaper coverage of immigration in these countries. As a part of the SCANPUB project [https:// scanpub.w.uib.no/], a content analysis of a representative sample of articles for two news- papers for each country for the period 1970–2016 (one constructed month pr. year, N = 4329) was done. Focusing on broad Scandinavian trends and major national differences, the results support the general claims about national differences in Scandinavian immigration debate, and also suggest some major developments, in particular the rise of immigration as an issue for debate and for national politicians.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13183222.2019.1589285
Jørndrup, Hanne. ‘Dem vi taler om’: Etniske minoriteter i danske nyhedsmedier. (2017) [PDF]
Jørndrup, Hanne. ‘Dem vi taler om’: Etniske minoriteter i danske nyhedsmedier. Edited by Roskilde Universitet Center for Nyhedsforskning, JP/Politikenshus, and Ansvarlig Presse, København: Ansvarlig Presse, 2017.
ETNISKE MINORITETER I NYHEDSBILLEDET3Indvandrere og efterkommere er genstand for stor opmærksomhed og debat i det danske sam-fund. Medier, politikere og befolkning har over de seneste årtier haft en kontinuerlig interesse for spørgsmål om, hvor mange og hvilke indvandrere Danmark modtager, samt hvordan og hvorvidt disse er integreret i det danske samfund. I relation hertil diskuteres også spørgsmål om religion, traditioner, kvindesyn, værdier m.m. Skiftende regeringer har indført forskellige lovgivningstiltag for at regulere indvandreres adgang til Danmark, ligesom generelle integrationsspørgsmål over de seneste mange år har været et helt centralt emne ved folketingsvalg og i den politiske debat. Alt dette får borgerne først og fremmest indtryk af gennem nyhedsmedierne.
Spørgsmål om indvandrere og efterkommere er altså markant tilstede på mediernes dagsorden og har været det i flere årtier.
Det er dog ikke ensbetydende med, at indvandrere og efterkommere selv får tilsvarende plads og taletid i medierne. Denne rapport undersøger, hvorvidt nyhedsmedierne kun taler om indvan-drere og efterkommere, eller om de også taler med dem. I 2012 udkom den første undersøgelse af mediernes dækning af indvandrere og efterkommere under titlen “Nydanskerne i nyhedsmedierne”. Undersøgelsen var lavet ud fra et ønske om at skabe et kvalificeret grundlag for debatter om indvandrere og efterkommeres tilstedeværelse og optræden i danske nyhedsmedier.Denne rapport er en opfølgning på rapporten fra 2012 og bygger på de samme grundlæggende spørgsmål for at lave en kortlægning af nyhedsbilledet: Hvor meget fylder indvandrere og efterkommer i det danske nyhedsbillede? Hvilke nyhedshistorier optræder de i? Hvilken rolle spiller de i nyhedsdækningen?
Rapporten er beskrivende og kvantitativ og bygger på kodningen af 2966 nyhedskilder i 1190 nyhedshistorier fra ni danske medier fra udvalgte dage i de første 14 uger af 2016. De kvantitative opgørelser over nyhedskilder, stofområder og kildetyper vil blive diskuteret i forhold til, dels tal fra Danmarks Statistiks rapport “Indvandrere i Danmark 2016” og dels generelle karakteristika ved danske mediers praksis.
PDF: https://pluralisterne.dk/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/AP_Dem-vi-taler-om_2017.pdf
Kinnvall, Catarina, and Paul Nesbitt-Larking. ‘The Political Psychology of (de)Securitization: Place-Making Strategies in Denmark, Sweden, and Canada’. (2010) [PDF]
Kinnvall, Catarina, and Paul Nesbitt-Larking. ‘The Political Psychology of (de)Securitization: Place-Making Strategies in Denmark, Sweden, and Canada’. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, vol. 28, no. 6, Dec. 2010, pp. 1051–1070.
In this article we demonstrate how both state structures and collective agencies contribute to patterns of securitization and, in so doing, reconfigure conceptions of space and place. Focusing on the life-chances of Muslim minority populations in Denmark, Sweden, and Canada, we begin by establishing how experiences of empire and colonization have shaped dominant regimes of citizenship and multiculturalism. Analyzing responses to the Danish newspaper publication of the `Mohammed cartoons’, we illustrate the dynamics of place making that are operative in the political psychology of securitization. Our analysis illustrates the cosmopolitical and dialogical character of Canadian multiculturalism and how such a regime facilitates a politics of space that is distinct from the cartographies of imperialism that inform place making in Denmark and, to a lesser extent, Sweden.
doi:10.1068/d13808.
Liebig, Thomas. The Labour Market Integration of Immigrants in Denmark. (2007) [PDF]
Liebig, Thomas. The Labour Market Integration of Immigrants in Denmark. OECD, 2007, p. 80.
Lundby, Knut, Stig Hjarvard, Mia Lövheim, and Haakon H. Jernsletten. ‘Religion between Politics and Media: Conflicting Attitudes towards Islam in Scandinavia’. (2018) [PDF]
Lundby, Knut, Stig Hjarvard, Mia Lövheim, and Haakon H. Jernsletten. ‘Religion between Politics and Media: Conflicting Attitudes towards Islam in Scandinavia’. Journal of Religion in Europe, vol. 10, no. 4, Nov. 2017, pp. 437–456.
Based on a comparative project on media and religion across Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, this article analyzes relationships between religiosity and political attitudes in Scandinavia and how these connect with attitudes regarding the representation of Islam in various media. Data comes from population-wide surveys conducted in the three countries in April 2015. Most Scandinavians relate ‘religion’ with conflict, and half of the population perceives Islam as a threat to their national culture. Scandinavians thus perceive religion in terms of political tensions and predominantly feel that news media should serve a critical function towards Islam and religious conflicts. Finally, the results of the empirical analysis are discussed in view of the intertwined processes of politicization of Islam and mediatization of religion.
doi:10.1163/18748929-01004005.
PDF: http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/18748929-01004005.
Pedersen, Mogens Jin, Justin M. Stritch, and Frederik Thuesen. ‘Punishment on the Frontlines of Public Service Delivery: Client Ethnicity and Caseworker Sanctioning Decisions in a Scandinavian Welfare State’. (2018) [PDF]
Pedersen, Mogens Jin, Justin M. Stritch, and Frederik Thuesen. ‘Punishment on the Frontlines of Public Service Delivery: Client Ethnicity and Caseworker Sanctioning Decisions in a Scandinavian Welfare State’. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, vol. 28, no. 3, June 2018, pp. 339–354.
Many public welfare programs give public employees discretionary authority to dispense sanc- tions when clients do not follow or comply with the policies and procedures required for receiving welfare benefits.Yet research also shows that public employees’ use of discretion in decision-mak- ing that affects clients can occasionally be marked by racial biases and disparities. Drawing on the Racial Classification Model (RCM) for a theoretical model, this article examines how client ethnicity shapes public employees’ decisions to sanction clients. Using Danish employment agencies as our empirical setting, we present findings from two complementary studies. Study 1 uses nationwide administrative data. Examining sanctioning activity at the employment agency-level, we find that agencies with a larger percentage of clients being non-Western immigrants or their descendants impose a greater overall number of sanctions and dispense them with greater frequency. Study 2 uses survey experimental data to build on this finding. Addressing concerns about internal val- idity and a need for analyses at the individual employee-level, we present survey experimental evidence that employment agency caseworkers are more likely to recommend sanctions for ethnic minority (Middle-Eastern origin) clients than for ethnic majority (Danish origin) clients. Moreover, we investigate how three caseworker characteristics—ethnicity, gender, and work experience— condition the relationship between client ethnicity and caseworkers’ decisions to sanction clients. Although we find no moderation effects for ethnicity or gender, work experience appears to dimin- ish the influence of client ethnicity on the caseworkers’ sanctioning decisions. Overall, our studies support the likelihood that ethnic minority clients will be punished more often for policy infractions than ethnic majority clients—and that caseworker work experience mitigates part of this bias.
Olsen, Asmus Leth, Jonas Høgh Kyhse‐Andersen, and Donald Moynihan. ‘The Unequal Distribution of Opportunity: A National Audit Study of Bureaucratic Discrimination in Primary School Access’. (2020) [PDF]
Olsen, Asmus Leth, Jonas Høgh Kyhse‐Andersen, and Donald Moynihan. ‘The Unequal Distribution of Opportunity: A National Audit Study of Bureaucratic Discrimination in Primary School Access’. American Journal of Political Science, 2020.
Administrators can use their discretion to discriminate in the provision of public services via two mechanisms. They make decisions to allocate public services, allowing them to discriminate via allocative exclusion. They can also discriminate by targeting administrative burdens toward outgroups to make bureaucratic processes more onerous. While prior audit studies only examine the use of administrative burdens, we offer evidence of both mechanisms. We sent a request to all Danish primary schools (N = 1,698) from an ingroup (a typical Danish name) and outgroup (a Muslim name) father asking if it was possible to move his child to the school. While both groups received similar response rates, we find large differences in discrimination via allocative exclusion: Danes received a clear acceptance 25% of the time, compared to 15% for Muslims. Muslims also faced greater administrative burdens in the form of additional questions.
doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12584.
PDF: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ajps.12584.
Petersen, Niels Bjørn Grund. ‘Disciplining the Strong? Discrimination of Service Users and the Moderating Role of PSM and Ability to Cope’. (2021)
Petersen, Niels Bjørn Grund. ‘Disciplining the Strong? Discrimination of Service Users and the Moderating Role of PSM and Ability to Cope’. Public Management Review, vol. 23, no. 2, Feb. 2021, pp. 168–188.
Ethnic stereotypes influence frontline workers’ decision-making, which challenges the legitimacy of public organizations. In this article, we examine how ethnic stereotypes affect caseworkers’ sanctioning behaviour in a context where the client group consists of highly vulnerable clients. Using survey experimental vignettes and qualitative interviews, we find that social caseworkers use ethnic classification in their decision-making. However, contrary to our expectations, caseworkers are less likely to sanction clients with a nonwestern ethnicity compared to ethnic Danish clients. In addition, the article finds novel evidence indicating that employee traits mitigate the use of ethnic stereotypes.
doi:10.1080/14719037.2019.1668469.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14719037.2019.1668469.
Stonawski, Marcin Jan, Adrian F. Rogne, Henrik Bang, Henning Christensen, and Torkild Hovde Lyngstad. Ethnic Segregation and Native Out-Migration in Copenhagen. (2019) [PDF]
Stonawski, Marcin Jan, Adrian F. Rogne, Henrik Bang, Henning Christensen, and Torkild Hovde Lyngstad. Ethnic Segregation and Native Out-Migration in Copenhagen. preprint, SocArXiv, 23 Jan. 2019.
We study how the local concentration of ethnic minorities relates to natives’ likelihood of outmigration in the capital of Denmark. In US studies, a high or increasing proportion of racial or ethnic minorities in inner city neighborhoods is seen as the prime motivation for ‘white flight;’ White middle-class families moving towards racially and ethnically homogeneous suburbs. The relatively egalitarian Scandinavian setting offers a contrasting case, where inner cities are less deprived, and where minority groups primarily consist of immigrants and children of immigrants that have arrived over the past few decades. Using rich, population-wide, longitudinal administrative data over a twelve-year period, linked to exact coordinates on places of residence, we document how the geographical distribution of minorities within Copenhagen relates to native out-migration. We observe increasing out-migration among the native majority population from areas with high and increasing minority concentrations, largely supporting the hypothesis of a ‘native flight’ mobility pattern.
Storm, Ingrid. ‘«Christian Nations»? Ethnic Christianity and Anti-Immigration Attitudes in Four Western European Countries’. (2011) [PDF]
Storm, Ingrid. ‘«Christian Nations»? Ethnic Christianity and Anti-Immigration Attitudes in Four Western European Countries’. Nordic Journal of Religion & Society, vol. 24, no. 1, May 2011, pp. 75–96.
Despite a general decline in religious belief and practice in Europe, questions of national religious heritage have become increasingly salient in recent public debates about immigration and integration. Using data from the 2008 International Social Survey Programme (Religion III module), this study explores associations between individual religiosity and attitudes to immigration in four Western European countries: Great Britain, the Netherlands, Ireland and Denmark. Multivariate analysis reveals contrasting associations. Identifying with a Christian religion makes one more likely to think immigration is a threat to national identity, whereas regular church attendance reduces this effect. Despite national differences, the results from all four countries indicate a prevalence of Cultural or Ethnic Christianity, where religion is used to identify with national traditions or ethnic heritage rather than faith.
PDF: https://www.idunn.no/file/ci/66929888/Christian_Nations_Ethnic_Christianity_And_Anti-Immigratio.pdf
van Klingeren, Marijn, Hajo G. Boomgaarden, Rens Vliegenthart, and Claes H. de Vreese. ‘Real World Is Not Enough: The Media as an Additional Source of Negative Attitudes Toward Immigration, Comparing Denmark and the Netherlands’. (2015) [PDF]
van Klingeren, Marijn, Hajo G. Boomgaarden, Rens Vliegenthart, and Claes H. de Vreese. ‘Real World Is Not Enough: The Media as an Additional Source of Negative Attitudes Toward Immigration, Comparing Denmark and the Netherlands’. European Sociological Review, vol. 31, no. 3, June 2015, pp. 268–283.
Most people are unable to accurately estimate the number of immigrants in their country. Nonetheless, it has been argued that the size of the immigrant population would affect people’s immigration attitudes. Part of the effect of immigration on attitudes occurs not so much because of real immigration figures, but rather because of media reporting about immigration. In this study, negative attitudes towards immigration are explained by investigating the impact of the salience and the tone of immigration topics in the news media vis-a` -vis the impact of immigration statistics. The cases of Denmark and the Netherlands are analysed for a period from 2003 to 2010, using a multilevel design. Overall, real-world immigration numbers have little impact. The tone of news coverage has an effect in the Netherlands: a positive tone reduces negativity towards immigration, while a negative tone does not increase negativity. We cautiously conclude that the longevity of the issue’s salience has a moderating effect.
doi:10.1093/esr/jcu089.
PDF: https://academic.oup.com/esr/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/esr/jcu089.
Villadsen, Anders R., and Jesper N. Wulff. ‘Is the Public Sector a Fairer Employer? Ethnic Employment Discrimination in the Public and Private Sectors’. (2018)
Villadsen, Anders R., and Jesper N. Wulff. ‘Is the Public Sector a Fairer Employer? Ethnic Employment Discrimination in the Public and Private Sectors’. Academy of Management Discoveries, vol. 4, no. 4, Dec. 2018, pp. 429–448.
Increasing immigration is creating multiethnic labor markets in many countries. As convincingly identified by a growing body of research, substantial ethnic discrimination inhibits immigrants’ access to employment. The public sector may play an important role in creating labor market integration by setting a good example. Yet, little is known about sector differences in employment discrimination and whether public sector or- ganizations are more or less likely than private firms to ethnically discriminate against prospective employees. Both theory and empirical studies suggest that public sector organizations discriminate less. To investigate these phenomena, we conducted two studies. Study 1 is a field experiment designed to explicitly investigate private and public sector differences in ethnic discrimination in Danish organizations’ recruitment pro- cesses. Observing extensive discrimination favoring applicants with a Danish name, we find little evidence that the public sector is fairer in hiring decisions. Study 2, which is based on register data, highlights that sector differences and similarities in discrimina- tion are context contingent and depend on organizational size and location. We propose a framework of sector and context interaction to explain organizational differences in ethnic discrimination.
Wulff, Jesper N., and Anders R. Villadsen. ‘Are Survey Experiments as Valid as Field Experiments in Management Research? An Empirical Comparison Using the Case of Ethnic Employment Discrimination’ (2020)
Wulff, Jesper N., and Anders R. Villadsen. ‘Are Survey Experiments as Valid as Field Experiments in Management Research? An Empirical Comparison Using the Case of Ethnic Employment Discrimination’. European Management Review, vol. 17, no. 1, Mar. 2020, pp. 347–356.
Field experiments have long been the gold standard in studies of organizational topics such as ethnic discrimination in recruitment. The recent use of survey experiments, also known as experimental vignettes, suggests that some researchers believe that survey experiments could be used as an alternative to field experiments. In this study we put this notion to the test. We perform a field experiment followed by two survey experiments on ethnic discrimination in recruitment. While the results of our field experiment are consistent with previous evidence on discrimination, one survey experiment concludes no difference between native and immigrant employees while another concludes positive discrimination. These results should invoke caution in researchers wanting to investigate organizational topics using survey experiments.
doi:10.1111/emre.12342.