Helms Jørgensen, Christian. Are apprenticeships inclusive of refugees? Experiences from Denmark. (2022). [PDF]

Helms Jørgensen, C. Are apprenticeships inclusive of refugees? Experiences from Denmark. In L. Moreno Herrera, M. Teräs, P. Gougoulakis, & J. Kontio (Eds.), Migration and Inclusion in Work Life – The Role of VET. 2022. Atlas Akademi.

Context/purpose: The influx of a large number of young refugees in Europe during 2015–2016 drew attention to the role of vocational education and training (VET) in the integration of refugees. In Denmark, the VET system is based on the apprenticeship model, where most training is located in workplaces. Apprenticeships are internationally praised for their inclusiveness, as they provide direct access to employment for vulnerable learners. The research question examined in this chapter is what role apprenticeships play in the integration of immigrants and refugees. Special focus is placed on the recent development after the “refugee crisis” of 2015–2016 and the introduction of a new special apprenticeship programme for refugees in Denmark, known as Basic Integration Education (IGU). 

Approach/Methods: First, this chapter reviews research on the capability of apprenticeships to include disadvantaged youth, and particularly research on ethnic minority students in apprenticeships. Next, it examines the political response to the refugee crisis and the process behind the introduction of the new apprenticeship programme, IGU, in Denmark. This study is based on analyses of key policy documents on the development of IGU, including official acts and documentation, evaluations, applied research publications and statistics. It also includes analyses of 11 individual interviews with key stakeholders in vocational schools, nongovernmental organisations and labour market organisations involved in the programme. The interviews conducted either face-to-face or by telephone and were recorded, transcribed and analysed for the description of two examples of how the IGU has been organised. 

Findings/Results: Immigrants and refugees face some special barriers in apprenticeships, including problems of navigating a complex system, entrance requirements and access to apprenticeship contracts and to communities in workplaces. A special apprenticeship programme for refugees (IGU) was introduced in Denmark during a period with labour shortage, but also with new anti-immigration measures, which limited refugees’ access to apprenticeships. This chapter assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the IGU programme in the following five years and examines two successful examples of IGU programmes. 

Conclusion/Key message: While apprenticeships are not particularly inclusive of ethnic minorities and refugees, the IGU programme for refugees is considered a success. The success is due to a tripartite agreement in 2016 that solved the critical issues concerning wages, apprenticeship contracts, certification, curriculum and governance. The IGU, however, also has some weaknesses, which make many refugees leave the programme before completion to shift into better-paid regular employment.

PDF: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/358743292_Inclusion_for_all_in_VET_A_comparative_overview_of_policies_and_state_of_research_about_migration_integration_and_inclusion_in_Germany_Austria_and_Switzerland

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

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).

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

Damsted Rasmussen, Trine, Sarah Fredsted Villadsen, Per Kragh Andersen, Signe Smith Jervelund, and Anne-Marie Nybo Andersen. Social and ethnic disparities in stillbirth and infant death in Denmark, 2005–2016. (2021). [PDF]

Damsted Rasmussen, Trine, Sarah Fredsted Villadsen, Per Kragh Andersen, Signe Smith Jervelund, and Anne-Marie Nybo Andersen. Social and ethnic disparities in stillbirth and infant death in Denmark, 2005–2016. Scientific Reports, 11, 8001, 2021.

Ethnic disparity in stillbirth and infant death has been demonstrated in Europe. As the relation between migration and health change over time, this population based register study investigated the recent figures and explored if potential differences could be explained by the well-known educational and income inequalities in stillbirth and infant death using a novel approach. Stillbirth and infant mortality varied considerably according to country of origin, with only immigrants from China, Norway, and Poland having an overall lower risk than Danish women. Women of Pakistani, Turkish, and Somali origin had a particularly high risk of both outcomes. Women from recent high conflict areas displayed a pattern with increased stillbirth risk. An observed excess risks across generations was found, which is disturbing and rule out factors related to language barriers or newness. Differences in educational level and household income explained only part of the observed inequalities. Strengthening of the maternity care system to better understand and meet the needs of immigrant women seems needed to mitigate the disparities.

PDF: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-87084-3

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

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

Caselli, Mauro & Paolo Falco. As Long as They Are Cheap: Experimental Evidence on the Demand for Migrant Workers. (2020) [PDF]

Caselli, Mauro & Paolo Falco. As Long as They Are Cheap: Experimental Evidence on the Demand for Migrant Workers, SSRN, 2020.

How does demand for migrant vs native workers change with price? We conduct an experiment with 56,000 Danish households (over 2 percent of all households in the country), who receive an advertisement from a cleaning company whose operators vary randomly across areas but meet the same quality standards and have equal customer ratings. When the operator has a migrant background, we find that demand is significantly lower than when the operator is a native. The gap, however, is highly sensitive to price, with demand for the migrant increasing steeply as the price falls. For an hourly pay close to the 25th percentile of the earnings distribution in similar occupations (24 USD per hour), demand for the migrant is one-fifth of the demand for the native. A 25 percent reduction in the price makes the gap in demand disappear.

PDF: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3685873

Breidahl, Karen N. & Gina Gustavsson. Can we trust the natives? Exploring the relationship between national identity and trust among immigrants and their descendants in Denmark. (2022). [PDF]

Breidahl, Karen N. & Gina Gustavsson. Can we trust the natives? Exploring the relationship between national identity and trust among immigrants and their descendants in Denmark. Nations and Nationalism, 28(2), 2022, 592–611.

Politicians often seek to strengthen national identity by encouraging immigrants to adopt the ‘national values’, thus supposedly boosting trust. However, empirical studies of the social effects of national identity have focused almost exclusively on the native majority. In this article, we instead ask how national identity among immigrant minorities affects their trust, including towards natives. We draw on unique survey data from a representative sample of the five largest non-Western immigrant groups and their descendants in Denmark. This reveals that national belonging, national pride and citizenship preferences are positively linked to social as well as institutional trust. These relationships hold even when controlling for the perception of sharing one’s values with others and the extent to which one holds ‘typically Danish’ values widely shared among the majority population. This suggests that the emotional component of national identity, but not its content in the form of values, indeed forms an important basis for social cohesion.

PDF: https://doi.org/10.1111/nana.12834

Bratt, Christopher. Is it racism? The belief in cultural superiority across Europe. (2022) [PDF]

Bratt, Christopher. Is it racism? The belief in cultural superiority across Europe. European Societies, 24(2), 2022, 207–228.

Are Europeans racist if they maintain that some cultures are superior? Theorists of cultural racism argue so and suggest that modern racism in Europe is expressed as a belief in cultural superiority. But this claim has been based on theoretical arguments, not on empirical tests. The current research investigated how widespread a belief in cultural superiority was in European countries and tested how such a belief related to biological racism. Analyses of data from the European Social Survey (21 countries, total N > 33,000) showed large differences across countries in tendencies to endorse the belief in cultural superiority. But in nearly all countries, a factor model consistent with the theory of cultural racism had much better support than a factor model building on the assumption that culturalism is distinct from racism. Even when the factor analysis was able to maintain a distinction between racism and culturalism, the two factors had a very strong correlation. The present research suggests that although a belief in cultural superiority may harbour different views, expressed beliefs in cultural superiority and cultural concerns are strongly associated with traditional racism.

PDF: https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.2022.2059098

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

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]

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

Høeg Næraa, Astrid Marie, Dorthe Susanne Nielsen & Morten Sodemann. Patient-physician agreement among vulnerable ethnic minority patients in Denmark. (2021). [PDF]

Høeg Næraa, A. M., Nielsen, D. S., & Sodemann, M. (2021). Patient-physician agreement among vulnerable ethnic minority patients in Denmark. Danish Medical Journal, 68(11).

INTRODUCTION Medical doctors in Denmark are clinically challenged by ethnic minority patients, resulting in delayed or incorrect treatments. Apart from language barriers, little is known about the nature of the challenges presented by ethnic minority patients. The present study investigated the level of agreement between the patients’ main problems,doctors’ referral notes and patient-reported problems documented at a hospital-based migrant health outpatient clinic.

PDF: https://ugeskriftet.dk/patient-physician-agreement-among-vulnerable-ethnic-minority-patients-denmark

Dunlavy, Andrea, Karl Gauffin, Lisa Berg, Christopher Jamil De Montgomery, Ryan Europa, Ketil Eide, et al. Health outcomes in young adulthood among former child refugees in Denmark, Norway and Sweden: A cross-country comparative study. (2021) [PDF]

Dunlavy, A., Gauffin, K., Berg, L., De Montgomery, C. J., Europa, R., Eide, K., Ascher, H., & Hjern, A. (2021). Health outcomes in young adulthood among former child refugees in Denmark, Norway and Sweden: A cross-country comparative study. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 51(3), 2021, 330-338.

Dunlavy, Andrea, Karl Gauffin, Lisa Berg, Christopher Jamil De Montgomery, Ryan Europa, Ketil Eide, and others, Health Outcomes in Young Adulthood among Former Child Refugees in Denmark, Norway and Sweden: A Cross-Country Comparative Study, Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 2021.

Aims:This study aimed at comparing several health outcomes in young adulthood among child refugees who settled in the different immigration and integration policy contexts of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.Methods:The study population included refugees born between 1972 and 1997 who immigrated before the age of 18 and settled in the three Nordic countries during 1986?2005. This population was followed up in national registers during 2006?2015 at ages 18?43 years and was compared with native-born majority populations in the same birth cohorts using sex-stratified and age-adjusted regression analyses.Results:Refugee men in Denmark stood out with a consistent pattern of higher risks for mortality, disability/illness pension, psychiatric care and substance misuse relative to native-born majority Danish men, with risk estimates being higher than comparable estimates observed among refugee men in Norway and Sweden. Refugee men in Sweden and Norway also demonstrated increased risks relative to native-born majority population men for inpatient psychiatric care, and in Sweden also for disability/illness pension. With the exception of increased risk for psychotic disorders, outcomes among refugee women were largely similar to or better than those of native-born majority women in all countries.Conclusions:The observed cross-country differences in health indicators among refugees, and the poorer health outcomes of refugee men in Denmark in particular, may be understood in terms of marked differences in Nordic integration policies. However, female refugees in all three countries had better relative health outcomes than refugee men did, suggesting possible sex differentials that warrant further investigation.

Aims: This study aimed at comparing several health outcomes in young adulthood among child refugees who settled in the different immigration and integration policy contexts of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

Methods:The study population included refugees born between 1972 and 1997 who immigrated before the age of 18 and settled in the three Nordic countries during 1986-2005. This population was followed up in national registers during 2006-2015 at ages 18?43 years and was compared with native-born majority populations in the same birth cohorts using sex-stratified and age-adjusted regression analyses.

Results:Refugee men in Denmark stood out with a consistent pattern of higher risks for mortality, disability/illness pension, psychiatric care and substance misuse relative to native-born majority Danish men, with risk estimates being higher than comparable estimates observed among refugee men in Norway and Sweden. Refugee men in Sweden and Norway also demonstrated increased risks relative to native-born majority population men for inpatient psychiatric care, and in Sweden also for disability/illness pension. With the exception of increased risk for psychotic disorders, outcomes among refugee women were largely similar to or better than those of native-born majority women in all countries.

Conclusions: The observed cross-country differences in health indicators among refugees, and the poorer health outcomes of refugee men in Denmark in particular, may be understood in terms of marked differences in Nordic integration policies. However, female refugees in all three countries had better relative health outcomes than refugee men did, suggesting possible sex differentials that warrant further investigation.

PDF: https://doi.org/10.1177/14034948211031408

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]

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

Kjærulff, Thora Majlund et al. Geographical Inequalities in Acute Myocardial Infarction beyond Neighbourhood-Level and Individual-Level Sociodemographic Characteristics: A Danish 10-Year Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study. (2019) [PDF]

Kjærulff, Thora Majlund, Kristine Bihrmann, Ingelise Andersen, Gunnar Hilmar Gislason, Mogens Lytken Larsen, and Annette Kjær Ersbøll, Geographical Inequalities in Acute Myocardial Infarction beyond Neighbourhood-Level and Individual-Level Sociodemographic Characteristics: A Danish 10-Year Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study, BMJ Open, 9.2 (2019).

Objective This study examined whether geographical patterns in incident acute myocardial infarction (AMI) were explained by neighbourhood-level and individual-level sociodemographic characteristics.

Design An open cohort study design of AMI-free adults (age ≥30 years) with a residential location in Denmark in 2005–2014 was used based on nationwide administrative population and health register data linked by the unique personal identification number. Poisson regression of AMI incidence rates (IRs) with a geographical random effect component was performed using a Bayesian approach. The analysis included neighbourhood-level variables on income, ethnic composition, population density and population turnover and accounted for individual-level age, sex, calendar year, cohabitation status, income and education. Setting Residents in Denmark (2005–2014).

Participants The study population included 4 128 079 persons (33 907 796 person-years at risk) out of whom 98 265 experienced an incident AMI. Outcome measure Incident AMI registered in the National Patient Register or the Register of Causes of Death. Results Including individual and neighbourhood sociodemographic characteristics in the model decreased the variation in IRs of AMI. However, living in certain areas was associated with up to 40% increased IRs of AMI in the adjusted model and accounting for sociodemographic characteristics only moderately changed the geographical disease patterns.

Conclusions Differences in sociodemographic characteristics of the neighbourhood and individuals explained part, but not all of the geographical inequalities in incident AMI. Prevention strategies should address the confirmed social inequalities in incident AMI, but also target the areas with a heavy disease burden to enable efficient allocation of prevention resources.

PDF: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-024207

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

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

Sahi̇n, Merve, The Development of the Turkish Minority’s Social Challenges in Denmark from 1970 to 2021, for the Purpose of Integration (2022). [PDF]

Sahi̇n, Merve, The Development of the Turkish Minority’s Social Challenges in Denmark from 1970 to 2021, for the Purpose of Integration, Turkish Journal of Diaspora Studies, 2.1 (2022), 55–72.

Beginning in the 1960’s, Denmark recruited Turkish guest workers. Today, the Turkish minority is Denmark’s largest minority group from non-western countries. This article examines the social challenges of the Turkish minority in Denmark from 1970 to 2021, and their integration during this period. This study uses several methods to obtain insight into the integration process of Turkish immigrants over three generations in Denmark and the challenges they faced and continue to face. In addition to the source criticism and a comprehensive literature review, this study uses qualitative and quantitative methods to understand Turkish immigrants’ immigration processes. Qualitative and quantitative analysis in the field of Danish historical research, specifically the area concerning the Turkish minority are not adequately covered by the existing literature. This study finds that all three generations of the Turkish minority in Denmark experienced social challenges in several areas that are related to each other, and these social challenges have an effect on their integration status. Some social challenges have decreased over generations but specifically discrimination and racism have not.

PDF: https://tjds.org.tr/index.php/tjds/article/view/15

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

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]

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)

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]

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

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.

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]

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]

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.

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.

PDF: https://www.aclweb.org/anthology/2020.lrec-1.430.