On February 5th Dr. Kinga Wysieńska presented a paper: ‘Measuring discrimination against immigrants and ethnic minorities. Results of a correspondence test’.

Abstract:

Little research has been done to examine discrimination against immigrants in the labor market in Poland. Qualitative and non-random sample studies indicate, however, that the phenomenon exists and in part can be attributed to employer discrimination in hiring. To investigate whether there is “immigrant and ethnic penalty” in recruitment, a labor market experiment was conducted. Job applications of candidates, who were equivalent in their human capital but differed in their ethnic and national background, were sent out in response to job advertisements. The results show a statistically significant net discrimination against immigrants. Especially strong negative effect was observed for Ukrainian females. We present the results and also develop the discussion of possible explanations of the observed effects. Namely, we confront predictions from economic theories of statistical discrimination and status characteristics theory of double standards.

Presentation (PDF)