Tag: discrimination

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Crises do not necessarily increase discrimination

Using the current pandemic as an example, we show that social and economic crises do not necessarily translate into increased levels of ethnic discrimination. We repeated a field experiment in the housing market, and find no clear evidence of increased discrimination against the most important immigrant groups in Switzerland.

How does this fit with accounts of increased levels of hate speech, especially at the beginning of the pandemic? We think it is important to differentiate between “cheap” behaviour that does not cost the perpetrator much (hate speech, exclusionary attitudes) and “costly” behaviour where the perpetrators take a risk (e.g. risk of not rending out an apartment, risk of not hiring the best candidate). Moreover, we think it is important to recognize that crises not only affect boundary making and exclusion (that’s what social theory tells us), but also increase economic uncertainty — a change that affects how (economic) actors behave.

Auer, Daniel, Didier Ruedin, and Eva Van Belle. 2023. ‘No Sign of Increased Ethnic Discrimination during a Crisis: Evidence from the Covid-19 Pandemic’. Socio-Economic Review. DOI: 10.1093/ser/mwac069

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Out now — No Sign of Increased Ethnic Discrimination during a Crisis: Evidence from the Covid-19 Pandemic

At the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, there’s been an increase in hate-crime again Asians in many countries around the world. Some identified more negative attitudes against immigrants — a classic case of what is known as scapegoating.

In this article, just out at the Socio-Economic Review, we wanted to know if scapegoating and discrimination of minorities is a defining feature of crises. That’s what social theory argues. In the present case, we wanted to know if ethnic discrimination increased, too — the actual (and consequential) behaviour where minorities are invited less often to view apartments they want to rent. To do so, we replicated a field experiment in the Swiss housing market at the beginning of the pandemic.

Overall, we find no evidence of increased discrimination against the most important immigrant groups in Switzerland. When digging deeper, we found that uncertainty in the housing market was important. Rather than excluding immigrants more often, proprietors and rental agencies seem to have changed their selection behaviour and focus on different signals or markers of solvency and reliability: Instead of ethnicity/minority status, now immigrants with highly skilled jobs were at an advantage.

We conclude that crises do not necessarily increase discriminatory behaviour in market situations.

Auer, Daniel, Didier Ruedin, and Eva Van Belle. 2023. ‘No Sign of Increased Ethnic Discrimination during a Crisis: Evidence from the Covid-19 Pandemic’. Socio-Economic Review. DOI: 10.1093/ser/mwac069

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Job opportunities: Structural racism & discrimination (PhD & Postdoc)

Over at the new EqualStrength project, they are hiring 1 PhD and 1 postdoc.

EqualStrength is a Horizon Europe project funded by the European Union. This research project investigates cumulative and structural forms of discrimination, outgroup prejudice and hate crimes against ethnic, racial and religious minorities.

Objectives of the project:

  1. reveal structural and cumulative forms of ethnic and racial discrimination in Europe
  2. assess the systemic nature of prejudice across life domains
  3. analyse policy and institutional factors that contribute to structural discrimination
  4. document the experiences and coping strategies
  5. highlight the intersection of race, ethnicity and religion with other dimensions of inequality

https://equalstrength.eu/opportunities.html

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No Sign of Increased Ethnic Discrimination during a Crisis: Evidence from the Covid-19 Pandemic

2023 Socio-Economic Review ·

Auer, Daniel, Didier Ruedin, and Eva Van Belle. 2023. ‘No Sign of Increased Ethnic Discrimination during a Crisis: Evidence from the Covid-19 Pandemic’. Socio-Economic Review. DOI: 10.1093/ser/mwac069

Auer et al. 2023 Crisis POSTPRINTDownload
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Structural Racism in Switzerland: A Scoping Review

I’m happy to announce the publication of a research report on structural racism in Switzerland. The empirical core of the study are interviews as well as a scoping review that identified N=304 studies on structural racism in Switzerland (in broad terms).

Importantly, we focused on empirical evidence in Switzerland, because frankly, there is no need to look elsewhere to find structural racism.

The studies were classified by method, life sphere, how they classify the population, and a GRADE-style assessment of risk of bias. Conceptually, we draw on a frame by Osta and Vasquez (2021), which allows us to identify components of structural racism and connections between these components. All methods identify racial inequalities, racialized practices, or racist stereotypes across spheres and groups. In Switzerland, many studies draw on migration and nationality as classification, and most studies provide partial evidence. When considered jointly, however, the existing literature provides a clear picture consistent with structural racism.

The report is available in German and French (Italian will follow shortly), but unusually we also have an English summary/technical appendix to the scoping review available.

Mugglin, Leonie, Denise Efionayi-Mäder, Didier Ruedin, and Gianni D’Amato. 2022. ‘Grundlagenstudie zu strukturellem Rassismus in der Schweiz’. SFM Studies 81. Neuchâtel: Swiss Forum for Migration and Population Studies.

Mugglin, Leonie, and Didier Ruedin. 2022. ‘Structural Racism in Switzerland: A Scoping Review’. SocArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/vnz6h.

Osta, Kathleen, and Hugh Vasquez. 2021. ‘Implicit Bias and Structural Racialization’. Oakland: National Equity Project. https://www.nationalequityproject.org/frameworks/implicit-bias-structural-racialization.