How Discrimination Against Ethnic and Religious Minorities Contributes to the Underutilization of Immigrants’ Skills

Abstract

The underutilization of immigrants’ skills, particularly the skills of ethnic and religious minorities, is of considerable concern to policy makers because of its economic and social costs. Recent research suggests that discrimination may be contributing to this well-documented unemployment and underemployment of skilled minority immigrants. In particular, the ambiguity of immigrants’ foreign-acquired skills and personal characteristics may provide a cover for the expression of bias toward immigrants who are religious and ethnic minorities. Experiments controlling for all other variables show that discrimination may influence both the hiring of minority immigrants and reactions to claims of employment discrimination by minority immigrants. Also, factors that reduce the ambiguity of minority immigrants’ credentials and factors that suppress the expression of bias reduce these effects. These findings point to policy interventions that have the potential to improve the labor-market outcomes of skilled immigrants and contribute to host nations’ economic and social outlooks. Interventions should focus not only on skilled minority immigrants and reducing the ambiguity of their credentials and skills but also on members of the host society and their motivation to control prejudiced reactions to minorities.