Signaling Similarity in the Icelandic Labour Market: How Can Immigrants Reduce Statistical Discrimination?

Authors

  • Kari Kristinsson University of Iceland
  • Margret Sigrun Sigurdardottir University of Iceland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.59670/ml.v17i2.761

Keywords:

Review, CRM, CRM components, CRM lifecycles

Abstract

Research on immigration has emphasized the role that statistical discrimination plays in hiring decisions. A better understanding of how immigrants overcome this type of discrimination might lead to better interventions to improve their labour market participation. In this paper, we use qualitative interviews to examine how immigrants can reduce statistical discrimination by signalling their similarity to employers in their job applications. Specifically, we find that immigrants who demonstrate signal similarity to employers in the type of education, job experience and religion tend to reduce their statistical discrimination by employers. We suggest how further research can build on these results to provide possible tools for immigrant integration.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

Author Biography

Kari Kristinsson, University of Iceland

Associate Professor
University of Iceland

References

Atman, C. J., Adams, R. S., Cardella, M. E., Turns, J., Mosborg, S., & Saleem, J. (2007). Engineering design processes: A comparison of students and expert practitioners. Journal of Engineering Education, 96(4), 359-379.

https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2168-9830.2007.tb00945.x

Baert, S. & De Pauw, A. S. (2014). Is ethnic discrimination due to distaste or statistics?. Economics Letters, 125(2), 270-273.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2014.09.020

Bergh, A. (2017). Explaining the labor market gaps between immigrants and natives in the OECD. Migration Letters, 14(2), 251-262.

https://doi.org/10.33182/ml.v14i2.330

Christiansen, T. & Kristjánsdóttir, E. S. (2016). "Veggurinn er alltaf til staðar ": Upplifun háskólamenntaðra innflytjenda af samskiptum og samningsstöðu gagnvart vinnuveitendum. Íslenska þjóðfélagið, 7(1), 5-22.

Fernandez, R. M., Castilla, E. J., & Moore, P. (2000). Social capital at work: Networks and employment at a phone center. American Journal of Sociology, 105(5), 1288-1356.

https://doi.org/10.1086/210432

Guion, R. M. (1991). Personnel assessment, selection, and placement. In M. D. Dunnette & L. M. Hough (Eds.), Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology, (Vol. 2, 2nd ed., pp. 327-397). Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press

Guryan, J. & Charles, K. K. (2013). Taste‐based or statistical discrimination: the economics of discrimination returns to its roots. The Economic Journal, 123(572), F417-F432.

https://doi.org/10.1111/ecoj.12080

Hoppmann, T. K. (2009). Examining the 'point of frustration'. The think-aloud method applied to online search tasks. Quality & Quantity, 43(2), 211-224.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-007-9116-0

Hunter, J.E. & Schmidt, F. L. (1982). Fitting people to jobs: The impact of personnel selection for national productivity. In M. D. Dunnette and E. A. Fleishman (Eds.), Human performance and productivity. (Vol. 1, pp. 233-284). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Jónsdóttir, V., Harðardóttir, K. E., & Garðarsdóttir, R. B. (2009). Innflytjendur á Íslandi. Viðhorfskönnun. Reykjavík: Félagsvísindastofnun Háskóla Íslands.

Koopmans, R. (2010). Trade-offs between equality and difference: Immigrant integration, multiculturalism and the welfare state in cross-national perspective. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 36(1), 1-26.

https://doi.org/10.1080/13691830903250881

Koro-Ljungberg, M., Douglas, E. P., Therriault, D., Malcolm, Z., & McNeill, N. (2013). Reconceptualizing and decentering think-aloud methodology in qualitative research. Qualitative Research, 13(6), 735-753.

https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794112455040

Loftsdóttir, K. (2015). Útlendingar, negrastrákar og hryðjuverkamenn: Kynþáttafordómar í íslenskum samtíma. Ritið, 15(1), 157-178.

Merriam, S. B. (2009). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation: Revised and expanded from qualitative research and case study applications in education. San Franscisco: Jossey-Bass.

Moscoso, S., Salgado, J. F., & Anderson, N. (2017). How do I get a job, what are they looking for? Personnel Selection and Assessment. An introduction to work and organizational psychology: An international perspective, 25-47.

https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119168058.ch2

Parutis, V. (2014). "Economic migrants" or "middling transnationals"? East European migrants' experiences of work in the UK. International Migration, 52(1), 36-55.

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2435.2010.00677.x

Mason, R. W. & Schroeder, M. P. (2010). Principal hiring practices: Toward a reduction of uncertainty. The Clearing House, 83(5), 186-193.

https://doi.org/10.1080/00098650903583727

Schwab, S. (1986). Is statistical discrimination efficient?. The American Economic Review, 76(1), 228-234.

Skaptadóttir, U. D. (2015). What Happened to the Migrant Workers? In E. P. Durrenberger and G. Pálsson (Eds), Gambling Debt: Iceland's Rise and Fall in the Global Economy (pp. 175-186). Boulder: University Press of Colarado.

https://doi.org/10.5876/9781607323358.c014

Stigler, G. J. (1961). The economics of information. Journal of Political Economy, 69(3), 213-225.

https://doi.org/10.1086/258464

Van Someren, M. W., Barnard, Y. F., & Sandberg, J. A. C. (1994). The Think Aloud Method: a Practical Approach to Modelling Cognitive. London: Academic Press.

Wanous, J. P. & Colella, A. (1989). Organizational entry research: Current status and future directions. In G. R. Ferris & K. M. Rowland (Eds.), Research in personnel and human resource management, (Vol. 7, pp. 59-120). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.

Zschirnt, E. & Ruedin, D. (2016). Ethnic discrimination in hiring decisions: a meta-analysis of correspondence tests 1990-2015. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 42(7), 1115-1134.

https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2015.1133279

Þórarinsdóttir, H., Georgsdóttir, S.H., & Hafsteinsdóttir, B.L. (2009). Staða innflytjenda á erfiðleikatímum - raddir og viðhorf. Reykjavík: MIRRA.

Downloads

Published

2020-04-02

How to Cite

Kristinsson, K., & Sigurdardottir, M. S. (2020). Signaling Similarity in the Icelandic Labour Market: How Can Immigrants Reduce Statistical Discrimination?. Migration Letters, 17(2), 349–356. https://doi.org/10.59670/ml.v17i2.761