INTERGROUP DISCRIMINATION TOWARDS MIGRANTS IN LABOR MARKET HIRING DECISIONS
Authors: Nakay Ekin , Keleş Tayşir Nurgül 
Published: September 2024

This article deals with two fundamental global issues the world has been deeply engaged in; the worldwide refugee/migration surge, and as its potential outcome, racial/ethnic discrimination across multiple contexts, such as employment, housing, education, welfare, healthcare, and civil rights. Ethnicity triggered by Similarity and Realistic Threat stimulated by conflict and competition has been used to analyze the causality with two criterion variables; Hiring Intention and subsequently Ranking. Ethnic cognition for Turks and perceived realistic threat for migrants were the determining constructs. The online self-reporting survey was conducted using Qualtrics with 232 participants (166 women, 66 men).
Purpose: This study aims to understand the extent of intergroup discrimination responsible for consequences on labor market selection processes, by analyzing the hiring and selection challenges the migrants - Syrians (nearly 3,7 million, 2023) and Uzbeks (nearly 60 thousand, 2022) likely to encounter when competing with Turkish candidates. We aim to reveal the determinants of bias related to ethnic exclusionism driven by ethnic similarities and perceived threat and moderated by job status. The study also digs out the attitude of women in general, but particularly those who are stigmatized by gender will demonstrate their attitudes when applicants' ethnicities are so salient as a discriminatory stimulant.
Method: The questionnaire has listed two job postings for each high and low-status job vacancy, and equally qualified CVs of Turks, Syrians, and Uzbeks relating to postings. The questionnaire has been available online in two different time frames, the first between March 12th and May 27th and the second phase between August 2nd and September 17th, 2023. These dates have coincided with a very notable part of the sociopolitical and sociopsychological period when the Syrian migrant issue was at its climax.
Findings: Analysis indicated that; Ethnic Identity overall, had demonstrated a stronger predictor than Realistic Threat, especially when Turkish candidates were rated, and Realistic Threat emerged as a stronger predictor on migrant candidates' selection assessments where Ethnic Identity has also predicted to some extent; All the estimations in all cases indicating a dominant bias for Turkish candidates and discriminate against the migrants; Job status did not moderate any decision; Gender was not effective in controlling discriminations. Women who have experienced gender discrimination have scored stronger ethnic bias favoring Turks, and stronger realistic threat against minorities, designating Syrians as stigmatized outgroups; and Uzbeks face much lighter form of discrimination than Syrians, supporting the "Prejudice Distribution Account" arguments.
Originality: This project is novel in that; it is the first in Turkiye, to explore the hiring considerations when migrants compete with Turkish applicants, taking into account ethnicity coupled with anxiety and conflict constructs, moderated by job status. It is original in that it compares the raters' gender differentiations in attitudes toward the assessment of candidates having ethnic diversities. It is a rare, possibly only example of exploring the attitudes of people who have experienced discrimination, particularly women who experienced gender discrimination, predicting entitative arguments to the literature, given the conceptual framework.