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Foreign name reduces chance to get job interviews

Monday 23 January 2012

A new study shows that job seekers with Norwegian names are 25 per cent more likely to receive a call-back for a job interview than applicants with foreign-sounding names.

Midtbøen, Arnfinn H.

Arnfinn Haagensen Midtbøen

Arnfinn H. Midtbøen at the Institute for social research and Jon Rogstad at Fafo sent out 1800 fictitious applications to real job advertisements, two for each job. The two candidates were equally qualified but their names indicated different ethnic backgrounds. Midtbøen and Rogstad discovered that the chance of receiving a call-back is reduced by 25 per cent for people with non-Norwegian names compared to those with typical Norwegian names.

- With this experiment we wanted to investigate how ethnicity affects the hiring process. It was only the name that separated the two applicants, but we still saw a significant difference in how the applications were treated. This challenges important values of equality in the Norwegian society and should be taken seriously, says Arnfinn H. Midtbøen.

Important factors

The overall results from the study should, however, be interpreted with caution. The results vary across gender, geography, industry and sector. To a certain extent, these differences may be explained by characteristics at the level of occupation. For instance jobs in the public sector, like teachers and nurses, where most women applied, have more specified requirements for education than many jobs in private sector, where most men applied. The often vague job descriptions in private sector allow for a greater exercise of judgement – with a more discriminatory practice as result.

Jon Rogstad

- Many employers use their gut feeling when evaluating candidates. Uncertainty and stereotypical views about certain groups of job seekers may therefore allow ethnic background to become more important, says Jon Rogstad.

It is also more likely that public hiring processes are scrutinised more closely. Public employers may thus feel more obliged to adhere to political equality objectives. This may help to explain why discrimination rates are lower in the public sector than in the private sector.

Affects youths

In addition to sending out fictitious job applications, Midtbøen and Rogstad interviewed 42 of the employers who received the applications in order to examine more closely the reasoning behind their decisions.

Midtbøen believes employers’ varying knowledge of and experience with employees with ethnic minority background is an important reason for the results.

- Some employers based their decisions on previous experiences and ethnic stereotypes. Others expressed uncertainty about whether job seekers with foreign-sounding names would be as good employees as equally qualified applicants with Norwegian names.

Rogstad and Midtbøen believe this is particularly unfortunate for minority youths.

- Immigrant descendants are affected by much of the same uncertainty and prejudice that is addressed to their parents, despite being born and raised in Norway and having the same level of education as ethnic Norwegians. The survey shows that this group have greater problems with getting job interviews compared to equally qualified Norwegians, simply because of their name, says Midtbøen.