Discrimination against Female Migrants Wearing Headscarves

Doris Weichselbaumer

No 10217, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Germany is currently experiencing a high influx of Muslim migrants. From a policy perspective, integration of migrants into the labor market is crucial. Hence, a field experiment was conducted that examined the employment chances of females with backgrounds of migration from Muslim countries, and especially of those wearing headscarves. It focused on Turkish migrants, who have constituted a large demographic group in Germany since the 1970s. In the field experiment presented here, job applications for three fictitious female characters with identical qualifications were sent out in response to job advertisements: one applicant had a German name, one a Turkish name, and one had a Turkish name and was wearing a headscarf in the photograph included in the application material. Germany was the ideal location for the experiment as job seekers typically attach their picture to their résumé. High levels of discrimination were found particularly against the migrant wearing a headscarf.

Keywords: discrimination; Muslim religion; headscarf; hiring; experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 J15 J71 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages
Date: 2016-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-exp, nep-lab, nep-mig and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (38)

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Working Paper: Discrimination against female migrants wearing headscarves (2016)
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