Muslims subjected to employer discrimination

A new report has found that Muslims in France face ‘massive discrimination’ when applying for jobs.

In the first scientifically credible study of its kind researchers from Stanford University, California have found that Muslim job seekers are two and half times less likely to receive a response from potential employers than those with non-Muslim sounding names.

The Independent reports that:

‘The researchers, led by David Laitin of Stanford University in California, created and mailed out 275 pairs of résumés to French employers advertising for jobs. Each of the paired résumés was identical in terms of job qualifications and experience except for the names of the applicants.

One of the applicants had a Christian given name, "Marie Diouf", while another had a Muslim given name, "Khadija Diouf". To emphasise the religious difference in the applicants, Maire Diouf said she worked for Catholic Relief and was a member of Christian scouts, and Khadija Diouf said she had worked for Islamic Relief and was a member of Muslim scouts.

As a scientific control, the researchers compiled a third fictional résumé in the name of "Aurelie Menard", who could be identified as a rooted French person with no assumed religion – unlike "Diouf" which in France is easily identified as a Senagalese name.

Every employer received a résumé of Aurelie Menard with a résumé of either Marie Diouf or Khadija Diouf – employers may have detected a test if they received applications from both Marie and Khadija Diouf, researchers said.’

Researchers found that non Muslim people being two and a half times more likely to receive a response from a potential employer than Muslims and now plan to do the same study in the UK where employment rates are lower amongst Muslim communities than any other faith groups.

Picture taken from recent protest over the French Hijab ban.