European Sociological Review, 2020, Vol. 36, No. 1, 104–120 doi: 10.1093/esr/jcz045 Advance Access Publication Date: 8 October 2019 Original Article Ethnic Discrimination in Multi-ethnic Societies: Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/esr/article-abstract/36/1/104/5583786 by University of Exeter user on 02 March 2020 Evidence from Russia Alexey Bessudnov 1,* and Andrey Shcherbak 2 1University of Exeter, Clayden Building, Streatham Rise, Exeter EX4 4PE, UK and 2National Research University Higher School of Economics, 20 Myasnitskaya ul., Moscow 101000, Russia *Corresponding author. Email: [email protected] Submitted February 2019; revised July 2019; accepted August 2019 Abstract Field experiments have provided ample evidence of ethnic and racial discrimination in the labour market. Less is known about how discrimination varies in multi-ethnic societies, where the ethnic composition of populations is different across locations. Inter-group contact and institutional arrange- ments for ethnic minorities can mitigate the sense of group threat and reduce discrimination. To pro- vide empirical evidence of this, we conduct a field experiment of ethnic discrimination in Russia with a sample of over 9,000 job applications. We compare ethnically homogeneous cities and cities with ethnically mixed populations and privileged institutional status of ethnic minorities. We find strong discrimination against visible minorities in the former but much weaker discrimination in the latter. These findings demonstrate how institutions and historical contexts of inter-group relations can affect ethnic prejudice and discrimination. Introduction applicants from minority groups. Racial and ethnic dis- crimination in the labour market is well documented. The field experiment has now become a standard In this article, we present the results of the first ethnic method for studying racial and ethnic discrimination in discrimination experiment conducted in Russia. We the labour market. In a typical labour market experi- focus on two main questions. ment (also known as an audit or correspondence study), First, attitudes of ethnic majorities towards different researchers randomly assign a signal of race or ethnicity to fictitious CVs, apply for jobs and record contacts minority groups are not the same, and vary according to from employers. As long as the signal assignment is ran- an implicit hierarchy. In Western countries, minority dom, the differences in the contact rates across the groups of European origin are usually more widely groups can be treated as evidence of discrimination. accepted than groups of African and Asian origin Such experiments have now been conducted in many (Hagendoorn, 1995). Most field experiments to date countries [for recent literature reviews, see Rich (2014); looked at one or only a few minority groups. Even the Zschirnt and Ruedin (2016); Bertrand and Duflo larger audit studies rarely had enough statistical power (2017); Baert (2018); and Neumark (2018)]. There is to provide reliable estimates of the differences in contact overwhelming evidence that on average employers con- rates across minority groups. In this study, we imple- tact applicants from majority groups more often than ment a design with 10 ethnic groups and a sample size VC The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. European Sociological Review, 2020, Vol. 36, No. 1 105 of over 9,000 job applications that allows us to provide immigrant origin. Researchers of inter-group social reliable estimates of discrimination for each group and distance argue that social status varies across racial and explore the ethnic hierarchy for multiple groups in ethnic groups. In many Western societies North Russia. Europeans have the highest status, followed by South Second, we focus on geographical variation in dis- and Eastern Europeans, Asians, and Africans crimination. Russia is a multi-ethnic federation where, (Hagendoorn, 1995). This ethnic hierarchy can be stable Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/esr/article-abstract/36/1/104/5583786 by University of Exeter user on 02 March 2020 in some regions, indigenous ethnic groups have a special across time (Kleg and Yamamoto, 1998; Ford, 2011) institutional status. Are the patterns of ethnic discrimin- and is often accepted both by the ethnic majority and by ation and hierarchy the same or different in ethnically minorities (Verkuyten, Hagendoorn and Masson, 1996; heterogeneous, compared with ethnically Russian, Zick et al., 2001), although some ethnic boundaries can regions? To answer this question, we conducted our ex- blur over time (Alba, 2005). Survey evidence confirms periment in four Russian cities. Two of them (Moscow that attitudes of natives towards immigrants of different and St. Petersburg) are metropolitan areas, with mostly ethnic origin can vary strongly. Ethnic stereotypes are ethnically Russian populations. The other two cities group specific. In the United States, respondents rate (Kazan and Ufa) are capitals of ethnic autonomies, with White Americans higher than Asians, and Asians higher mixed ethnic Russian and indigenous Muslim than African Americans and Hispanics, on most traits populations. (Bobo and Massagli, 2001). The British public accepts The results show considerable differences in the pat- immigrants from Australia, but many are more sceptical terns of ethnic discrimination across these locations. In about Europeans, and especially immigrants from Moscow and St. Petersburg, employers discriminate Africa, the Caribbean region and South Asia (Ford, against visible ethnic minorities of Southern origin but 2011). not against groups of European origin. Discrimination Correspondence studies have mostly been interpreted against ethnic minority men is stronger than that against as attempts to measure discrimination in the labour mar- ethnic minority women. On the other hand, in Kazan ket. As most experiments, they often lack external valid- and Ufa, all ethnic groups are treated by employers in ity and generalizability (Baldassarri and Abascal, 2017). approximately the same way, with the contact rates for By design, these studies are limited to only a few occupa- most groups of Southern origin being only marginally, tions, skills, locations, racial and ethnic groups, and and not statistically significantly, lower than for groups channels of recruitment. In most cases, we can only col- of European origin. lect data about invitations to interviews rather than ac- Therefore, the contributions of this article to the tual job and wage offers. Extrapolating experimental literature on ethnic discrimination are the following. estimates of discrimination in recruitment to other areas We show that (i) ethnic discrimination in Russia is most- of the labour market requires us to make many assump- ly directed against groups of Southern origin, with not tions. Theoretically, correspondence studies mostly con- much discrimination against groups of European origin tributed to separating statistical from taste-based (ethnic hierarchy); (ii) men from ethnic minorities face discrimination and have been detached from the litera- stronger discrimination compared with women; and (iii) ture exploring the group threat and contact hypotheses the pattern and extent of ethnic discrimination differ that often underpin the sociological studies of the atti- across locations with varying ethnic composition of tudes towards immigrants. However, correspondence the populations and the history of ethnic inter-group tests can also be seen as a tool for measuring group- relations. These findings contribute to the literature on specific ethnic prejudice, as revealed in employers’ hiring the inter-group distance and contact hypothesis showing decisions. While not coming from nationally representa- how the history of inter-group contact and institutional tive samples, experimental studies of ethnic prejudice arrangements can mitigate the sense of ethnic group have the important advantage of minimizing social threat. desirability bias. The focus of research then shifts, from providing unbiased estimates of labour market discrim- ination, to examining the relative standings of racial and Ethnic Hierarchies, Discrimination, and ethnic groups. Local Context Most correspondence studies only involved one or Human societies tend to be organized as group-based two ethnic minority groups and were not designed to hierarchies (Sidanius and Pratto, 2001). Many modern measure group variation in discrimination. When mul- societies are multi-racial and multi-ethnic and include tiple groups were involved the results often showed that large ethnic minorities, often both indigenous and of in Western countries minorities of European origin were 106 European Sociological Review, 2020, Vol. 36, No. 1 treated preferentially compared with minorities of non- was in the opposite direction (Carlsson and Eriksson, European origin (Baldini and Federici, 2011; Booth, 2014). Leigh and Varganova, 2012; Carlsson and Eriksson, The population share of ethnic minorities is a rather 2015; Acolin, Bostic and Painter, 2016; Baert et al., crude measure of group threat, and can sometimes be 2017; Lancee, 2019; Vernby and Dancygier, 2019). misleading. In his famous essay, Blumer (1958) notes