In cooperation with: Zerrin Salikutluk, Christian Hunkler, Yuliya Kosyakova.
Muslim immigrants in Germany and other European countries face disadvantages in the labour market. These include lower labour market participation and a higher risk of unemployment (Auer et al. 2018). But even those who succeed in gaining access to the labour market face a number of disadvantages, e.g. in occupational positioning or income, compared to the majority population (e.g. Auer et al. 2017, Schieckoff & Sprengholz 2021). In principle, these disadvantages are more pronounced among Muslim women than among Muslim men (e.g. Salikutluk et al. 2020). The gender difference is particularly evident among newly arrived refugees: after five years of residence in Germany, about 60 percent of refugee men have entered the labour market, whereas only about 30 percent of refugee women have managed to do so (Kosyakova et al. 2021). Interestingly, obvious reasons such as trauma and educational interruptions due to flight as well as legal uncertainties seem to play only a minor role in this (Hunkler & Khourshed 2020, Hunkler et al. 2021, Kosyakova & Brenzel 2020). To date, however, there are few studies that address intersectional inequality (multiple discrimination) based on flight, gender, and religion in the labour market context (e.g. Kosyakova et al. 2021, Salikutluk & Menke 2021). In this project, we focus on the side of employers and the role of regional factors in the structural discrimination of Muslim immigrants, especially Muslim women. To do so, our analyses will examine the labour market situation of both established migrant groups and newly arrived refugees.
In 2024, the research team, consisting of members of the MZES, the HU Berlin, and the IAB Nuremberg, successfully completed the data collection. Around 20,000 people living in Germany and around 5,000 companies (represented by their employees with hiring responsibility) took part in the surveys. Standardised survey experiments will allow the researchers to draw detailed conclusions about the connection between discrimination based on religious affiliation, origin and/or gender within the population and discrimination by so-called gatekeepers. In addition, the influence of local economic factors, such as local labour shortages, will be investigated. The research team expects the first publications in renowned journals in 2025.
