Hiring Discrimination Against Refugees: Examining the Mediating Role of Symbolic and Realistic Threat

Keywords: refugee; discrimination; realistic and symbolic threats; hiring; intergroup anxiety

Abstract: Despite the rising global population of refugees and the need for secure employment for refugee integration into their new host countries, research attention on this population of workers in organizational science has been scarce. Drawing from integrated threat theory, we argued and tested experimentally that refugees face discrimination on the job market due to the symbolic and realistic threat that they elicit. Results from a 2 (refugee status: refugee vs. non-refugee) x 2 (qualification: high or low) between-subject design experiment using manipulated resumes largely supported our proposed model, such that refugee status was related to higher intergroup anxiety through symbolic and realistic threat. Realistic threat also mediated the relationship between refugee status and recommendation for hire. Further exploratory analysis revealed that these results are robust across qualification status. This underscores the severity of bias against refugees in a setting that is crucial to their successful adaptation and integration into the host countries.