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DN Debate. People with Arabic names are discriminated against by the municipalities

Several research studies have studied the prevalence of discrimination against foreign-born people in Sweden. Perhaps the most reliable studies are completed wi

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DN Debate. People with Arabic names are discriminated against by the municipalities

Several research studies have studied the prevalence of discrimination against foreign-born people in Sweden. Perhaps the most reliable studies are completed with the help of field experiments. In brief, these studies have been carried out by fictional people are searching for, such as jobs or housing that is advertised by employers or landlords. The fictitious applicant is then equal in all respects except that they have different names. By an applicant has a typically Swedish name and one other applicant, for example, a typical Arabic name, the difference in the probability to receive a response from the employer or the landlord to be measured, and the result is interpreted as discrimination.

On the labour market, it has emerged that a person with an Arabic name must seek 1.5 times as many jobs that a person with a Swedish name to be called to the job interview while similar studies on the housing market shows that a person with an Arabic name must search 2.3 times as many apartments as a person with a Swedish name in order to get an offer on a home.

In addition to the discrimination that are able to be documented on the employment and the housing market, research has also shown that foreign-born special treatment in contacts with the public sector. In the latter area, however, has not research been as extensive.

While 97 per cent of the responses sent to the Swedish person contained an explanation to the question contained only 91 percent of the responses to the person with the Arabic name such a declaration.

In the experiment were contacted all 290 Swedish municipalities of two fictional individuals, one with a typical male Swedish name and one with a typical male Arabic name, via email to local government email addresses. Each municipality was contacted by one of the applicants. The applicant contacted thus 145 municipalities each. The e-mails to the municipalities was the same formulated and written in proper English. Persons requested information about the procedure to apply for a förskoleplats for their children in the municipality.

. Even if both people consistently received the response to its request from the municipalities differed these answers to in different ways. The first was a difference in the probability that, within ten days after you sent the mail to the municipality, get a response that gave an explanation on the issue of how to apply for förskoleplats. While 97 per cent of the responses sent to the Swedish person contained an explanation to the question contained only 91 percent of the responses to the person with the Arabic name such a declaration. The answers that did not contain any declaration contained only a notification that the email has been received and a promise to return with more information, which in this case, the explanation did not occur did not occur during the observation period.

the Differences between the person with the Swedish name and the person with the Arabic name also emerged in the amount of information in the answer and on whether the person who asked the question got a personal greeting in the answer or not. In the case of the amount of information got to the person with the Swedish name in the average, a response which included 59 words, while the person with the Arabic name in the average received a reply which contained 55 words. With respect to the likelihood to get a personal greeting in the answer, revealed large differences between people. When we with a personal greeting refers to the municipality mention the requester's name in the answer, it emerged that this was the case in 49% of cases when the Swedish person asked the question to the municipality, and in 24% of cases, then the arab person asked the question to the municipality.

People with Arabic names are becoming favored by the Swedish municipalities, both by those in the lower extent than people with a Swedish name receive explanations on the question they asked to the municipality, but also that they receive less information in the responses and in lower extent than people with Swedish names receive a personal response from local authorities when they hear of themselves and asking questions. The difference in treatment of persons with arab names therefore have different dimensions and seem to take different forms.

the Results from the experiment give us additional information on the incidence of discrimination in Sweden. Our field experiments show that discrimination not only constitutes an obstacle for the foreign-born in employment and housing, but that the foreign-born also enjoying special treatment when contacts with Swedish municipalities. The municipalities are responsible for kindergartens and for children in the municipality of offered space in these. If differences in treatment affect the ability to get förskoleplats are the implications obvious. Fewer opportunities to get förskoleplats to their children influence the parents', and not least of women, the opportunities to be active in the labour market. Moreover, research has shown that children that undergo preschool have higher probability to educate themselves on later in life. Access to pre-school also has positive effects on children's health. To undergo the pre-school also has positive effects on reading and writing skills in children with foreign-born parents. Difficulties to get förskoleplats to children from some groups of foreign-born can thus influence these children's opportunities, not least in the labour market later in life.

They seem to take various forms as it affects the extent to which you get answers to the questions posed to the municipality but also which treatment you get at the kommunkontakterna. Thus, there is good reason to immerse themselves further in whether foreign-born people are discriminated against in contact with the public sector and how the discrimination in this case, manifests itself, not least at the personal meetings between foreign-born persons and representatives of various activities in the public sector.

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