Newsletter N°3: Report on a qualitative study on experiences and perceptions about racial discrimination in the workplace

Introduction

Many researchers have focused their attention on the effects of discrimination on racialized people. In 2012, an experiment conducted by sociologist and lecturer at UQAM, Paul Eid (2012), showed that curriculum vitaes (CVs) in Montreal were more likely to be accepted if the candidate was seen as a member of the Canadian majority ethnic group. Generally speaking, discrimination starts from the moment employers simply see candidates’ names. Unconscious biases come to the forefront and are operationalized. Here, the systemic nature of the oppression that ethnic minorities face when it comes to looking for work is highlighted, as their job applications are more likely to be underestimated. This phenomenon affects both immigrants and their descendants. It would seem that political authorities have attempted to counteract this phenomenon by adopting several laws and setting up a number of institutions  to support immigrants. Nevertheless, we find that racialized people always have to send 50 more CVs in order to maximize their chances of finding a job. A puzzling observation caught our attention. In 2019, an experiment by Jean-Philippe Beauregard demonstrated that workers from the Maghreb were two times less likely to land a job interview when clues to their ethnicity were apparent. Tadlaoui (2003) tells us that there are six main obstacles to employment for immigrants. Here is what she says:

“The discussions carried out within the framework of the research made it possible to identify six main categories of obstacles to employment: obstacles linked to language, those linked to the recognition of prior learning and skills, cultural obstacles, political obstacles, systemic barriers and finally, those related to racism and discrimination. However, these categories are not “watertight”, independent of one other. They are very often closely linked.” Tadlaoui, 2003.

Since the 1990s, the Canadian and Quebec governments have established strict criteria for immigrant selection, attempting to restrict access to foreigners that have value for the local society. However, despite this rigorous selection process, immigrants tend to have higher unemployment rates and are exposed to terrible working conditions. Several studies have shown that racism can induce additional stress for those victimized by it. This stress can affect how they approach certain tasks, their colleagues or even their profession.

Scholarship in the United States has documented the impact discrimination has on immigrants and minority communities, showing alarming results suggesting that not all job applicants have equal chances.  A clue that could explain this social phenomenon is the collective ways that people from other countries are viewed. Edward Said wrote that in western countries we tend to stereotype and objectify people from other parts of the world. These representations, which are found in the media and in cultural content, suggest that some groups of people are, by nature, different from the white majority. This difference in nature is connected to behaviors, mores, beliefs and values that are seen as so different that they are seen as difficult to understand. Of course, for most people, this thought process is not conscious. It is due to the fact that prejudice is inscribed at the deepest levels of our thinking, that is to say in our very imagination to the point that we perceive and think about the world according to these images. If there are, indeed, badly intentioned people who would automatically disqualify immigrant candidates, it is clear that a large part of employers who do so are not aware of their prejudices. Prejudices that are fed every day through our ongoing socialization process.

While immigrants are likely to face racism and discrimination during the hiring process, they are unfortunately, not spared from problematic situations once they have integrated into their professional environment. In fact, several studies, including ours, indicate that, often, individuals of immigrant origin are subject to behaviors and comments that are radically different from those to which their white counterparts are exposed (Labelle, 2007). Very often, they are confined to jobs that others don’t want to do. Several cultural barriers perpetuate discrimination and exploitation in the Quebec workplace. One is the language and labor rights barrier in Quebec. In addition, we find that immigrants are more likely to work longer than their colleagues. Some aspects of our own data can help us understand this last fact.

Furthermore, Labelle tells us that many immigrant workers in Quebec hold jobs that are completely removed from the field of specialization they practiced in their country of origin. Many immigrants alter their career aspirations and their ambitions in order to maximize their ability to make enough money to meet their basic needs. In other words, Quebec employers take advantage of competent people entrusting them with tasks for which they are overqualified, thereby limiting these peoples’ chances for professional advancement. Tadlaoui (2003) indicates, in contrast, that several community organizations have made it their mission to help immigrant workers with looking for jobs by making full use of their skills. Accordingly, following the quantitative study, the present study aims to analyze racialized populations’ experiences during the job recruitment process and in their employment in Quebec.

Methodology

This research aims to explore the different incidences of discrimination faced by immigrants in  work environments. We also wanted to investigate how they coped or adapted to these incidents in order to understand how they resist. We felt that the most appropriate research method to deal with this research problem was to conduct in-depth interviews with immigrant people who have been working in the city of Montreal for several years. Given that our goal was to comprehend how they understand discrimination and how they resist, it seemed appropriate to adopt a conversational and informal approach to explore participants’ feelings and opinions in depth. We have taken  great care to avoid rigid research design that limits opportunities to pursue new paths of discovery as they emerge in answers. The advantage to semi-structured interviews is that we are able to collect “deep and rich” data on the behavior and thinking of research participants (Newby, 2010). We collected data by carrying out interviews and then transcribing, coding and analyzing it (Bryman, 2012).

Initially, we planned to interview a total of ten to fifteen case studies. Unfortunately, having underestimated the limitations of sampling methods, we ended up with only 6 cases, all between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-one. We hoped to include people of all ages, as it would have been interesting to see if some answers are related to generational factors. Several people were contacted by messages via social networks. We asked them if they would like to participate in a sociological study about their experiences in their current or past work environment. We explained in detail how the interviews would be conducted and what we were interested in. Fortunately, we considered doing snowball sampling and asked participants to recommend other people with a similar profile to themselves. We managed to find two additional candidates using this strategy. Participants were recorded using a microphone to facilitate transcription and coding. One participant was reluctant to be recorded, and we had to write out his answers by hand on paper (Bryman, 2012).

We asked the questions in no particular order. However, we had defined topics that would need to be introduced in the same order.  The first was to assess the importance given to their minority identity. The second assessed their perception of their own minority group. The third focused on the nature of the discrimination they suffered and its impact. And, the last was about their resistance to or the defenses they used against this type of incident.

All of the questions were grouped according to themes that they related to. Here are some examples of the questions we asked: In your particular case, have you ever been treated differently at your job or when looking for a job because you are part of a minority group? How did you feel as a result of the discrimination against you? What was your reaction? What impact has discrimination had on your relationship with your colleagues? How do you deal with this type of situation? How do you prevent or minimize their impact of these situations? What resources have you mobilized and what kinds of support have you used or would use to help counteract discrimination?

At the end of each interview, we did open coding to identify new elements in the data that deserved our attention. We respected the ethical considerations checklist. To follow the ethical considerations of social research guidelines, we took care to make the data anonymous. We asked participants to choose a pseudonym for the study and told them that we were responsible for their safety. The interviews were transcribed and coded in French. However, all relevant information has been translated into English. QCA Map software was used to code and map the data. We used grounded theory to analyze the data we collected. We used “constant comparative analysis” to discern connections in the data. As new data was collected, we constantly compared it to the previous data in order to identify common patterns or concepts.

I) Different discriminatory situations

Some of our respondents mention the fact that discrimination in employment begins even before hiring. Joseph, a mixed university professor, tells us about his experience as a Franco-Quebecer from a Togolese father. If he does not remember having himself been discriminated against in hiring, he was able to observe the recruitment process of the schools he attended. He says:

If someone is white and French, I have the impression that the person would be more likely to be given the position than if the person were a French North African or a French Black or anyone from a minority group, just because there is this association with immigration and with “other values”, “other customs” which do not fit in the environment in which one would like to be hired.

According to him, discrimination is often made because of a supposed idea of the incompatibility of the mores or customs of a foreigner with the culture of the company. This differentiation often tends to minimize the skills of people with an immigrant background and therefore reduce their chances of being hired.

In order to overcome this inequality of chances of being employed, people of immigrant origin will pay increased attention to their appearance. We interviewed Idriss, a 29-year-old black man who works at a major Canadian bank, who says:

“When I was a student, I had a very big haircut. I was recognizable because of that. Now I always have to a square cut because, curiously, my haircut is not professional or not neat, while I have colleagues who have pink hair. But that’s normal. There is this sensation where I feel that I am not where I belong.”

Discrimination in the workplace manifests itself in several ways. All of our respondents admitted to having been the victims of inappropriate remarks from their colleagues or hierarchical superiors. Often these remarks are pronounced lightly, however they still refer those who are the subjects to their racial or ethnic affiliation. Idriss adds:

Idriss: Something happened to me once. I needed to print documents. Then I tried to change the ink cartridge. Usually there is an administrative employee who takes care of it, but it was very late that evening… and I spilled the ink on the floor. It was full of ink and it was black ink and one of my colleagues arrives and he immediately calls the department head, who is one of the only people who stay late, and he arrived and made a joke along the lines of: “when he came into the room he was all white and he’s been like this ever since. … I think that if I had been a white employee, that joke would have been another joke, it might not even have been a joke by the way. This mistake I make, this stupidity… he managed to put my skin color in it.

Idriss indicates that a perfectly innocuous error can be seen by other employees through a lens that integrates the racial or ethnic origin of the person who made the error. This betrays a tacit association between perceived performance and racial prejudice. Under the cover of humor, Idriss’ colleagues remind Idriss of the fact that he belongs to an ethnic minority. It is this perpetual reminder that creates the feeling that no matter what he does, he will never be able to integrate completely into the majority white community in Quebec (the one that is considered “the norm” and that, therefore, is not subject to remarks about physical difference).

Simon, who identifies as a 27-year-old Black man, also notices a difference in tone when interacting with his colleagues. While he faces direct racist remarks, he deplores the fact that his performance is often underestimated by his superior.

Simon: I frequently have the impression that I am being treated gently, like when you are nice to the slightly stupid guy next door….

He notices that some of the employees at the media outlet where he works speak to him in an infantilizing manner that occasionally borders on contempt. Despite his position as editor, some people tolerate him making mistakes, considering it normal because he would naturally be at a disadvantage. Myriame, who works as a coordinator at an NGO, observes the same thing when she says:

Myriame: I don’t feel comfortable. When people talk to me as if I were a 5-year-old kid when I have a master’s degree and I have written articles, much more complex work, which stimulated me intellectually a lot more than the tasks that they give me… I find that a bit too much.

Therefore, prejudice can be projected from behaviors that may, at first, seem caring. However, there may be a much more problematic subtext undergirding certain words.

Idriss: “When someone needs information, my colleagues often say, “ask Idriss, he’s nice,” but, I know that this sentence is incomplete. He is nice even though….

 People are surprised by my skills. People are surprised when I know things. But things go well when I do double of what is expected of me. I don’t know what it’s like to be an employee who doesn’t have to perform every day. […]

 People are surprised by my smell; they tell me that I smell good. Well, it’s because I have a good perfume. My hair, people are tempted to touch it. “

II) Feelings evoked by discrimination

Immigrant peoples’ feelings vary when they are subjected to discrimination. A spectrum of feelings ranging from anger to complete indifference were presented to us. For most of our participants, the fact that discrimination recurs creates feelings of resilience that normalize the micro-aggressions they experience. Therefore, they come to normalize them and then adapt by ignoring them.

Idriss adds that he must always be alert and anticipate obstacles that he might have to face because he is a member of a racial minority. He projects himself into the future in order to identify how his physical appearance might impact his interactions with recruiters or colleagues.

Idriss: “There is something that I tell myself frequently: There is a luxury that I don’t have. In the sense that there are certain things that I don’t have time to think about. For example, my director came to see me to tell me, “we need to rethink your career plan”. […]

 My situation as a Black person in this country means that I don’t have time to think about that.

 […]How I will approach an interview? How am I going to build my career? I don’t just take my skills into account. There is something else I need to consider. Often, when I go to the same interview, I do twice as much preparation as co-workers, who are a different color, white and all.

 There is a carefreeness that you cannot have. It is a carefreeness that you should have but that you do not have.”

This stress, documented by the French psychiatrist Frantz Fanon, seems to be common amongst all of the participants who agreed to be in our study. Each one expressed, in one way or another, the fact that their membership in a minority community could be an obstacle to be considered during professional interactions.

Simon also affirmed having to prepare mentally for his skin color to be a vector for  discrimination. In fact, he does not hide the deep sadness that fills him when asked about his feelings on the topic. When we asked him how the situations he has dealt with have impacted him, Simon replied:

Simon: “It’s not good. It doesn’t do me any good, it saddens me. I don’t want to trivialize it by saying it’s all part of the game, but I don’t see how that can change.“

In his answer, Simon expresses his sadness when he is discriminated against by his colleagues. In this case, he refers directly to his superiors’ habit of underestimating his skills.

But he also acknowledges the helplessness he feels when faced with this phenomenon. He says he doesn’t know how to reverse this trend, which puts him at a disadvantage.

III) How racialized people adapt

As we have seen above, discrimination happens from the very beginning, at the job interview. In order to compensate for unequal chances of getting a job, immigrant people will pay more attention to their appearance even though some of their colleagues do not have to worry about that aspect. They also feel that they have to apply for many more jobs. Idriss tells us:

Idriss: “You come to normalize certain things that you shouldn’t normalize. It’s losing a sense of being carefree… When I apply for  jobs, I have to be much more careful and I have to apply much more. I know that sending 50 applications is not enough, I have to send more. I know that in interviews I have to sell myself a lot more, I know that I have to be careful with my haircut. […] But that’s normal. There is this relationship where I feel that I am somewhere I shouldn’t be.”

Once again, we observe that one of the things that each of the participants brought up was a desire to excel in their daily tasks in order to prevent their ethnic or racial identity being linked to mediocrity.

Simon: “You tell yourself that you have to do things well or do things better than a person who is not a member of a visible or ethnic minority. So that your failures – which are normal in the end, huh – so that your failures are not blamed on your community. A community that you don’t even feel part of necessarily.”

Joseph: “for me, the best thing I can do is to show people that I do my job as well or better than the others, and from there, that should demonstrate that my origin does not have an impact on the way I work, but it’s just how I work… Show people that you should be hired on job skills and not on anything else.”

These comments show that racialized workers often feel that they permanently represent the community to which they are affiliated. Joseph and Simon note the same things and wish to disassociate themselves in one way or another from their community. Both are concerned about further tarnishing the image of a minority group that is already characterized by prejudice. For Simon, this all the more complex since he does not necessarily feel affiliated with the community that is socially proscribed to him. A feeling that echoes the writing of many historians and sociologists who demonstrate the social origins of racial and ethnic categories (Pap, N’Diaye, 2008; Françoise Vergès, 2012). Simon goes even further. He believes that peoples’ right to make mistakes has been taken away, which undoubtedly reduces learning opportunities for members of his community.

Simon says:

Simon: “Again, it’s doing things right. It’s stupid huh! As a result, we allow ourselves less room for error than the average individual. It’s cool to fail sometimes. But we can’t afford to do it.”

Idriss observes the same thing as Simon, suggesting that preconceived images must be broken down. He believes that knowledge is an invaluable resource in the fight against discrimination in the workplace. If knowledge is combined with a physical appearance that is often stereotyped, it can change values by being an exception that invalidates generalizations. He says :

Idriss: “It is my knowledge, to have enough knowledge in relation to reality. Because [racism] is a relationship to reality. I also shatter stereotypes, for example. My father never understood why I have an earring. I wear an earring because I always wanted to demonstrate that a Black man with an earring is not a drug dealer nor a criminal. A tattooed Black is someone like me.”

One of the participants mentioned the importance of having the right people around you in order to combat discrimination in the workplace. Justine, who is a CEGEP teacher, says:

Justine: “It feels good to know that we are not alone. At Cégep there are other racialized teachers who have had to deal with things… not necessarily at Cégep so we talk about it and, from time to time, it gives you the strength to say something, to tell people that their behavior is not ok. And we know that there are people who back us up.”

Here, we can see that Justine places a great deal of importance on support from other racialized people. First, she emphasizes the comfort that comes from the knowledge that she is not alone in experiencing discrimination. This reassurance provides relief in knowing that the harm done by prejudice is real and that people are not inventing stories where they are victimized. In addition, she believes that her discussions with others helps her to gather the strength necessary to oppose and confront her aggressors. In so doing, she stresses the power of victim representation in confronting these issues. This is usually not without consequences, which is why she reassures herself by remembering that she has what she calls “back up” (reinforcements) in the event that a confrontation with her aggressors becomes too dangerous for her career prospects.

Joseph and Myriame bring up another way to resist inappropriate remarks from their colleagues:

Joseph: “Me, personally, I always had fun making jokes and laughing at discrimination…”

Myriame: “I prefer to laugh about it. This way, I don’t give them the pleasure of seeing me hurt […] Then, I think that they are the ones who are ignorant. In the end, it’s as if I was making fun of them…”

This resistance strategy minimizes the importance of racist incidents. In fact, according to Jang & Cordero-Pedrosa (2016), it protects the individuals who are targeted by offensive remarks from being labelled as having no sense of humor or as people who see racism everywhere. In this way, Joseph and Myriame’s instinct, to defuse a racist or discriminatory climate through laughter, comes forth as part of the relationship characterized by domination that exists between people from a minority and the majority population. Myriame believes that laughing at discrimination helps to overturn a power dynamic by making fun of the ignorance of her aggressors. However, according to the two aforementioned sociologists, this strategy for resistance reinforces the balance of power in favor of white colleagues since it could encourage them to speak about the incident with others.

Faced with their colleagues’ racist jokes, not all participants laugh. Some try to avoid situations in which they could be exposed to racism. When he explained to us how he prevented experiencing discrimination, Idriss told us:

Idriss: “There are colleagues who I don’t speak to because I know that people will sometimes make jokes about my skin color and when I react or say that your joke is not funny, will chalk that up to my susceptibility or say I see racism everywhere.

There are colleagues who you have to distance yourself from. There are times you simply have to refuse to give your opinion.”

This avoidance strategy is used when people refuse having labels foisted upon them: of someone who is too touchy, and who creates conflict in the company. It goes beyond humor. Justine avoids some of her colleagues in order to avoid delicate discussions about her racial and ethnic origin. Likewise, she feels that a confrontation could endanger her job. Therefore, it seems more rational to her to simply avoid confrontation. Due to her experience, she has learned to identify which individuals in her workplace are likely to make inappropriate remarks or exhibit discriminatory behavior. She explains:

Justine: “You develop what I call the “black radar”, you manage to sense people from other communities who are intelligent enough to ignore certain things, to understand when they are going to be clumsy… There are others you know who don’t have that intelligence, who don’t have that education, so you avoid them. For example, I have a colleague who says: But I don’t understand, he doesn’t speak. I don’t talk to her. Because I know she has a lot of biases.”

Here, Justine feels that she succeeds because, due to her experience, she manages to identify which of her colleagues she can talk to without having to expose herself to problematic comments. She automatically avoids anyone who does not seem educated, intelligent or kind enough in order to avoid being in situations that she might have to defuse. She calls this ability to distinguish between these two types of people “black radar”.

Conclusion

This analysis of lived experiences shows that discrimination in the workplace can take many forms. Contrary to what one might think, for discrimination to exist, it does not necessarily require malicious intent. The systemic nature of discrimination can encourage individuals to be discriminatory without necessarily being aware of it. This phenomenon is evident in the hiring process, when candidate selection is marred by unconscious biases that are fueled by the way certain communities are presented socially.

It is important to highlight that a great deal of discrimination is done consciously with the express goal of emphasizing alleged difference between people. The majority of our participants reported having been treated in ways (both positive and negative) that reminded them of their status as immigrants. One of the ways they resist is to double down on their efforts to dismantle the stereotypes that their colleagues may have about them. Therefore, they live with a permanent level of stress that comes with being supposed representatives of their ethnic communities. In addition,  the fact that they feel they need to work harder than their white colleagues can be explained as their desire to compensate for lost opportunities and lays bare the systemic nature of discrimination in the workplace.  

 
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