Well, some ANU researchers have found that having a non-Anglo name can make it much harder to get a job.
The study, conducted by ANU economists Professor Alison Booth and Professor Andrew Leigh from the Research School of Social Sciences, in conjunction with researcher Elena Varganova, estimated discrimination by sending over 4000 fake CVs to employers in response to job advertisements in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.
“By varying the names on the CVs, we were able to estimate precisely the extent of hiring discrimination,” said Professor Booth. “Because all other characteristics are held constant, we can be sure that we are really measuring discrimination.
“To get the same number of interviews as an applicant with an Anglo-Saxon name, a Chinese applicant must submit 68% more applications, a Middle Eastern applicant must submit 64% more applications, an Indigenous applicant must submit 35% more applications, and an Italian applicant must submit 12% more applications.
You can read the full 47-page paper here. I'd love to see how the ayatollahs of ethnic and religious chauvinism, the Bolts and ALbrechtsens and Blairs and Akermans and Sheehans of our media, will get around this evidence in their attempts to prove Australia is a racism-free zone. Or maybe they could try and get a job in India ...
Words © 2009 Irfan Yusuf
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