Discrimination in the Irish Labour Market: Nationality, Ethnicity and the Recession

Previous research shows that immigrants, in common with other groups that suffer disadvantage in the labour market, are more vulnerable during recession (Hoynes et al., 2012; McGinnity et al., 2013; Sierminska and Takhtamanova, 2010). However, little research has focused on the impact of the Great Recession on work-related discrimination. We examine the extent to which discrimination varies across different national-ethnic groups, and whether discrimination increased between 2004, during an economic boom, and 2010, in the midst of a severe recession. Our analysis draws on two large-scale nationally representative surveys on the experience of labour market discrimination. We find that overall immigrants do experience higher rates of work based discrimination, however discrimination does not increase with the recession. We find substantial variation in discrimination across national-ethnic groups, and indicate that ethnicity plays an important influence on the experience of discrimination.