Conclusion

This chapter briefly summarizes the content of the book, emphasizing how the impressive breadth of research reveal a worrying picture of enduring discrimination in immigrant-receiving societies across space and time, suggesting the contour of troubling “three P’s” in contemporary European societies: that ethno-racial discrimination appears to be pervasive, perpetuating, and persistent. The chapter also revisits the relationship between theories of integration and discrimination, and it concludes by pointing out promising for future research on discrimination.

Concepts of Discrimination

This chapter gives an overview of some of the key concepts in the field of discrimination. It starts by distinguishing between direct and indirect discrimination in legal definitions. Next, we define the interrelated concepts of multiple discrimination and intersectionality, which increasingly are used in both legal studies and the social sciences, before giving an account of the interrelated concepts of organizational, institutional, and systemic discrimination. The chapter ends by reflecting on the complex relationship between discrimination and the endurance of categorical inequalities in societies where all members formally enjoy the principle of equality.

Combatting Discrimination

There is a large variety of policies and actions contributing to tackling discrimination against immigrants and ethno-racial minorities, and countries vary greatly in their strategies to tackle ethnic and racial discrimination. This chapter distinguishes between three main types of measures – antidiscrimination legislation, affirmative action and other equal opportunity policies, and tools for promoting diversity – and describe their origins as well as whether they are implemented in different contexts. The chapter also reviews studies that have aimed at assessing the effectiveness of measures to combat discrimination and concludes by pointing out the necessity of statistics broken down by ethnicity or race to uncover unfair treatment and disadvantage faced by minorities.

Consequences of and Responses to Discrimination

Discrimination and stigmatization are costly for the society by lowering economic growth, by reinforcing ethnic inequalities, by fueling political conflicts and by jeopardizing social cohesion. Moreover, victims of unfair treatment pay a high price as discrimination and stigmatization. Far from being passive victims, however, many members of minority groups develop and deploy individual and collective strategies to meet such challenges. This chapter focuses on the impact of discrimination – for economy and society, but mainly focusing on the consequences of discrimination for the targeted individuals and groups. The chapter also addresses responses to experiences of exclusion and disadvantage by reviewing recent research of how awareness of the repercussions of unfair treatment lead both individuals and groups to protect themselves and seek strategies for overcoming future barriers.

Theories of Discrimination

This chapter reviews the main theories developed to explain discrimination. Mirroring the historical development of the field, while reflecting a theoretically systematic approach, the chapter adopts an approach by analytical scales to present and discuss theories of discrimination. The first section presents theories seeking the cause of prejudice and discrimination at the individual level, the second section focuses on organizational mechanisms and the third on structural determinants. In conclusion, we emphasize that despite of these different levels of analysis, the various theories of discrimination reviewed share a common feature, namely the fact that discrimination maintains privileges of certain ascribed groups over others

Methods of Measurement

This chapter reviews the strengths and weaknesses of the most commonly used methods of measurement in the field of discrimination research. Taking as its point of departure how we can assess the extent to which discrimination occurs, the chapter reviews quantitative and qualitative analyses of experiences, attitudes, legal complaints, and residual gaps, as well as different forms of experimental designs. A key point in the chapter is to show that although all of these methods shed light on discrimination, they are useful for answering somewhat different questions. Consequently, careful consideration of the range of methods available is necessary for matching one’s research question with the appropriate research design.

Discrimination Across Social Domains

Discrimination can take place in all spaces and places where people interact. However, both the forms of discrimination and how it can be measured vary across social domains, depending on whether the domain in question is based primarily on what we coin “systems of differentiation” or “systems of equality”. Social domains that involve some kind of market transaction are heavily dominated by processes of selection and differentiation. By contrast, social domains such as schools, health systems or public services should, in essence, provide all individuals with equal assistance. This chapter builds on the distinction between systems of differentiation and systems of equality, reviewing a selection of studies of discrimination in various social domains. This way of categorizing research demonstrates that there is an interesting interplay between social domains and their respective rationale (differentiation/equality), the types of methods employed and the forms of discrimination detected. The chapter concludes by a critical reflection on the ability of social science research to capture forms of discrimination that are less easy to spot.

Introduction: The Case for Discrimination Research

Increasing migration-related diversity in Europe has fostered dramatic changes since the 1950s, among them the rise of striking ethno-racial inequalities in employment, housing, health, and a range of other social domains. These ethno-racial disadvantages can be understood as evidence of widespread discrimination; however, scholarly debates reflect striking differences in the conceptualization and measurement of discrimination in the social sciences. Indeed, what discrimination is, as well as how and why it operates, are differently understood and studied by the various scholarships and scientific fields. It is the ambition of this book to summarize how we frame, study, theorize, and aim at combatting ethno-racial discrimination in Europe.