Ethnic Minorities in the workforce

This may be an uncomfortable topic for many; for those who have experienced racial profiling and discrimination or working in a predominately ethnic majority company. Before I get into it, this article contains personal experiences and is a major issue that I believe needs to be addressed.

We’re a long way from having ethnic diversity or racial equality in the workplace. But why is that? Because we are defined by our names on our CVs and our profile pictures on LinkedIn.

Racial/Religious Discrimination when applying for jobs

Research from CSI and colleagues at the GEMM project revealed the racial discrimination faced against ethnic minorities by making fictitious job applications to nearly 3,200 real jobs. Although the CVs and Cover Letters were identical, 1 in 4 applicants who were from a majority group received a callback, whereas ethnic minorities had to send 60% more applications to receive the same amount of callbacks as the majority group.

Applicants from Western Europe and the United States were treated the same as the majority group. Minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and of African origin (the data does not define which countries in Africa) were heavily penalised regardless of stating their achievements, qualifications, and overall competence compared to White…