Employer discrimination in Bulgaria

How organizational context shapes ethnic preferences

authored by

Christian Imdorf, Rumiana Stoilova, Matthias Pohlig, Katerina Katsarska

Abstract

This chapter underpins the thesis that hiring practices substantially cause the labour market exclusion experienced by many young adults of Roma origin in Bulgaria. Therefore, we stress that ethnic discrimination is not foremost an ‘individual accident’ of human resource managers but rather a ‘rationalized’ form of decision-making in the hiring process that is embedded in anticipated ‘productive communities’ (Leistungsgemeinschaften) (Scherr et al. 2015). We examine data from a Bulgarian employer survey to analyze whether and why the ethnic origin of job candidates matters when hiring new staff. Section 2 outlines the disadvantageous positioning of young Roma individuals in the educational system and on the labour market. Section 3 specifies the conceptual framework to theoretically embed our research question, and Section 4 presents the data and findings of the empirical study. Section 5 summarizes the results and draws conclusions.

Organisation(s)

Sociology Department

External Organisation(s)

Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS)

Type

Contribution to book/anthology

No. of pages

25

Publication date

11.12.2024

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities