IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cog/socinc/v6y2018i2p151-161.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Muslim Employment Gap, Human Capital, and Ethno-Religious Penalties: Evidence from Switzerland

Author

Listed:
  • Anaïd Lindemann

    (Institute of Social Sciences of Religions, University of Lausanne, Switzerland)

  • Jörg Stolz

    (Institute of Social Sciences of Religions, University of Lausanne, Switzerland)

Abstract

In Europe, Muslims are more likely to be unemployed than non-Muslims. Many studies try to explain this employment gap by human capital and contextual factors on the one hand, and by ethno-religious penalties (discrimination due to religious affiliation, religiosity, or migration factors) on the other. In these studies, it is normally assumed that human capital mediates the effect of Muslim affiliation, and that controlling for human capital will therefore reduce the odds for Muslims of being unemployed. We replicate the well-known study by Connor and Koenig (2015) along these lines, using the most recent and representative Swiss data from 2014 (N = 16,487). Our key result is that Muslim affiliation does not mediate, but actually moderates, the effect of human capital on unemployment. We find a powerful interaction in that Muslims both with a very low and a very high level of education are disproportionally often unemployed. This is important because it means that raising the human capital of Muslims will not automatically lessen, but may instead actually widen, the employment gap. We discuss possible theoretical mechanisms that might explain this finding.

Suggested Citation

  • Anaïd Lindemann & Jörg Stolz, 2018. "The Muslim Employment Gap, Human Capital, and Ethno-Religious Penalties: Evidence from Switzerland," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 6(2), pages 151-161.
    • Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v6:y:2018:i:2:p:151-161
    DOI: 10.17645/si.v6i2.1395
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/1395
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.17645/si.v6i2.1395?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Phillip Connor & Matthias Koenig, 2013. "Bridges and Barriers: Religion and Immigrant Occupational Attainment across Integration Contexts," International Migration Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1), pages 3-38, March.
    2. Kohler, Pierre, 2012. "Three essays on the economic and cultural integration of migrants in Switzerland: putting into perspective the influence of economic discrimination and of host society culture," MPRA Paper 38129, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. repec:sae:mrxval:v:47:y:2013:i:1:p:3-38 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Melissa J. Wilde, 2018. "Editorial: “Complex Religion: Intersections of Religion and Inequality”," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 6(2), pages 83-86.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Anaïd Lindemann & Jörg Stolz, 2018. "The Muslim Employment Gap, Human Capital, and Ethno-Religious Penalties: Evidence from Switzerland," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 6(2), pages 151-161.
    2. Jean Beaman, 2016. "As French as Anyone Else: Islam and the North African Second Generation in France," International Migration Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 41-69, March.
    3. Sheruni De Alwis & Nick Parr & Fei Guo, 2022. "The interacting effects of religion and birthplace on the labour market outcomes of Asian immigrants in Australia," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 39(2), pages 157-199, June.
    4. Bernhard Nauck, 2023. "Is Ethnic Retention a Result of Unmet Educational Aspirations? Academic Career and Ethnic Identity of Migrant Minority Youth in England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 261-280, March.
    5. Claudia Diehl & Elisabeth Liebau, 2017. "Perceptions of Discrimination: What Do They Measure and Why Do They Matter?," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 945, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    6. Gert-Jan Martijn Veerman & Jaap Dronkers, 2016. "Ethnic Composition and School Performance in the Secondary Education of Turkish Migrant Students in Seven Countries and 19 European Educational Systems," International Migration Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3), pages 537-567, September.
    7. Adam Gemar, 2024. "Religion and Social Capital: Examining Social Networks and Religious Identification in the UK," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 29(1), pages 23-40, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v6:y:2018:i:2:p:151-161. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: António Vieira or IT Department (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cogitatiopress.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.