Unpacking the Causes of Ethnic Segregation across Workplaces

Using a large sample of employees-within-workplaces, the author investigates the relative role of random and systematic sorting for ethnic segregation across workplaces. If employees, in a counterfactual world, were randomly allocated to workplaces, the level of ethnic segregation across workplaces would just be halved. The remainder of segregation - systematic segregation - is upheld because employees that are recruited to workplaces tend to be similar to those already employed there, not because underrepresented groups within workplaces are systematically screened out of them. This homosocial inflow of employees appears largely to be sustained by employers’ tendency to select new employees from a pool of workplaces where its employees have been employed previously.