In Germany women wearing headscarf much less likely to get a job

by Beatrice Credi - 2016.09.21

In Germany, females with backgrounds of migration from Muslim countries, and especially of those wearing headscarves, are still faced with high levels of hiring discrimination. To prove that, a researcher from University of Linz & IZA did an experiment. Job applications were sent out for three fictitious female characters with identical qualifications: one applicant had a German name, one a Turkish name, and one had a Turkish name and was wearing a headscarf in the photograph included in the application material. Germany was the ideal location for the experiment as job seekers typically attach their picture to their résumé. Whereas the applicant with a typical German name (Sandra Bauer) received an 18.8% callback rate, the same person with a Turkish-sounding name (Meryem Öztürk) got callbacks only on 13.5% of her applications. In the case of the female with a Turkish name wearing a headscarf, the callback rate was only 4.2%. In addition, the headscarf in the application photograph did not cover the applicant’s throat, thus signaling that she is not particularly strict with respect to her religion.