Factors and Mechanisms of Ethnic Boundary Construction in Institutional Settings

1. Factors, Factors, mechanisms mechanisms and conditions of ethnic and conditions of ethnic boundary construction and boundary construction and their alternatives in institutional institutional settings their alternatives in settings Presentation at Presentation at Séminaire Séminaire URMIS Nice, January 12, 2018. URMIS Nice, January 12, 2018. (Feel free to make a reference, but do contact the author) (Feel free to make a reference, but do contact the author) Hans Siebers Tilburg University h.g.siebers@tilburguniversity.edu

2. Selfie Hans Siebers Associate professor Tilburg School of Humanities / ReflecT Tilburg University • Programme director Master Management of Cultural Diversity • Research on ethnic identity, ethnic relations and ethno-migrant inequality in the labour market and education • Research projects on organizational level: Province Noord-Holland; Tax administration; Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality; Dutch Police; The Hague University of Applied Sciences; Ministry of Education, Culture and Science; Municipality of Eindhoven, Zaanstad, Arnhem, Haalmemmermeer…

3. Configurations of ethnicity Working definition of ethnicity: • Symbolic constructions and patterns of behaviour related to articulations of space and time around issues of: • Origins • Belongingness • Destiny • Using symbolic input like religion, language, traditions…

4. Configurations of ethnicity Max Weber => Fredrik Barth => Andreas Wimmer / Rogers Brubaker Key points: 1. Ethnic group-formation is not a natural but a historical phenomenon, therefore it is in need for explanation. Crucial in the emergence of ethnic group-formation is not the cultural stuff that marks it, but the construction of the boundaries that enclose it. 2.

5. Configurations of ethnicity Max Weber => Fredrik Barth => Andreas Wimmer / Rogers Brubaker My own research agenda: 1. Detect the factors, mechanisms and conditions that produce ethnic boundaries between migrants and non-migrants. 2. In institutional settings: labour market and education. 3. Mostly in the Netherlands.

6. Configurations of ethnicity Max Weber => Fredrik Barth => Andreas Wimmer / Rogers Brubaker Methods: 1. Meso: case studies of organisations and schools: surveys and quantitative analysis. Micro: ethnography: interviews, observations, self-reporting... Macro: political and policy discourse analysis. 2. 3.

7. Configurations of ethnicity Max Weber => Fredrik Barth => Andreas Wimmer / Rogers Brubaker My own contributions: 1. Multiple configurations of ethnicity. 2. Class formation as a mechanism of ethnic boundary construction. 3. Nationalism as a factor of ethnic boundary construction. 4. Salience of ethnic boundaries is conditional. => Brief summary of main findings of projects / publications.

8. Configurations of ethnicity Ethnic boundaries Identity formation - Totalising ethnic groupism (sameness) - Marginalised ‘nested’ identities - Rejected ethnic alterity or difference out-groups Socialisation - In-group preferences and out-group contact avoidance/conflict - Disruptive of institutional or professional cooperation - Imposed Distribution of resources - In-group favouritism - Discrimination of out-group members

9. Configurations of ethnicity My findings: 1. The absence of ethnic boundaries does not necessarily mean the absence of ethnicity. Ethnicity is not necessarily about ethnic boundaries (Wimmer, 2013) or ethnic group-formation (Brubaker, 2006) or imagined communities (Anderson, 1983), it can also be about individuality, networking and sociality (see also Boli and Elliott, 2007). Ethnicity is not necessarily about rejected alterity, it can also be about recognised alterity. Vital for understanding the role of ethnicity in institutional settings is its relation to ‘nested’ identities. Different configurations of ethnicity that differ very much in terms of compatibility with institutional demands and identities. 2. 3. 4. 5.

10. Configurations of ethnicity Key findings: 6. Two configurations of ethnicity: • Ethnic boundaries • Individualised ethnicity

11. Configurations of ethnicity Individualised ethnicity Identity formation - ‘Nested’ sameness and groupism - Ethnic individuality (difference) - Recognised alterity Socialisation - Networking - Facilitating institutional or professional cooperation - Agentic Distribution of resources - Uses institutional demands and standards

12. Configurations of ethnicity Individualised ethnicity Halimah: ‘The allochthones are very mixed as well, it’s a very mixed class … Everyone is simply who he is, we support each other … no one is “them”…’ • She emphasises individuality in her class, not group formation, sameness constructed on the basis of ‘nested’ identities as fellow students. • She emphasises mutual recognition.

13. Configurations of ethnicity Individualised ethnicity Regarding her Moroccan and Islamic background: ‘It is fine as long as it is part of me and does not turn me into being part of the Moroccans’ • Ethnic identity is not absent and is not about ethnic groupism: she does not want to be seen as a representative of a Muslim of Moroccan community. • Her ethnic identity is about selectively using repertoires stemming from her Muslim and Moroccan background as input into profiling her individual difference. => Very successful class in terms of socialisation and study performance

14. Configurations of ethnicity Individualised ethnicity Key: • First recognition of institutionally ‘nested’ sameness, second recognition of ethnic individual difference. • Similar in educational and in work settings (Siebers, 2009a; submitted a). • Tentative: if ethnicity is salient in institutional settings, its default configuration is ethnic individuality.

15. Configurations of ethnicity Ethnic boundaries Two forms: • Blunt form of overt ethnic conflicts, like Dutch police (e.g. Siebers, 2017). • Subtle forms covered by mechanisms of EBC (e.g. Siebers and Van Gastel, 2015).

16. Mechanism of EBC Mechanism: Process that indirectly facilitates the construction of ethnic boundaries without itself focusing on ethnicity. Case: Class formation and closure through cultural capital control (Bourdieu, 1984, 1986) in the labour market.

17. Mechanism of EBC Theoretical foundation: Labour control at the gate and on the work floor is increasingly becoming a matter of identity regulation (Alvesson and Willmott, 2002) or pseudo-therapy (Costea et al., 2008; Covaleski et al., 1998). Focus of control: • At the gate: not only human capital credentials but also “soft skills”. • On the work floor: not only quantity and quality of one’s work or observance of rules and regulations, but also the ways in which you perform your work and the identity or personality traits with which you do you work.

18. Mechanism of EBC Empirical findings in Dutch organisations: • Soft skills are increasingly being used as criteria to assess workers and applicants on, side-lining classical human capital credentials. • Most popular: being enthusiastic, independent, entrepreneurial, proactive, convincing, creative, assertive, ad rem, communicative, cooperative and authentic. • They focus on someone’s identity, i.e. what you are, not on somone’s expertise or hard skills, i.e. what you know or can.

19. Mechanism of EBC Bourdieu (1984, 1986) on cultural capital: • Specific normative dispositions, attitudes and styles of behaviour and expression that are learned in a particular class context. • That are not functional for the work that needs to be done, i.e. they are not human capital • That are required to get access to a particular class. • Key role of gatekeepers. • Examples: arts and education.

20. Mechanism of EBC I argue: Soft skills qualify as such cultural capital instead of as human capital: • They are about normative dispositions, attitudes and styles of behaviour and expression. • Their functionality or job-relatedness is very questionable (Grugulis and Stoyanova, 2011; Urciuoli, 2008). • Selectors at job interviews and supervisors at assessment interviews can best be seen as gatekeepers controlling applicants’ and employees’ access to a higher class through hiring and promotion.

21. Mechanism of EBC I argue: Soft skills qualify as such cultural capital instead of as human capital: • Soft skills are the terms on which an applicant or employee is tested whether s/he is someone with whom gatekeeters con establish ties with high levels of trust and emotional investment, i.e. to develop social capital with (Bourdieu, 1986). • Their assessments are highly subjective and arbitrary, based on ‘taste’ (Bourdieu, 1984).

22. Mechanism of EBC Findings: • Large part of the ethno-migrant inequality in access to jobs and in job segregation in Dutch organisations is due to soft skills control. Example of a recent project in a Dutch municipal organisation: • 70.69 % of ethno-migrant inequality in hiring is due to soft skills control. • 41.96 % of ethno-migrant job segregation is due to soft skills control. (Siebers, 2009b; 2017; forthcoming a; submitted b; Siebers and Van Gastel, 2015)

23. Mechanism of EBC How does that work? 1. Due to previous experiences of discrimination and overall weaker labour market positions => Migrants focus on profiling their securities, i.e. their human capital credentials and doing the job the best they can. => Mismatch between migrants’ focus on human capital profiling and selectors’ and supervisors’ focus on controlling their soft skills.

24. Mechanism of EBC How does that work? 2. Due to actual experiences of discrimination in the organisation itself => Migrants underperform on soft skills.  Since most soft skills refer to effectiveness in social interactions, they come to depend very much on their colleagues’ willingness to interact with them.

25. Mechanism of EBC How does that work?  Due to the fact that soft skills performances take place within social interactions, soft skills control renders migrants’ soft skills performances vulnerable to ethnic boundary constructions by non-migrants.  This social nature itself is denied by framing soft skills as assumed identity characteristics. The role of non-migrants in migrants’ soft skills profiling is denied, that makes it possible to blame the victims themselves.

26. Mechanism of EBC How does that work? 3. Symbolic violence (Bourdieu, 1989) against migrants, i.e. non-recognition of the soft skills migrants do manage to perform: • Highly subjective nature of controlling soft skills (Bourdieu’s “taste”) • Highly arbitrary nature of soft skills (Urciuoli, 2008) • Discursive convergence between soft skills and nationalist discourses: both focus on assumed identity or personality traits  Facilitates the nationalisation of soft skills. In the words of a female migrant worker in a Dutch company: ‘I definitely think my soft skills are questioned because they don’t align with the Dutch way of doing things. And also, the cultural norms here aren’t what we did back home.’

27. Mechanism of EBC How does that work? 3. Symbolic violence (Bourdieu, 1989) against migrants, i.e. non-recognition of the soft skills they do manage to perform: • Highly subjective nature of controlling soft skills (Bourdieu’s “taste”) • Highly arbitrary nature of soft skills (Urciuoli, 2008) • Discursive convergence between soft skills and nationalist discourses: both focus in assumed identity or personality traits  Facilitates negative images of migrants in nationalist discourses to influence their soft skills assessments.  They are framed as embodying exactly the opposite cultural characteristics: “Passive, reactive, non-assertive, modest, less communicative, less cooperative” etc.  Understood as stemming from their ‘cultures of origin’ instead of their labour market insecurity.  Blame the victims.

28. Mechanism of EBC In short: 1. Nationalist discourses are able to influence hiring and promotion decisions because these decisions are based on cultural capital control. 2. If these decisions were only based on controlling human capital credentials, nationalism would have much less chances to influence such decisions.

29. Factors of EBC Theoretical foundations: 1. Ethnicity becomes a problem in the context of nationalism (Wimmer, 2013; Wimmer and Glick Schiller, 2002, 2003). 2. Rise of civic nationalism (Gellner, 1983) in Dutch media and politics in 1980s and 1990s flagged by multiculturalism (Siebers and Dennissen, 2015) 3. Rise of ethno-nationalism (Smith, 1986) in Dutch media and politics (Duyvendak, 2011; Scholten and Holzhacker, 2009; Van Reekum, 2012; Van Reekum and Duyvendak, 2012) since the turn of the century.

30. Factors of EBC Theoretical foundations: 4. Culturalisation of citizenship (Duyvendak et al., 2016) and of migrants themselves (Siebers and Dennissen, 2015), both in its: • Civic nationalist or multicultural frame: assumed cultural differences between migrants and non-migrants. • Ethno-nationalist or cultural fundamentalist frame: assumed cultural incompatibility between migrants and non-migrants.

31. Factors of EBC Nationalist discourses in media and politics fuel ethnic boundaries in its • Subtle form through cultural capital or soft skills control (e.g. Siebers and Van Gastel, 2015). • Blunt and openly conflictive form (e.g. Siebers, 2017).

32. Factors of EBC Subtle ethnic boundaries Identity formation - Salient ethnic groupism only at moments of control - Daily salience of ‘nested’ identities - Daily backstaging of ethnic alterity or difference Socialisation - Migrant workers prefer to work on their own - Non-migrant workers prefer to work in teams Distribution of resources - De facto in-group favouritism - De facto discrimination of out-group members

33. Factors of EBC How does that work? • Subtle ethnic boundary constructions through nationalism in an indirect way, i.e. through soft skills control (see previous section).

34. Factors of EBC Blunt ethnic boundaries Identity formation - Salient ethnic groupism not only at moments of control, but also in daily life at work or at school - Partial side-lining of ‘nested’ identities - Daily risk of ethnic alterity or difference Socialisation - Occasional ethnic conflicts - Daily (risk of) contact avoidance Distribution of resources - Deliberate in-group favouritism - Deliberate discrimination of out-group members

35. Factors of EBC How does that work? • Blunt ethnic boundary erections by way of direct influence of nationalist discourses in media and politics triggering ethnic conflicts at work and in school (Siebers, 2010; 2017; forthcoming b; Siebers and Dennissen, 2015). They provide: • The occasions for ethnic conflict. • The conflictive discursive meanings for ethnic conflict.

36. Factors of EBC Pinar: “Pope, go to hell!” … At a certain moment a colleague started to say: ‘You Muslims have to stop with all this, you think you can allow yourselves everything. We Christians will attack the Turkish consulate and will teach you what violence is.’ And then the other colleague said: ‘It is about time to take the white conical hats out of the closet’. … Well I, even though I am very outspoken, I did not know what to say. I clammed up completely. Then I stayed home for three months. … Nothing has been done with it. Even worse. It turned out that I... that I had to... enter into a mediation talk with my colleagues...As if they were just boys of 16 or 17 whose thoughts can still be changed... As if this was just a joke. So I refused.

37. Factors of EBC Colleagues take over key elements of ethno-nationalist discourses in Dutch media and politics:  Providing the occasion of conflict.  Providing the meanings that fuel conflict: • Ethno-nationalist categories. • Ethno-nationalist essentialization. • Ethno-nationalist stigmatization.

38. Factors of EBC Made worse by the identity regulation and quasi-therapeutical approach of the team leader: • Abstaining from disciplinary action • Interpreting the problem in terms of soft skills • Therefore offering mediation instead of law enforcement • Team leader blaming Pinar herself: ‘She is not resilient enough’ => Shutting Pinar out of the team!

39. Factors of EBC Also civic nationalist or multicultural approaches triggering ethnic conflicts (Siebers, forthcoming b): • Theories about acculturation (Berry, 2005), intercultural communication (Pinto, 2000) and national cultural difference (Hofstede, 2001) that propagate the use of cultural essentialist and national categories triggering ethno- nationalist conflicts in class.

40. Conditions of EBC Conditions that influence configurations of ethnicity (individualised ethnicity, subtle ethnic boundarties and blunt ethnic boundaries: • Relevance nationalist discourse for primary process. • Use of soft skills control and vulnerability to social capital. • …

41. Thank you for your attention!

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44. Literature Siebers, H. (2009a) ‘Struggles for Recognition: The Politics of Racioethnic Identity among Dutch National Tax Administrators.’ Scandinavian Journal of Management, 25(1): 73-84. Siebers, H. (2009b) ‘(Post)bureaucratic organizational practices and the production of racioethnic inequality at work.’ Journal of Management and Organization, 15(1): 62-81. Siebers, H. (2010) ‘The Impact of Migrant-Hostile Discourse in Media and Politics on Racioethnic Closure in Career Development in The Netherlands.’ International Sociology, 25(4): 475-500. Siebers, H. (2017) ‘What turns migrants into ethnic minorities at work? Factors erecting ethnic boundaries among Dutch police officers.’ Sociology, 51(3): 608-625. Siebers, H. (forthcoming a) ‘When nationalism meets soft skills: Towards a comprehensive framework for explaining ethno-migrant inequality in the Dutch labour market.’ In: C. Rijken and T. de Lange (eds) Towards a decent labour market for low waged migrant workers. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. Siebers, H. (forthcoming b) ‘Are education and nationalism a happy marriage? Ethno-nationalist disruptions of education in Dutch classrooms.’ British Journal of Sociology of Education. Siebers, H. (submitted a) ‘Does the Superdiversity Label Stick? Configurations of Ethnic Diversity in Dutch Class Rooms.’ Submitted to International Sociology. Siebers, H. (submitted b) ‘Where ethnicity meets class: Factors and mechanisms of discrimination of migrants in hiring procedures of a Dutch municipal organisation.’ Submitted to Human Relations. Siebers, H. and Dennissen, M.H.J. (2015) ‘Is it cultural racism? Discursive oppression and exclusion of migrants in the Netherlands.’ Current Sociology, 63(3): 470-489 Siebers, H. and Van Gastel, J. (2015) ‘Why migrants earn less: In search of the factors producing the ethno-migrant pay gap in a Dutch public organization.’ Work, Employment and Society, 29(3): 371–391.

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