Xenophobia in the Netherlands

Muslim Web site El Qalem (only in Dutch) did some enlightening research into how immigrants (read: non-Western immigrants) are treated in the Netherlands in their search for employment. The experiment was set up professionally: two groups of 75 (nonexistent) job applicants each, one with a Dutch name, one with a 'foreign sounding' name, applied for the same types of jobs. The resumés were drafted by HR professionals, and students were prepped for any follow-up interviews.
The results are shocking: of the 75 Dutch applicants, 51 got a job offer; of the 75 non-Dutch applicants, 2 (that's two) got a job offer. Note also that the non-Dutch applicants were deliberately given better resumés than their Dutch counterparts.
El Qalem offered what it called its "Corporate Shitlist", a list of companies that scored worst when it came to hiring foreigners. I'll be happy to reproduce the international players in the list here:

  • Saturn Corporation (car manufacturer)
  • Ford Credit (car financing)
  • Kraft Food Europe (food products)
  • Rank Xerox (document management)
  • Shell (oil; imagine an oil company turning down people who speak Arabian!)
  • Reed Elsevier (publishing)

Posted by cronopio at 01:12 PM, September 20, 2005