| Western nations attract and indeed admit those immigrants who, because of their skills, in terms of their training, education, and expertise, can contribute to their national economies. Despite their skills, evidence suggests that compared to native-born individuals, immigrants with seemingly comparable skill levels have lower labor-market outcomes. In particular, the labor market potential of the increasing proportion of visible minority immigrants remains significantly under-utilized.;In study 1, I analyzed the Canadian data from the 2003 International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey. Specifically, for a sample of skilled individuals, results revealed that visible minority immigrants with a foreign degree had the lowest annual earnings, whereas White immigrants with a foreign degree earned about the same as White/visible minority Canadians/immigrants with a Canadian degree. In study 2, student participants evaluated a White or Black male job applicant who was either an immigrant from South Africa with accredited foreign credentials or an immigrant from South Africa with unaccredited foreign credentials or a Canadian citizen with Canadian credentials. Study 2 also assessed participants' prejudice. Results showed that once the foreign credentials of immigrants were accredited, they were no longer discounted relative to Canadian credentials of equal quality. Furthermore, accreditation immunized the evaluation of credentials from effects of immigrant race or participants' prejudice. I discuss the implications of these findings for identifying the antecedents of and reducing employment discrimination against visible minority immigrants.;Keywords. visible minority immigrants, skills discounting, employment discrimination, foreign credentials, credential accreditation, bias, reducing discrimination, justification-suppression model of prejudice, subtle prejudice, modern prejudice.;In this dissertation, I provide a modern prejudice explanation for visible minority immigrants' poor economic integration into Western societies. On the basis of theories of modern prejudice and Crandall and Eshleman's (2003) framework for the expression of prejudice, I suggest that foreign credentials of visible minority immigrants constitute a justification for the expression of personnel decision makers' prejudicial attitudes; the expressed prejudice manifests as employment discrimination. Then, drawing on King, Shapiro, Hebl, Singletary, and Turner (2006), I argue that the justification for the expression of prejudice may be removed if immigrants have acquired local credentials or have had their foreign credentials accredited. I tested these assertions through analyses of archival data (study 1) and an experimental study (study 2). |
