A new report from Järvaveckan Research and PwC show that many business leaders react negatively to suburban dialect and Muslim attributes in recruitment. At the same time, the report's interpretations raise criticism, as the results can just as easily be described as an expression of companies trying to avoid conflicts and rogue signals in the workplace.
In the survey, 37% of business leaders say they are negatively affected by candidates who speak fluent Swedish with a suburban accent. Meanwhile, 61% say that religious or cultural attributes, such as a veil, kippa or cross, have a negative impact on their impression during a job interview.
CEO of Järvaveckan Ahmed Abdirahman describes the results as ”prejudices”.
- It is simply prejudice that means people cannot do right by themselves as individuals, he tells SVT.
But the report's own figures show that business leaders make a clear distinction between different types of language and expression. Only 10% reported a negative impact from candidates with a foreign accent, while a whopping 37% reacted negatively to suburban Swedish.
This suggests that it is not primarily a matter of someone sounding foreign, but of the particular slang culture that has developed in many suburbs and which is often associated with expressions such as ”walla”, ”brother” and ”yani”. In both SVT's and TV4's reporting, such words are used as examples of suburban language.
For many employers, recruitment is not only about formal skills, but also about how a person is perceived by customers, colleagues and partners. The report also shows that language is the most influential factor in interview situations.
Muslim attributes stand out
The report also shows that Muslim beliefs and attributes raise significantly more doubts than other religions. 38% stated that Muslim beliefs have a negative impact on the impression, while the corresponding figure for Christian and Jewish beliefs was around 10%.
The report describes this as an ”inclusion problem”. At the same time, it is a fact that issues such as the headscarf, prayer breaks, gender segregation and discrimination complaints have become recurring areas of conflict in Swedish workplaces. For companies that want to have clear rules, common working procedures and avoid legal disputes, such experiences can play a major role in recruitment.
The survey also shows that many companies make extensive use of personal networks when hiring. This can be seen as a way for employers to reduce uncertainty and gain better control over who is allowed into the business.
Political conflicts are also rejected
The fact that companies try to avoid people or environments that can create conflicts is also evident in other studies. A Swedish study published in the journal Political Psychology shows that candidates who signaled political commitment were more often screened out in recruitment processes.
This is particularly true of people with links to the Sweden Democrats. This may be a case of outright opinion discrimination, since it is mainly in areas with strong left-wing sympathies that SD members are rejected. As more than 20% of the electorate voted for the Sweden Democrats in the last general election, it is remarkable that this exclusion is continuing.
At the same time, the researchers found that even candidates with a left-wing political commitment could be disadvantaged because employers risked perceiving them as conflict-oriented or activist.
Overall, the results indicate that many companies in practice try to protect their business from what is perceived to be able to create conflict, identity politics or social unrest. This applies to political activism, special religious requirements and the suburban culture that many employers associate with low seriousness and increased risk of conflict.
