The workplace as a source of ethnic tolerance? Studying interethnic contact and interethnic resources at work in the Netherlands

Katerina Manevska*, Roderick Sluiter, Agnes Akkerman, Marcel Lubbers

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

This study combines insights from contact theory and social capital literature to study how ethnic diversity at work is associated to ethnic tolerance. It is argued that workplace ethnic diversity is related to ethnic tolerance in two ways: through interethnic contact and through interethnic social resources. The interrelation between these two mechanisms is also considered. The study relies on unique workplace survey data from the Netherlands (N = 3800) with information on ethnic tolerance, measured as support for immigrant entitlements. The results show that ethnic diversity in the workplace is positively related to interethnic contact and interethnic resources at work, and both of these are positively related to ethnic tolerance. However, the initial positive effect of interethnic contact on support for immigrant entitlements is mediated by interethnic resources, thereby showing that the interethnic resources mechanism is more insightful as to how ethnically diverse workplaces matter for ethnic tolerance.

Original languageEnglish
Article number101955
Pages (from-to)1-17
Number of pages17
JournalInternational Journal of Intercultural Relations
Volume100
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Authors

Funding

The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) [grant number 453\u201015\u2010001].

FundersFunder number
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek453‐15‐001

    Keywords

    • Ethnic tolerance
    • Interethnic contact
    • Interethnic social resources
    • Social capital
    • Workplace ethnic diversity

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'The workplace as a source of ethnic tolerance? Studying interethnic contact and interethnic resources at work in the Netherlands'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this