Immigrants in the Workplace

Compared with women and racial/ethnic minorities, immigrants arguably have received less attention from organizational scholars of workplace diversity. Given increased rates of immigration worldwide and increasing societal scrutiny of immigration laws and policies, more research is needed to examine possible stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination faced by immigrants in the workplace. The current chapter reviews existing research related to immigrants specifically and diversity (e.g., contact hypothesis, mixed stereotype content model) more generally. The extant literature is organized using integrated threat theory as a framework to better understand potential precursors of discrimination against immigrants, including symbolic threats (e.g., perceived threats to the culture and language of “natives), realistic threats (e.g., perceived threats to jobs, perceived usage of tax dollars, perceived crime risk), and stereotyping (e.g. the ambivalent stereotypes of immigrants depending on their country of origin). The chapter concludes with suggestions for future research in this area.