The integration paradox – investigating the relation between education and perceived discrimination among immigrants in Europe

Abstract

Higher educated immigrants perceive more discrimination, which we consider an integration paradox. This paradox has mostly been studied in the Netherlands; hence we tested the robustness of these findings in seven European countries. Ethnic competition theory was used to predict a positive relation between education and perceived discrimination. Based on theories of rising expectation and relative deprivation, we argued that underemployment, unemployment and financial insecurity would strengthen this relation. The Immigrant Citizen Survey (2012) was used to test our hypotheses. We found partial support for the integration paradox in Belgium. Contradicting our hypothesis, a negative relation between education and perceived discrimination was found in Germany. In all other countries, education and perceived discrimination were unrelated. We conclude that the integration paradox is not a general phenomenon across European countries. Ethnic competition is not related to perceived discrimination and higher educated do not perceive more discrimination if they are relatively deprived.