How Can DEI Partnership Tackle Discrimination Against Foreign Workers?

?By Jose M. Romero, Director MARC Alumni Learning and Engagement at Catalyst

During my first professional experience overseas, in Ireland, a senior leader said to me, “Why do you think we hire people like you? Because you’re cheaper than a local and you speak other languages.” I was in my early twenties, and I felt appalled to learn that I was less valued for doing the same work based only on my nationality.

As a heterosexual, White, Spanish man, I have many privileges that I often remind myself of, but I have also experienced discrimination. I have lived in eight different nations, and I love these fulfilling experiences, but I’m still trying to figure out how to best leverage diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) leadership and partnership to tackle discrimination against foreign workers. Many people who have lived exclusively in monocultural environments may face extra challenges accepting non-natives living in their country. They haven’t experienced how it feels to be a migrant and the effort it takes to become a resident, land a proper job, navigate international bureaucracy, and adapt to a new society with different values and traditions far from family.

I've never felt like more of an outsider than I did during my first two years in Zurich, Switzerland. I quickly learned what resilience truly means, and that diversity does not guarantee inclusion. In this and many other countries, migrants often experience prejudice such as biased recruitment, pay inequality, lack of promotion opportunities, challenges accessing property rentals, and racism.

Since coming here, I have experienced indifference when I needed assistance, weird looks, exclusion from meetings, and rude attitudes that clearly showed I was unwelcome. When I discussed this with some Swiss people, some of the responses were: “Maybe those people were foreigners, too,” or, “You’ve just been unlucky.” But some of my fellow foreign workers said they only want to work for multinational and multicultural organizations where they don’t feel like outsiders. “Many locals just hang out with other locals," they said, "and often that means childhood friends and exclusive inner circles.”

While many Swiss citizens are welcoming to foreign workers, for many of us, day-to-day interactions suggest there is still much work to be done. The good news is we can all do something about it. Men and people of all genders must partner to disrupt discriminatory behaviors of any shape. This is especially true for executive men—local and otherwise—who can advocate and serve as models of inclusive leadership to create a safe environment where our multi-national colleagues can continue to thrive.

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