Race Discrimination In Hiring Practices In Malaysia

You’ll probably read about this in the papers t, but I attended a very interesting seminar this morning at Universiti Malaya.  The topic: “Does race matter in getting an interview? A field experiment of hiring discrimination in Peninsular Malaysia”  Race is obviously a touchy subject in Malaysia, and frankly there’s not enough research into the area of discrimination to provide informed evidence on what is a potentially flammable subject. There is a lot of subjective and anecdotal evidence, but hardly much in the way of hard reproducible statistics.

The number of people calling back counts as interest in the candidate.  What the results show were fascinating, though I won’t go into all the details. On an overall basis, Malay candidates are on average 16.7% less likely to be called, and the effect is stronger in engineering than in accounting. On a side note, the overall call-back ratio is just 13.1%.  Some of the other findings:  Chinese language proficiency matters more than English (in fact it appears to be the single most important determining factor, apart from race), and the effect is stronger in engineering jobs; Which university you go to matters, but even more so for Malays – being a UiTM graduate appears to be a relative handicap, though less so in engineering than in accounting; Academic qualifications also matter, but is also a more significant factor for Malays than for Chinese candidates; And before anyone starts grumbling about racism, the preference for Chinese candidates is pretty much across the board, whether the company doing the advertising is Chinese controlled, foreign controlled, or (astonishingly) Malay controlled. So here’s some firm evidence that discrimination is alive and well in Malaysia.  I have to digress here and differentiate between racial discrimination and racism – these are not the same. In the sense used here, racial discrimination (a revealed preference) in hiring is  not synonymous to racial stereotyping or inherent prejudice.  One of the things discussed in the Q&A (interestingly enough, brought up by a Malay participant), was that those companies whose customer bases are mainly Chinese, or do a lot of business with Chinese majority countries, would have a natural – and rational – preference for ethnic Chinese staff. Consider that Mandarin is usually specified as a job requirement, yet is not the main Chinese language spoken in Malaysia. Hiring discrimination in this scenario would then be just good business sense.  And the fact that discrimination in favour of Chinese candidates is present even in Malay-controlled firms suggests that racism – while it can’t and shouldn’t be discounted – isn’t the only, or even the most important factor at play.  But that’s speculation on my part – this study provides no answers to that other question about racial discrimination: Given that it exists, why does it happen? And for the answer to that, we’ll have to wait for someone to take on that particular research challenge.

Do you agree that the Malaysian job market has become more competitive over the years with more people with the same kind of qualifications?

The situation is making it more difficult for job seekers to get employment, and discrimination does not help.

Many online job seeking companies have come up with guidelines and even vetting systems which disallows employers from adding discriminatory requirements in their advertisements.

Recently, a posting by a Facebook user claiming that she could not get a temporary job as a sales person in retail outlets because she wears a hijab (long headscarf) or tudung (shorter headscarf), created a debate among other users.

The post, in which the author claimed that she never felt as disgraced even when she was living in Muslim minority countries for several years, was shared by many who shared similar experiences.

A Facebook user, who only wanted to be known as Aleen, said that it was not only in the retail industry does such discrimination exists.

“I studied a media-related course and have been looking for a job related to what I studied for.

“Unfortunately, I was rejected by many companies because I wear a hijab, which they said will not look good when you have to dress in corporate clothing,” she said, adding that she was even told by some companies that she might get a job if she was willing to get rid of the hijab.

Aleen said that she applied for jobs in public relations industry and hotels for the most part.

Most companies that The Star Online contacted, however, refused to be quoted but said that the wearing of hijab was never an issue.

We tries some sample with local hotels and corporate and we found the issues as such existence.

But when asked some employers they would have a standard reply "I do not see the problem". It is just attire which I am sure the foreigners and other customers are used to seeing on Malaysian women. I have not heard of such incidents, at least not in the hotel line.

He added that other forms of discrimination's including racial, gender and age discrimination are also discouraged.I think the industry is quite diversified and discrimination's in any form does not come into play said by one hotel owner.

Despite the assurances, a study conducted by University Malaya senior lecturer in development studies department Lee Hwok Aun and National University of Malaysia research fellow Muhammed Abdul Khalid showed that racial discrimination, at least, is very much prevalent in the private sector.

Stating that they were only able to conduct the study in the private sector, Lee said that the results that showed that Chinese applicants had an upper hand, was expected.

Lee said that the experiment was done as there were many opinions made from anecdotal evidence, personal experience or hearsay.

“I wanted to step back and examine the issue empirically and credibly,” he said.

The study involved the distribution of resumes of fictitious Malay and Chinese candidates to real job advertisers and comparing the number of callbacks candidates of each race gets.

“We ensured that the Malay and Chinese applicants in our pool were similarly qualified. We controlled for quality, in the way that experiments isolate the effect of the determinant in focus by controlling for – in other words, taking away – the effects of other determinants, “ Lee said.

When questioned on why only two races were chosen for the experiment, Lee said that the predominant images of labour market discrimination that form in our minds pit Chinese-owned private sector businesses against Malay graduates and a Malay dominated public sector against the non-Malay workforce.

He added that they faced practical difficulties as the duo considered including other groups such as preparing larger number of resumes, which in turn will require more manpower to process.

The result of the experiment showed that in private sectors, race mattered.

“Chinese applicants are much more likely than Malay applicants to be called for interview. Quality also matters, but much less so,” Lee said.

He added that some skills such as proficiency in Chinese dialects increased the chances of Malay applicants but not by much.

“This research just examines discrimination in selection for interview, not the job offer stage, let alone employment and promotion, which impact further on our economy and society.

“Investigating discrimination at those levels is controversial and difficult, if not impossible, since it will involve research assistants posing in person as job candidates,” he said.

Lee said that although the experiment did not answer the burning question of why such discrimination occurs, it was a starting point.

“Perhaps some employers expect Malay applicants to not socially fit into the company and hence do not bother calling them for interview, or perhaps they feel a need and justification for private sector to counterweight the pro-Malay policies in the public sector.

“We cannot confidently evaluate these arguments without further study. Emphatically, we must not be hasty to blame the discrimination we detect on malevolent motives and racial stereotyping, prejudice or bigotry,” he said.

Lee added that this was an issue we need to dwell on seriously as a nation.