Funded (competitive) projects at the D-Lab
D-Project
Pushing the Boundaries of Research on Ethno-Racial Discrimination in Hiring
The Pushing the Boundaries of Research on Ethno-Racial Discrimination in Hiring (D-Project) seeks to advance our understanding of ethno-racial discrimination by investigating firms’ recruiting practices in real-life settings, with special attention to both Europe and the Spanish case. Funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (PID2020-119558GB-I00), the D-Project will fill important gaps in the migrant incorporation, the social stratification and the field-experimental literatures, by providing new evidence, new concepts, innovative identification strategies and new methodological tools for the study of ethno-racial discrimination. The project is divided in three working packages: 1) Ethno-racial discrimination (WP1); 2) Intra-European ethnic boundaries (WP2); and 3) Methodological innovations in field-experimental research. We will exploit data produced by three field-experiments: 1) the GEMM discrimination study, which is the largest harmonized field experiment on ethnic discrimination in hiring ever conducted in Europe (already completed); 2) the adopted children study, an innovative experiment that will allow us to identify `pure’ racial discrimination in hiring (to be completed in year 2 of the project); and 3) the phenotype-beauty experiment, that will allow us to investigate the interplay of applicants’ phenotype, gender, physical attractiveness and ethnicity in eliciting employers’ responses (to be entirely carried out during the lifetime of the D-project). The project is led by Javier Polavieja (PI) and has a total budget of over 165,000 Euros
The Growth, Equal Opportunities Migrations and Markets project (GEMM) is funded by the Horizon 2020 program of the European Union (Grant Agreement 649255). GEMM addresses the challenges and barriers that European countries face in managing the mobility of persons to realize competitiveness and growth. For markets to function optimally, we identify two migration-related drivers of growth: the efficient use of existing human capital and managing mobility of human capital both from within and from outside Europe. A key barrier for these drivers to contribute to growth is ethnic inequality. Inequality can be a result of the skill composition and resources of the migrant population, but also of markets not functioning optimally, for example due to ethnic discrimination, economic conditions or institutional arrangements that affect the flexibility of the labour market. Consequently, inequality can result in economic decline, the inability to face the demographic challenge in Europe, a scarcity of skilled labour, or an innovation deficit. The contribution of the GEMM project is to deliver an in-depth assessment of the two drivers of growth and their relation to ethnic inequality in the European labour market. We achieve this through a unified WP research agenda that focuses on different types of migrants defined by the qualifications they possess. Depth is added by considering different determinants of inequality at three levels: individual; contextual; and institutional. GEMM strives for scientific rigour and balance that better reflect the multi-faceted migration phenomenon.
Led by Javier Polavieja (PI), the Spanish team of the GEMM project participates in 3 working packages with a total team budget of over 400,000 Euros.
The New Approaches to Integration Research project (NewAIR) is funded by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (CSO2016-78452-P). The primary goal of this project is to advance our understanding of international migrants’ integration processes in European societies. NewAIR sets out to analyze immigrant’s integration by looking at processes of labour market incorporation and cultural adaptation. A unique contribution of this project is the development and application of innovative methodologies to the study of integration research, including i) the use of innovative field experiments to investigate discrimination across various ethnic groups and dimensions of ethnicity, and iii) the use of advanced quantitative methods to estimate the role of culture, discrimination and non-random selection in attainment processes.
The NewAIR project is a continuation of the CALMA project (Competition, Adaptation and Labour Market Attainment of International Migrants in Europe), funded by by the VI Plan Nacional de Investigación Científica, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (CSO2012-38521). The CALMA project has already produced a host of high-impact-factor publications and has fostered intensive international collaboration leading to one funded Horizon 2020 project (the Growth, Employment, Equal Opportunities, Migration and Markets Project, GEMM). NewAIR builds on the accumulated evidence, expertise, networks and resources of both the CALMA and GEMM projects and will help us consolidate an internationally-recognized hub of excellence in immigration research at Carlos III.
Led by Javier Polavieja (PI), NewAir has a total budget of 97,000 Euros.