After completing two bachelor’s degrees and a master’s degree, Kevin Rydland was ready for working life. But it wasn’t going to be that easy to get a job. Not because of a lack of proper qualifications or education, but because of his name. – Towards the end of the last semester, I applied like all the other students. But I didn’t get the same answers that the others got. I actually got rejection after rejection, says Rydland. Then he began to doubt himself, and thought there was something wrong with his school performance and grades. – I spoke to other fellow students who had the same education and the same grades as me, if not a little lower. We applied for the same jobs and they got a completely different answer. With a father from Sri Lanka, Rydland did not have a typical Norwegian surname. After several rejections, it became obvious to him that he should change his name. He went from Kevin Marianayagam to Kevin Rydland. Which quickly led to changes. – It is tragicomic, but I received a positive response and was suddenly called in for several job interviews. Rydland changed his name as an experiment. It produced results. Photo: Mathias Oppedal / news The tale of the numbers The story of Rydland is not unique. We have heard several times about multicultural people in Norway who have changed their name to get a job. Arnfinn Midtbøen has been researching this since 2012. Ten years ago, he found that a foreign name reduces the probability of being called in for a job interview by around 25 per cent. Arnfinn Midtbøen is associate professor at the Department of Sociology and Social Geography at the University of Oslo. Photo: Institute for Social Research In 2021, he did a new survey. This time with data from abroad, including three Norwegian surveys. It turns out that little has changed in ten years. – What we find are more or less the same results over time. There is no sign of a decrease in the extent of discrimination. Midtbøen explains that we need more research over a longer period of time to determine any changes or stability in the numbers. When asked why minorities are subjected to this form of discrimination, Midtbøen replies that what the research shows quite clearly is that it is not an explicit form of racism or very strong prejudices, but: – That it is probably more about unconscious prejudices and stereotypes about what ethnic minority groups can and cannot do. And which seems to be reproduced over generations, and thus also affects Norwegians with a minority background who were born and raised in the country. No winners – Midtbøen’s report shows that working life is the loser, organizations are the losers; and not least those who are not called in for an interview are also losers. So there are no winners here, says Loveleen Rihel Brenna. She is the founder of Seema – center for diversity management. – We have to see that life and diversity in the population is much greater and we have to recruit that diversity into working life. Brenna believes that we must make managers aware of what relevant competence is. She finds that many people say they hire the best qualified. But how do you know if a person is qualified if you reject the application on the basis of the name? – We have to change the logic and language around diversity. Often it is “we must help, include, prevent outsiders, we must have anonymous applications”, says Brenna and adds: – It is a bit like that “helper-and-saviour” mentality instead of looking at what resource, potential and competitiveness the employees can bring. Loveleen Rihel Brenna is the founder and manager of Seema. Photo: Seema She explains that we need to understand what diversity competence is and that it should be an additional qualification on the same level as professional competence and work experience. – Diversity competence is much more than multicultural understanding. It is about flexibility, the ability to look at one and the same situation from different angles and the ability to step out of the comfort zone. Working with a new action plan The Ministry of Labor and Equality has been presented with the survey to Midtbøen. They believe that it shows that not enough has been done to tackle this problem. State Secretary at the Ministry of Labor and Equality Stian Nyhus tells news that they are working on a new action plan. Photo: Siri Løken / news – Basically, it shouldn’t matter whether your name is Ali or Olav in an employment process, says State Secretary Stian Nyhus to news. He says that the government is working on a new action plan against racism and discrimination, which will, among other things, deal with the way into and up working life for minorities. Nyhus says that it is too early to say anything about what measures the government is looking at, but that the action plan will come next year. – In the meantime, my call is to bring cases before the discrimination board if you feel you have experienced discrimination in an employment process.
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