Discrimination against Muslim staff at NZ universities may go unreported

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-07-05 03:00

New Zealand

Muslim university staff may not feel confident to report discrimination, suggests a small study. In the survey of 38 employees, most had not experienced discrimination. However, nine said they had felt intentionally excluded from a meeting or social event for being a Muslim, and three reported verbal or physical abuse from colleagues. Of those who had experienced discrimination, very few felt comfortable reporting it to their workplace. The authors say these exploratory findings suggest training is needed - for workers and managers - to better understand discrimination, and how employees can seek support.

Expert Reaction

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Dr Neda Salahshour, Research Development Leader, Open Polytechnic of New Zealand

This study investigates the information culture patterns of Muslim employees who work in New Zealand universities - i.e. how does this community use, access and share information relating to perceived discrimination?

Understanding the information culture of a community is important as it can assist employers and governments to identify the gaps in terms of communicating anti-discrimination laws and organisational policies relating to these laws.

It can also raise awareness about the level of visibility to support services and how comfortable members of this community feel when/if they draw on them. These in turn have implications for the overall well-being and sense of belonging of the community.

Last updated: 29 Jun 2021 7:09am

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Declared conflicts of interest Dr Neda Salahshour is a co-author of this study

Journal/
conference: Kotuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Open Polytechnic of New Zealand

Funder: N/A

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