Testing discrimination in the labor market: the case of second-generation Latin American immigrants in Barcelona, Madrid, and Valencia

The immigration is a relatively recent phenomenon in Spain that has being increasing significantly in the last decades, mainly for people coming from Latin America and Morocco. This tendency has led to the formation of second-generation immigrants, raised and educated in the host country and willing to participate in the labour market under similar conditions as their native peers. However, this might not occur, since Spanish society tend to have rough attitudes and strong stereotypes against foreigners, which is reflected in the lower employment rate of the minorities. In this context, the present investigation analyze if there is a discrimination in the hiring process against Latino and Morocco second-generation immigrants in Spain, using a field experiment approach. The data were collected by sending resumés for job openings in Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia, and with the use of a probit model were estimated the probability of having a positive call-back for each minority with respect the Spaniards. In general terms, except for Moroccan males, no evidence of discrimination was found against Latinos and Moroccans second-generation immigrants, which suggest that the integration process in the labour market of these groups has been successful. In the case of Moroccans males, the discrimination prevails although they have local language skills and studied in the host country.