A world to win at work? An integrated approach to meaningful interethnic contact

Abstract

In this chapter we develop an integrated approach to studying meaningful interethnic contact, combining a focus on objective characteristics of the contact situation with a focus on the subjective interpretation thereof taking into account people's pre-existing values. We study this in the context of workplace interethnic ties using a unique, tailor-made three-wave panel survey containing information on 3,191 workers in the Netherlands. We find that experiences with ethnic diversity at work, most prominently workplace interethnic social resources, contribute to more ethnic tolerance. This is mostly true for those low on prejudice who already had outside work ties and for those high on prejudice without previous interethnic ties outside work. Our study underlines the importance of workplace interethnic contact in the context of interethnic relations. Furthermore, it shows the importance of considering both characteristics of the contact situation and personal characteristics when studying the relationship between interethnic contact and ethnic tolerance.