Ethnic and Religious Discrimination in the Wedding Venue Business: Evidence from Two Field Experiments in Germany and Austria

Sarah Carol,Coco Kuipers,Milan Kaspers,Philipp Koesling

doi:10.1093/socpro/spab032

Sarah Carol, Coco Kuipers + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spab032

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Abstract

Abstract We add to the current debate on ethno-religious discrimination by studying to what extent discrimination in the wedding venue business is based on religious or ethnic grounds. Do the two reinforce each other? Does the explicit mentioning of a non-religious wedding help to reduce ethnic discrimination in a secularized society? We draw on two field experiments in Germany and Austria. We sent 805 valid emails to wedding venues. We randomly varied two traits, the names (Arabic-origin and native-origin) and whether the wedding was religious (Islamic or Free Church) or not. Using linear probability models and ordinary least squares regressions, we predicted the likelihood of receiving a confirmation, the response time from venues, the length, formality, and tone of the emails as well as the prevalence of mistakes in the emails. Our analyses showed that couples with Arabic-origin names, celebrating an Islamic wedding, received significantly fewer confirmations compared to couples with native-origin names. Celebrating a non-religious wedding of couples with Arabic-origin names reduced the disadvantage. The study suggests statistical discrimination based on religiosity that is inferred from Arabic-origin names.

Highlights

Discrimination in a variety of arenas prevents immigrants from participating in society and is widespread in labor and rental markets as well as public-sector bodies
We are interested in the following question: To what degree are Muslims with names of Arabic origin discriminated against when they are about to form a family and search for wedding venues? This is relevant for two reasons: First, marriage is of very high importance to Muslim minorities
To investigate the degree of discrimination, we chose Germany and Austria where we find some of the biggest Muslim minorities in Western Europe (Laurence 2012)

Summary

Introduction

Discrimination in a variety of arenas prevents immigrants from participating in society and is widespread in labor and rental markets as well as public-sector bodies (for an overview, see Pager and Shepherd 2008). Discrimination constitutes a serious social problem and remains salient, against Muslims or people of Arabic origin. In the case of marriage, religious minorities in Germany, Austria, and other countries have to largely rely on the willingness of the majority group to rent out their spaces. Besides the linguistic and cultural proximity, these countries share similar migration histories involving predominantly guest workers as well as family migrants arriving from Turkey and the former Yugoslavia (Bade and Oltmer 2007; Weichselbaumer 2017) Large numbers in these groups adhere to Islam and have names signaling their ethno-religious origin (Gerhards and Hans 2009)

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