Does an accent limit access to work?

Over time working with clients who are transitioning roles, I have noticed that those with 'foreign' names seem to gain an interview less often than those with names more mainstream in the society they seek work within. Of course this does not 'count' as research, but I have recently stumbled across a few articles which find that there are also hiring prejudices against those with non-local accents (Lev-Ari, 2021; Li & Campbell, 2009; Maydell & Diego-Mendoza, 2014; O'Brien et al., 2024; Schmaus & Kristen, 2022). Interestingly, an accent - 'foreign' or local - has become a marker, a proxy, or "a strong cue for ethnic group membership" (Schmaus & Kristen, 2022, p. 563).

We are apparently attuned to the familiar (Lev-Ari, 2021). I suppose many of us are probably somewhat scarred by the 2000s corporate cost-savings outsourcing of call centres to Mumbai, and the difficulty we had in hearing what was said by those disembodied and lyrical Indian call centre voices. We Kiwis are not alone: it seems that people in the UK "rate salespeople as less knowledgeable and convincing if they have an accent", and apparently, we "are less likely to recommend someone for hiring or promotion if the person has a foreign accent" (Lev-Ari, 2021). Talk about cutting our nose off to spite our face!

Those new to New Zealand who come from non-English speaking nations report paying an 'ethnic penalty' due to their ethnicity; they found it harder to get work than anticipated. Only 40% of research participants gained work commensurate with their qualifications, while experiencing a "loss of self-confidence, reduced self-esteem and [this experience] impacted on their marital and family relationships" (Li & Campbell, 2009, p. 377). That is heart breaking - such a waste of potential. Another study of 43 migrants found these citizens had experienced discrimination with regard to "foreign accent, non-recognition of overseas qualifications, lack of New Zealand work experience or knowledge of social networks" (Maydell & Diego-Mendoza, 2014), while a more recent study found that things were similar in Europe: with "foreign accented speakers who called to inquire about an advertised position result[ed] in a lower rate of positive replies" (Schmaus & Kristen, 2022, p. 584), possibly because "in environments that are more hostile toward immigrants, employers are more likely to hold such attitudes themselves and can expect not to be sanctioned when acting upon their ethnic preferences". Ouch. 

It appears that some of this may be because we "tend to believe information less if it’s harder to process" (Lev-Ari, 2021); we are so lazy! And this seems to last even when speakers are proficient in the language itself: most of us only hear the accent, not the words (O'Brien et al., 2024). This appears embedded in us from infancy (Lev-Ari, 2021), and the accent signals to us "that a person speaks a language or dialect from a particular geographic area" (O'Brien et al., 2024). I was wondering if we are more open to hearing different accents if each of our parents speak with different accents (or languages). My friends are from varied ethnicities and backgrounds, and am now wondering if this may have been influenced by the diversity of my parents.

I think we all need to get past hearing how someone says something, and learn to listen to what they are saying. We all need to work on listening... and actually HEARING.

Sam

References:

Lev-Ari, S. (2021, December 14). Here’s why people might discriminate against foreign accents – new research. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/heres-why-people-might-discriminate-against-foreign-accents-new-research-172539

Li, M., & Campbell, J. (2009). Accessing employment: Challenges faced by non-native English-speaking professional migrants. Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, 18(3), 371-395. https://doi.org/10.1177/011719680901800303

Maydell, E., & Diego-Mendoza, M. S. (2014). Job-entry and on-the-job discrimination as a barrier to successful employment for immigrants in New Zealand. Communication Journal of New Zealand | He Kohinga Korero, 14(1), 5-34.

O'Brien, M. G., Teló, C., Trofimovich, P. (2024, September 16). How accent bias can impact a person’s job prospects. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/how-accent-bias-can-impact-a-persons-job-prospects-237436

Schmaus, M., & Kristen, C. (2022). Foreign accents in the early hiring process: A field experiment on accent-related ethnic discrimination in Germany. International Migration Review, 56(2), 562-593. http://doi.org/10.1177/01979183211042004