People with Arabic names gets discriminated - according to professor in Växjö

People with Arabic names are getting discriminated by municipalities. This is what the economists Ali Ahmed means, professor of economics at Linköping University, and Mats Hammarstedt, professor of economics at Linnaeus University in Växjö.

At DN Debatt, the duo writes that they have carried out an experiment, where a man with a Swedish-sounding name received a different kind of treatment and more information than a man with an Arabic name.

"Individuals with an Arabic name are treated separately by Swedish municipalities, both because they receive explanations on the question they asked the municipality to a lesser reach than people with a Swedish name, but because they also receive less information in the answers and by the fact that, to a lesser extent, people with a Swedish name receive a personal response from the municipalities when they call and ask questions. The special treatment of persons with Arabic names thus has different dimensions and seems to take different expressions,” they write on DN Debatt.

All 290 Swedish municipalities were contacted by the two fictitious people.