DNA – Using and Accepting Diversity

Little data is available on the transition from students with cultural diversity into employment, although a complete set of data is the basis for improving measures in human resources.

With this background, the Federal Administration conducted several pilot surveys in 2014 and 2015 and examined the proportion of employees with a migrant background in public administration (10. Lagebericht, 2016). The employee surveys show a significant under-representation of employees with migration experience. This underrepresentation is evident in all measurement areas, both among trainees and in career groups and employment relationships (ebenda). The federal administration and public authorities are therefore increasingly faced with the challenge of reflecting the cultural diversity of society in the workforce through culturally fair selection procedures.

Recent studies clearly indicate that common recruitment practices can disadvantage certain groups. Classical selection tools such as recruitment and intelligence tests are influenced by cultural patterns, which cause applicants with a migration background to suffer from complicated questions and instructions or unusual phrases.

Despite equal educational qualifications, applicants with migration experience have poorer outcomes in areas such as "communication/spelling" and "analytical and learning skills". This is shown by a study of applicants for the police service in Nordrhein-Westfalen. These differences in performance are caused by cultural and linguistic reasons (ebenda). As a result of the study, it can be stated that applicants with a migrant background suffer discrimination because recruitment tests are primarily geared to the learning habits of people without a migrant background.