The Role of Political Polarization for Integrating Migrants in the Workplace

Abstract

Although the successful labor market integration of immigrants can promote their and their organization’s prosperity, immigrant newcomers often face a difficult socialization process with the potential to jeopardize their well-being. Considering the rising political polarization evident in many societies, the political environment in which organizations are embedded may determine whether immigrants’ integration efforts within organizations are received favorably or not. Building on and extending the relational diversity literature, we propose that regional support for far-right political parties affects how immigrants perceive their treatment by co-workers when entering a new workplace. Specifically, we propose that immigrants perceive increasing (decreasing) social undermining by their co-workers over time when employed by a company located in a region with higher (lower) far-right political support. Perceptions of increasing (decreasing) negative treatment will then negatively (positively) affect employees’ well-being, assessed by their emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction. We test and find support for our theoretical model in a unique dataset matching 776 apprentices in Germany (tracked from day one of their apprenticeships over a period of 13 weeks) with data from the 2021 German federal election. In a second study we replicate and extend these findings with another study of 8.530 service employees working in Switzerland.