People with a non-Western migration background often have less positive career prospects than people with a Western or Dutch background. A report by the Social Economic Council, for example, shows that it is much more difficult for people with a non-Western migration background in the Netherlands to find a job, but also to advance to higher positions.
Various reasons are given for the lack of advancement, such as discrimination, stereotypes, the absence of networks, and obstacles in the organizational structure and the culture within the organization. A report has also been published by the Social and Cultural Planning Office which shows that there is an under-representation of employees with a non-Western migration background in leadership positions, and that people with a non-Western migration background experience more discrimination, both in general and at the workplace. Each of these reports emphasizes the importance of researching the representation and experiences of employees with a non-Western migration background within organizations.
In order to gain a better insight into cultural diversity within EUR, we decided in the autumn of 2022 to participate in the Barometer Cultural Diversity of Statistics Netherlands (CBS). This Barometer provides an overview of the origin of our employees. Country of origin is a characteristic that indicates in which country someone was born or in which country their parents were born. For the Barometer, a distinction is made between a Dutch origin, a European (non-Dutch) origin, or an origin outside Europe. More information about the reasons why we attach great importance to this can be found in this interview with Rector Annelien Bredenoord, Chief Diversity Officer Semiha Denktaş, Data Protection Officer Marlon Domingus, and HR Director Lieke Skidmore-Vencken.
The results of the Barometer are now known and published on the CBS website. In this post, we summarize the main findings and reflect on the results.
Main findings
All tables requested by EUR can be found on the CBS website. Below we discuss the percentages of the total EUR workforce and the percentages per scientific position.
Figure 1. Overview of all EUR staff by country of origin with the categories Netherlands, Europe (excluding Netherlands), Outside Europe
More than half (56%) of our employees are of Dutch origin (Figure 1). This means that these employees themselves, as well as their parents, were born in the Netherlands. The other employees are of non-Dutch origin and were therefore either born abroad themselves or have at least one parent who was born abroad. Of these, 17% have a non-Dutch European origin, and 27% have an origin outside Europe.
It is important that the Barometer also allows us to examine whether there are possible inequalities in the distribution of the different origin groups over different functions. If that distribution is equal, this means that we see the general percentages (56% Netherlands; 17% Europe; 27% outside Europe) in all functions.
Figure 2 shows a breakdown based on scientific functions. If we only look at employees with an origin outside Europe, we see a 'pyramid': they are clearly over-represented in the group of internal and external PhD students (the percentage is well above the 27% we saw in the total workforce); they are well represented among lecturers (the percentage is close to 27%) and they are increasingly underrepresented in senior positions: only 12% of the professors has an origin outside Europe (in contrast to the 27% we saw in the total workforce).
Figure 2. Overview of academic staff by country of origin with the categories the Netherlands, Europe (excluding Netherlands), Outside Europe
For employees with an origin within Europe (excluding the Netherlands) we see a completely different pattern: they are under-represented in the group of external PhD students (the percentage is below the 17% we saw in the total workforce) but over-represented in most other positions, with the largest numbers among assistant professors and associate professors (percentages are well above 17%). There is a small under-representation in the group of full professors: 14% of the full professors has an European (non-Dutch) origin.
We again see a different pattern for academic employees of Dutch origin: for most positions, the percentage is just below or just above 50%, but they are strongly over-represented within the group of full professors: 74% of full professors is of Dutch origin (a much larger number than the 56% in the entire workforce).
We see similar patterns when it comes to employment type: where there is a significant over-representation of employees with non-European origin for temporary contracts, they are under-represented among employees with permanent contracts. We also see an under-representation of employees with an origin outside of Europe in the higher age categories and higher salary scales.
Reflection and considerations
The Barometer shows that employees with an origin outside Europe are underrepresented in higher academic positions, higher age groups, permanent contracts, and higher salary scales. Given that there are many PhD candidates with an origin outside Europe, it is possible to hypothesize that there are barriers to the advancement of this group of employees.
Because we only have data from one specific moment, we do not know what the trajectory of each individual employee with an origin outside Europe looks like. Although we cannot say with 100% certainty that there are problems with the advancement of this group of employees, it appears from the aforementioned sources on this subject that there is already strong evidence for this.
It is also important to consider the three categories used by Statistics Netherlands for the Barometer. Although much literature focuses on barriers experienced by employees with a non-Western migration background, and more specifically employees from traditional immigration countries, the Barometer focuses on 'country of origin'. People with a non-Western migration background fall within the category ‘outside Europe’, but this category is very broad: it also includes employees who generally have fewer experiences of discrimination on the basis of origin, such as employees with a North American or Australian origin. This means that the percentages we reported above are probably an overestimate of the actual percentage of employees who were able to grow within EUR, regardless of possible barriers.
Another consideration that we would like to add is that international employees are also included within this definition of origin. This means that both groups of employees with a non-Dutch origin are very diverse: for example, there are international employees who have come to the Netherlands specifically to work here; there are employees who came to the Netherlands at a younger age (together with their parents, or to follow a course here); and there are employees who were born in the Netherlands but whose parents were born abroad. Although each of these groups may also encounter barriers in their scientific careers, these barriers may be of a different nature for each group.
Conclusion and next steps
Although the current study raises important questions (i.e., what exactly does the trajectory of employees with an origin outside Europe look like? And what is the impact of the broad categorization of 'origin' used by Statistics Netherlands?) there are clear indications that there are barriers in the advancement to higher academic positions for academic staff with an origin outside Europe. This is confirmed by the (scientific) literature on this theme.
Based on these results, the Executive Board has decided to develop a policy to improve advancement. The 25/25 policy measure has been developed to counter 'pyramids'. A first step is to expand this measure so that it is not only accessible to female participants, but also to other employees from underrepresented groups, who we know are likely to encounter significant barriers in their career path to higher academic positions.
In addition, it is important that we conduct follow-up research into the career prospects of various underrepresented groups at EUR. We will therefore continue to conduct research on these themes in the future, in a safe, transparent and lawful manner.