SPAIS doctoral student, Samir Sweida-Metwally’s first paper was published by Ethnic and Racial Studies last week:

Sweida-Metwally, S. 2022. “Does the Muslim penalty in the British labour market dissipate after accounting for so-called ‘sociocultural attitudes’?”, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 45:16, 359-388, DOI:10.1080/01419870.2022.2097887 [open access].

Abstract:

Using multilevel modelling, this paper investigates ethno-religious penalties in unemployment and inactivity among men and women using the Understanding Society survey.  The paper confirms previous findings of a Muslim penalty and a British labour market hierarchized by colour (ethnicity) and religion (culture).  However, by including a greater range of ethnic groups the paper provides a corrective to accounts in the sociological literature that being White is not a protection against the Muslim penalty. Rather, while affiliation with the Muslim White British group does not appear to be associated with penalization, Muslim Arabs who traditionally identify as White are found to experience significant disadvantage.  This suggests that the Muslim penalty might also be moderated by a person’s country of origin.  The paper also finds that considerable penalties remain for Muslims even after adjusting for so-called “sociocultural attitudes”, challenging the assumption that value orientations offer a suitable explanation for the Muslim penalty.

The paper’s findings were covered by the Guardian on Sunday, 17 July.  The online article can be found at the following link: Muslims’ high unemployment rate ‘not due to cultural and religious practices’.