TY - JOUR
T1 - Auditing ethnic preference in Hong Kong’s financial job market
T2 - The mediation of white privilege and Hong Kong localism
AU - LI, Yao-Tai
AU - Liu, John Chung En
N1 - Funding Information:
The research was supported by the Research Committee, Hong Kong Baptist University (grant number: RC-SGT2/18-19/SOSC/002).
Funding Information:
We would like to thank Tsz Ching (Bonnie) Lau and Wai Ki (Ash) Wan for sending fictitious resum?s and documenting responses. We thank Yu-En Tung for coding the job positions we submitted to. We also thank Katherine Whitworth, Caroline Sch?pf, and three anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions. The research was supported by the Research Committee, Hong Kong Baptist University (grant number: RC-SGT2/18-19/SOSC/002).
PY - 2021/1/1
Y1 - 2021/1/1
N2 - Using the case of Hong Kong’s finance-related industries, this article examines whether preference or discrimination based on job applicants’ ethnic background manifests in Hong Kong employers’ hiring practices. The authors took an audit approach and compared applicants of three distinctive ethnic groups: Anglo-Saxons, local Hong Kongers, and mainland Chinese. They found that in Hong Kong, local applicants receive the highest callback rate, followed by mainland Chinese, and then Anglo-Saxon applicants, regardless of their gender. The findings counter existing literature and suggest white privilege and colonial legacy is not visible in the hiring for college graduate positions in the financial industries. Instead, language (Cantonese) fluency and business ties to China are of greater importance to employers/HR in Hong Kong’s finance-related industries. In other words, white privilege may still hold true in socio-cultural spheres or everyday interactions, but the effects can be mediated by Cantonese language proficiency when it comes to hiring practices.
AB - Using the case of Hong Kong’s finance-related industries, this article examines whether preference or discrimination based on job applicants’ ethnic background manifests in Hong Kong employers’ hiring practices. The authors took an audit approach and compared applicants of three distinctive ethnic groups: Anglo-Saxons, local Hong Kongers, and mainland Chinese. They found that in Hong Kong, local applicants receive the highest callback rate, followed by mainland Chinese, and then Anglo-Saxon applicants, regardless of their gender. The findings counter existing literature and suggest white privilege and colonial legacy is not visible in the hiring for college graduate positions in the financial industries. Instead, language (Cantonese) fluency and business ties to China are of greater importance to employers/HR in Hong Kong’s finance-related industries. In other words, white privilege may still hold true in socio-cultural spheres or everyday interactions, but the effects can be mediated by Cantonese language proficiency when it comes to hiring practices.
KW - Audit study
KW - ethnic discrimination
KW - ethnic preference
KW - Hong Kong
KW - localism
KW - white privilege
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85096166982&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0268580920957801
DO - 10.1177/0268580920957801
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85096166982
SN - 0268-5809
VL - 36
SP - 71
EP - 90
JO - International Sociology
JF - International Sociology
IS - 1
ER -