LISER Policy Briefs
May 2021
Abstract
Anti-immigrant stereotypes are widespread in most contemporary societies. These negative stereotypes are partly due to misinformation and partly to rejection of diversity, especially in countries which had been historically homogenous and now receive a large influx of immigrants. Negative stereotyping may lead to discrimination and, possibly, self- fulfilling prophecies by influencing the behavior of discriminated groups in the direction predicted by stereotypes (Glover et al., 2017; Carlana, 2019).
Immigrant children in schools are particularly vulnerable to stereotypes, which may induce them to undertake suboptimal decisions impacting their future careers and well-being. In a recent paper (Alesina et al., 2018), we study the impact of revealing implicit stereotypes to teachers by randomizing the timing of disclosure around the date on which they assign term grades. We focus on the Italian context, where mass immigration is relatively recent and politically salient, and we collect a unique dataset merging a survey with around 1,400 teachers with administrative data on student outcomes.
Citation
Carlana, Michela, Paolo Pinotti, and Eliana La Ferrara. "Stereotypes about immigrant students and discrimination in grading." LISER Policy Briefs, May 2021.