New research shows discrimination against Muslim staff working at New Zealand universities may often go unreported.
The exploratory study - published in Kotuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online - surveyed 38 employees who either identified as being Muslim or having a Muslim background. And while most of the participants said they had not experienced discrimination, those who had said they had often didn't report it because they didn't feel their complaint would be dealt with appropriately.
Nine of those who took part in the study said they had felt intentionally excluded from a meeting or social event for being Muslim, while three reported verbal or physical abuse from colleagues. Of those who had experienced discrimination, very few felt comfortable reporting it to their workplace.
"We don't want to represent this as the whole community is feeling they are discriminated against - that's not what the study shows," the study's co-author Dr Neda Salahshour told Newshub.
"It is roughly one in four people, and so that 25 percent feel that they're not equipped with the resources to handle the issue or they don't know who to go to or they don't trust their senior managers or their organisation to solve the problem."
Dr Salahshour says there are various reasons why discrimination is not reported.
"One of the reasons that people don't report on discrimination is because they're not actually aware as to what constitutes discrimination, and so they don't really have a very clear idea as to what they have experienced is discrimination or not."
Another reason, she says, is that people are often scared of the consequences of reporting it.
"Particularly, this is quite common among those who may be migrants in New Zealand and so they may be on certain types of work visas and so they're quite worried as to whether bringing this up with their managers or with their employers could actually cause more problems for them in terms of them being able to stay and continue working within the country."
Dr Salahshour says institutions need to do more to educate managers and employees about what discrimination is and how to deal with it if it happens.
"Everybody needs to feel recognised and respected and accepted and free from prejudice and discrimination within their workplaces.
"What this research strongly recommends is that there are quality induction progammes provided by People and Capability and/or HR departments within the various organisations, [and] that there is better visibility to the policies and the various avenues that staff can seek support [from] or go to should they experience discrimination."
Dr Salahshour says in many cases those doing the discriminating are not even aware of their actions.
"We don't really as a society have a solid understanding of what constitutes discrimination and the different shapes it takes within society because we're not really aware of all the unconscious biases that we hold and how they actually impact the decisions that we make.
"At a national level we actually need more conversation and dialogue about discrimination."
