Anglo-Origin Experience Parity
Employers often justify discounting foreign work experience based on concerns about evaluating overseas work environments and firm standards. However, foreign experience acquired in English-speaking, Western nation-states like Great Britain receives virtually no hiring penalty compared to domestic host-country work experience.
Picture this
Imagine a bank accepting foreign currency. If a customer brings in British pounds, the teller accepts them at full value without hesitation because the bank understands and trusts the currency system. But if a customer brings in currency from a developing nation, the teller demands extra verification or refuses to exchange it, assuming it is too risky to evaluate.
What the evidence says
Resumes listing only British work experience received a callback rate of 14.1%, which was not statistically significantly different from the 15.8% callback rate for Canadian-experienced control resumes (Type 0), contrasting sharply with the 5.9% callback rate for resumes listing Indian, Pakistani, or Chinese experience.
- Who
- N = 12,910 mock resumes sent to 3,225 job postings in Toronto and Montreal, including resumes with British education and experience.
- How
- Randomized correspondence audit field experiment comparing callback rates for resumes listing British undergraduate degrees and British work experience against native Canadian resumes and non-Western foreign resumes.
What to do
Policy makers should acknowledge that foreign experience discounting is selectively applied based on source country rather than being a universal penalty against all overseas work.
From the source
"Interestingly, the resumes that list only British experience do not generate any significant fall in callback rates compared to Type 0 Canadian resumes (14.1 percent compared to 15.8 percent, as reported in column 5)."
Why Do Skilled Immigrants Struggle in the Labor Market? A Field Experiment with Thirteen Thousand Resumes