Everyone is equal: Colour-blind attitudes in welfare practices with migrants

Intervenante : Carolin Schütze, de Lund University.

In this presentation I will present a paper that explores the relationship between colour-blind attitudes and self-reported perceptions of encounters between majority and immigrant populations in Sweden. I build on existing studies showing that colour-blindness often functions as a strategy to appear unbiased while holding prejudicial attitudes. Using original survey data of welfare workers in two Swedish welfare organisations, I assess the relationship between colour-blindness and the perception of difficulty working with migrants among the welfare workers in these organisations. Results from structural equation models show that those with greater levels of colour-blindness are simultaneously more likely to report negative attitudes toward immigrants and less likely to report difficulty in working with migrants. I propose that self-reported colour-blindness among welfare workers is part of an effort to appear unbiased and in line with the normative principles of the state to perform non-racism, but this does not mean that those who are colour-blind do not hold anti-immigration attitudes.

Discutante:  Haley McAvay (Ined)