Equality & Integration

Equality research in the ESRI investigates inequalities in opportunities and in outcomes, exploring the processes that lead to inequality. The research has a strong policy focus, assessing the role of public policies in underpinning or reducing inequalities.

• Differences in employment and labour market participation, on the basis of gender, age, nationality, ethnicity, and family structure (including gender inequality in pay).
• The impact of recession on equality issues.
• The impact of formal equality policies and flexible work arrangements on equality at work.
• Discrimination in the labour market – recruitment practices, pregnancy related discrimination in employment.
• Access to education and training, particularly variations by socio-economic group, gender and nationality. Integration of immigrant children into the Irish school system.
• Income inequality and poverty.
• Social attitudes to minority groups and their experience of discrimination.

The ESRI have recently been commissioned to conduct an analysis of equality and discrimination in Ireland using the Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS) Equality Module 2010. The project includes one major research report on ‘The Experience of Discrimination in Ireland’ and two supplementary papers on ‘Ethnicity and Nationality in the Irish Labour Market, and ‘People with Disabilities in the Irish Labour Market’. The project builds on previous analysis of equality and discrimination using data from 2004, as part of the Reserach Programme on Equality and Discrimination, and selected findings will be compared between the two years. This research project is co-funded by the Equality Authority and by the European Union Programme for Employment and Social Solidarity - PROGRESS (2007-2013).

In another project in this area, Workplace Equality Policies, Flexible Working Arrangements and their Impact, researchers use the 2009 National Workplace Survey to examine the incidence of equality policies, flexible working arrangements and employees’ perceptions of fairness, and examine their impact on indicators like work pressure, satisfaction, commitment and earnings. The recession creates new challenges for the equality agenda, making it increasingly important to measure both the experience of employees and the business impact of equality.  This project is co-funded by the Equality Authority and the European Union under the PROGRESS Programme.

Speakers at the launch of the "Annual Report on Integration 2010 (L to R) Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore, T.D., Frances McGinnity (ESRI), Dil Wickremasinghe (Social Entrepreneur, Broadcaster and Magazine Editor) and Tom Coffey (CEO, Dublin Business Association), May 2011.

Two projects focusing on migrant integration were started in 2010. The ESRI was commissioned by The Integration Centre to develop indicators and monitor the integration of immigrants in Ireland, and to publish four annual monitoring reports on integration. These indicators seek to measure economic, political and social equality of immigrants in Ireland. The first annual report was published in May 2011.

The integration of immigrants is also examined in a cross-national European project with colleagues from TCD. The project, entitled Causes and Consequences of Early Socio-cultural Integration Processes Among New Immigrants in Europe (SCIP) was funded under the NORFACE programme. The project studies integration trajectories of new immigrants in Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland and Great Britain. Its substantive focus is on migrants’ socio-cultural integration. Fieldwork in Ireland for the first wave was completed in December 2011: work has begun on designing the questionnaire for the second wave.

A national study of pregnancy related discrimination in the workplace was conducted on behalf of the Crisis Pregnancy Agency and the Equality Authority. As part of the study a nationally representative survey of 5000 women with children under 2 years of age was conducted, addressing women’s experiences in the workplace pre and post-birth. The report (Pregnancy at Work: A National Survey) was published in June 2011. A review of pregnancy related discrimination cases taken to the Equality Tribunal has also been undertaken as part of the research project and was published (Pregnancy Discrimination in the Workplace: Legal Framework and Review of Legal Decisions 1999 to 2008) in June 2011.

Research Programme on Equality and Discrimination

R to L: Mary White TD, Minister for Equality, Integration and Human Rights with speakers Fran McGinnity and Helen Russell (ESRI) and Renee Dempsey (CEO, The Equality Authority) at the Conference 'Making Equality Count: Irish and International Approaches to Measuring Equality and Discrimination', 23 June 2010

A major programme of research in this area, the research Programme on Equality and Discrimination was funded by the Equality Authority.  With the publication of Multiple Disadvantage in Ireland: An Equality Analysis of Census 2006, seven studies have been published as part of this Programme.  More details.

Key findings from the programme were showcased at a conference Making Equality Count: Irish and International Approaches to Measuring Equality and Discrimination which was held in Dublin in June 2010, co-funded by the European Union under the PROGRESS Programme, 2007-2013. Selected findings from the programme and the conferences are summarised in ESRI Research Bulletin 2011/01/01.

Future Research

Future research will address new issues and exploit new data sets, focusing on:

Programme Coordinators: Helen Russell and Fran McGinnity.

Other members of staff whose work has an equality dimension include: Philip J. O'Connell, Emma Quinn, Seamus McGuinness, Elish Kelly, Tim Callan, Claire Keane, Corona Joyce, Pete Lunn, Dorothy Watson, Richard Layte, Bertrand Maître, Emer Smyth, Selina McCoy, Merike Darmody, Anne Nolan.

• Link to current projects in this area.
• Link to recently published research in this area
• Link to recently published working papers in this area