Higher educated ethnic minority members not immune to discrimination Exploring the “discrimination paradox” across the European Union

An increasing body of research conducted in Western European countries has found evidence of a ‘discrimination paradox’ which refers to the finding that higher educated migrants perceive more discrimination compared to lower educated migrants.
However, the discrimination paradox is not omnipresent: it is mostly a Western European and Scandinavian phenomenon. Little evidence exists for a discrimination paradox in Central, Eastern or Southern European countries.
Higher educated ethnic minority members perceive more discrimination compared to the lower educated in countries in which education pays off less, both in terms of the financial returns of education and with respect to the levels of perceived overqualification.
The extent to which higher educated ethnic minority members perceive more discrimination is not significantly affected by anti-discrimination policies.