In France, an experiment carried out by researchers in 2016 found that a fictional profile with a north African-sounding name received 27% fewer responses to housing ad inquiries, while another with a sub-Saharan name received 32% fewer.
The same exercise in Spain yielded similar findings, while a 2020 survey carried out by Germany’s federal anti-discrimination agency found that housing discrimination had affected a third of people with a migrant background. “Often, a foreign-sounding name is enough to not be invited to a flat viewing,” said Bernhard Franke, the then acting head of the agency. “Even openly racist flat advertisements are still part of everyday life.”
In the French experiment, the response rate remained lower for the fictitious north African applicant than for those with traditionally French names – even when the former cited their work as a civil servant, suggesting financial stability, and the latter made no mention of employment, said Yannick L’Horty, an economics professor at the Université Gustave Eiffel.
“It was a surprise,” he said. “So this phenomenon is therefore not linked to a person’s ability to pay, but an aversion to their origin.
i was going to post his picture but you can literally picture any old white dude
