Bullying at work is not a nice thing whoever the target happens to be, but new research from Linköping University suggests that foreign workers are around twice as likely to suffer from it as homegrown workers, with this risk especially high if the individual is from a culturally dissimilar homeland.

“Our results show an increased risk of bullying for people who work in Sweden but were born in another country. The results also show the importance of addressing these issues. Bullying can cause serious problems for a person, and for the workplace where it occurs,” the researchers say.

Victims of bullying

The researchers focused their attention on work-related bullying and person-related bullying.  The distinction between the two is that work-related bullying is related strictly to one’s work, whereas person-related bullying is more personal.

For instance, work-related bullying might involve being given trivial tasks to perform or having responsibilities removed.  Person-related bullying includes things such as humiliation, ostracism, and ridicule.

The results show that employees who are born abroad were subject to more person-related bullying than native Swedes.  Indeed, the risk of such bullying is twice as high as for natives, with the risk quadrupling for those from cultures dissimilar to Sweden.

The exposure to bullying seemed to be purely restricted to person-related bullying, as the researchers found no distinction in rates of work-related bullying between Swedish-born employees and their foreign peers.  This suggests that the bullying is purely related to who they are rather than the work they do.

“They are subjected to what we call predatory bullying. It doesn’t matter what they do. Their very presence, the way they look, can be a reason for the negative treatment. It became clear in the study,” the researchers say.