The United States, and California in particular, are cultural melting pots. This is something that the state of California takes pride in and the diversity of companies is largely to their benefit.
Unfortunately, discrimination in the workplace does still occur, despite there being laws against it. One common type of discrimination is discrimination based on country of origin. What does discrimination based on country of origin look like?
Direct discrimination based on country of origin
Direct discrimination on the grounds of country of origin occurs when someone born outside of the United States is treated differently than those who are born in the United States. For example, if an employer advertises a position that states nobody from Asia can apply, then this is directly discriminatory toward anyone originating from Asia.
Indirect discrimination based on country of origin
Indirect discrimination occurs when policies and procedures apply to everyone, but adversely impact a specific group. One example of this may be if training manuals are written only in English, despite the company taking advantage of hiring a global workforce. The manuals are given to everyone, but they make it more difficult for non-U.S. nationals to do their jobs.
Discrimination based on marriage
One interesting aspect of discrimination based on country of origin is that discrimination can occur based on marriage. For example, a worker may have been born and raised in the United States. However, upon finding out that that employee has married someone from abroad, people within the company start to treat them differently. Poor treatment of a worker due to marrying a foreign spouse may be classified as workplace discrimination.
If any of the above issues have impacted you, it may be time to start thinking about your legal options.