Experiencing Everyday Discrimination: A Comparison Across Five Immigrant Populations

Drawing on both quantitative and qualitative data, this article explores and compares the subjective experiences of everyday
discrimination articulated by immigrants across five different national origin populations. The comparison reveals that discrimination
is perceived, encountered, and experienced differently by immigrants from various national origins backgrounds. Further, from
the perspective of immigrants themselves, discrimination is not just about phenotypical racial characteristics, but also about
language abilities, class position, immigration status, foreignness, and personhood. The article describes some of the contexts
or settings within which discrimination is encountered, including a discussion of both mainstream and minority contexts. The
latter is rarely addressed in the literature on discrimination. Finally, using some hypothetical scenarios, it examines how
immigrants of different national origins say they might react to discriminatory behavior. This exercise not only illuminates
some intriguing variations across the five populations but also addresses broader discussion of confrontation as opposed to
forbearance in the literature on discrimination.