National origin discrimination occurs when an employer mistreats an employee or job candidate due to their ethnicity, home country, or similar factors. For example, an employer may commit national origin discrimination if they refuse to hire candidates from certain countries or refuse to offer promotions to deserving employees because of their national origin.
Federal law prohibits this form of discrimination. If you’ve experienced it, you may therefore have the option of taking legal action.
How To Handle National Origin Discrimination
If you’ve been the victim of national origin discrimination in the workplace, you might be able to seek financial compensation and/or reinstatement to a job from which you’ve been fired. Your chances of winning your case may improve if you take the following steps:
- Keep a log of your experiences: You’ll need to be able to cite specific instances of discrimination when taking legal action against an employer. Thus, you should keep a written log of your experiences. Every time you’re the victim of national origin discrimination, write down a description of the experience along with the date, time, and any other relevant information (such as the names of coworkers who may have witnessed the incident).
- Collect evidence: Emails, phone messages, chat logs, memos, your workplace’s written anti-discrimination policies, witness testimony, and other such documentation could theoretically serve as evidence in a future case. Maintain a file in which you keep copies of this evidence.
- Report your experiences: It’s entirely possible your own employer won’t remedy the issue when you report national origin discrimination internally. Regardless, it’s helpful to show that you attempted to address the issue by reporting it to HR or your supervisor. When doing so, ask HR or your employer to provide you with documents explaining how they investigated the matter.
- Meet with a national origin discrimination attorney: Again, even after reporting your concerns to your employer, they might not properly address them. Thus, you should also discuss potential legal options by reviewing your case with an attorney who represents victims of discrimination in the workplace.
- File a claim: Before you can file your own lawsuit, you should file a claim with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the relevant state agency, or both. The agency may file a lawsuit on your behalf upon completing its investigation. If the agency doesn’t file a lawsuit, you may receive a right-to-sue letter explaining how you can proceed to take legal action.
Get Help With Your National Origin Discrimination Claim
National origin discrimination remains an issue across various companies and organizations in many industries. Be aware, a person can even be a victim of national origin discrimination merely because their employer has made assumptions about their national origin, regardless of whether said assumptions are true.
A national origin discrimination attorney may help you hold an employer accountable. For more information, complete the Free Case Evaluation on this page to get connected with an independent, participating attorney who subscribes to the website.
Additional Resources
- Where to Report National Origin Discrimination at Work
- How to Write a National Origin Discrimination Letter
- How to Prove National Origin Discrimination
- How Long Does a Discrimination Case Take?
- Understanding National Origin Discrimination in The Workplace
- What Is National Origin Discrimination?
