Perceived Discrimination as Experienced by Muslims in New Zealand Universities

Since the March 15 attacks in Christchurch, there has been raised awareness and new and strong enthusiasm to understand the experiences of the Muslim minority community. This exploratory paper investigates the perceived discrimination as experienced by Muslims or those who identify with coming from a Muslim background and who work at New Zealand universities. Using a questionnaire, we surveyed the experiences of perceived discrimination of Muslim staff working at universities across the country and the impact it has had on the wellbeing of these members of the society. The study concludes that a significant minority perceive themselves as targets of discrimination within their workplace and even more people while not being directly impacted acknowledge that there is discrimination. This study hopes to raise awareness of the extent of discrimination perceived by Muslims with the hope of encouraging government and ministers to investigate the issue in more depth and providing guidelines for organizations.