Abstract
Many scholars pointed out that anti-discrimination laws do not fully undermine workplace discrimination and observed that diversity policies mostly benefit over-qualified or advantaged individuals within minorities. To elucidate this paradox, this case study analyzes how companies transform the selection and assessment processes of minority job-seekers after the implementation of a quota. My empirical case explores the consequences of the reinforcing of a quota of disabled workers in France: creation of alternative recruitment channels, hiring of disability experts for recruitment, refusal of resume sorting as a pre-screening tool, and emphasis on face-to-face interviews. I find that these changes helped more people get hired, but also compelled more personal disclosure that both led to more emotional assessment of job candidates and enabled “refined statistical discrimination” within pools of disabled job-seekers. This impacted the expectation of career advancement for new employees with disabilities and condemned people with more severe disabilities to remain unemployed.