Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a federal law that protects individuals from discrimination based upon national origin.

National origin discrimination is treating an individual differently in their employment because of the individual’s country of origin. If you have been rejected for employment, fired, or otherwise harmed in your employment because of your birthplace, ancestry, culture, or way of speaking (if it’s common to a specific ethnic group), you may have suffered unlawful national origin discrimination.  It is also against the law to discriminate against an employee because of:

• marriage to, or association with, persons of a national origin group;
• membership in, or association with, ethnic promotion groups;
• attendance or participation in schools, churches, temples or mosques generally associated with a national origin group; or
• a family name associated with a national origin group.

Some workers experiencing national origin discrimination may also experience other forms of illegal discrimination as well, such as discrimination based on immigration or citizenship status discrimination, race or religion.

The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), as amended by the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA), is a federal law covering almost all immigration matters. It protects individuals from employment discrimination based on immigration or citizenship status, and prohibits document abuse discrimination, which occurs when employers request more or different documents than are required to verify employment eligibility and identity, reject reasonably genuine-looking documents, or specify certain documents over others.