Discrimination in welfare offices, especially in times of increasing misinformation and negative media coverage on immigration, poses a critical challenge to fairness in public administration. Research shows that such media reporting shapes public opinion and deepens inequality in bureaucratic decisions. While research has addressed strategies to reduce administrative bias, the potential of media literacy interventions remains underexplored. By synthesizing research on bureaucratic discrimination and communication, this study argues that media literacy interventions can mitigate media-induced biases about immigration. Since the intervention provides strategies for street-level bureaucrats to critically assess immigration-related news and recognize stereotypes, I expect it to increase caseworkers’ awareness of biases, and, as a result, lead to fairer decisions regarding ethnic minority clients.

To investigate these dynamics empirically, I conducted a preregistered, representative survey experiment in November 2024 with 550 street-level bureaucrats from 35 of 405 German job centers. First, participants are randomly assigned to the intervention, presenting two contrasting newspaper articles on the same migration study: one framing immigration negatively and the other offering a more neutral perspective. These articles are then discussed by two media experts, followed by reflection questions. Second, I measure bureaucratic decision-making with a conjoint experiment involving choices related to job placement services. The results show that the media literacy training significantly increases awareness of media bias and reduces discriminatory behavior: Job center caseworkers become less likely to disapprove a job training for individuals with Romanian nationality. These findings highlight media literacy as a practical tool to promote fairness in welfare offices.