Ethnic diversity and generalized trust in Europe a cross-national multilevel study

Marc Hooghe*, T. Reeskens, Dietlind Stolle, Ann Trappers

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

307 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

While most current research documents a negative relation between ethnic diversity and generalized trust, it has to be acknowledged that these results often originate from one-country analyses in North America. In this article, attitudinal measurements from the European Social Survey are combined with Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development data on migration patterns, thus examining the relationship between diversity and trust in a comparative manner across 20 European countries. More fine-grained measurements of diversity ( including type and rise of diversity over time and legal status of immigrants) are included in a multilevel model. At the individual level, most of the familiar relations were confirmed. At the country level, hardly any indicators for migration or diversity proved to be strongly and consistently related to generalized trust. Results suggest that the pessimistic conclusions about the negative effects of ethnic diversity on generalized trust cannot be confirmed at the aggregate level across European countries.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)198-223
JournalComparative Political Studies
Volume42
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2009
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • ethnic diversity
  • generalized trust
  • multilevel modeling
  • immigration
  • European Social Survey
  • SOCIAL COHESION
  • RACIAL-ATTITUDES
  • THREAT
  • IMMIGRATION
  • IDENTITY
  • ACCULTURATION
  • 21ST-CENTURY
  • POPULATIONS
  • COMMUNITY
  • OPINION

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