department of political and social sciences 1 ethnic diversity in neighborhoods and individual trust...

Department of Political and Social Sciences

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Ethnic diversity in neighborhoods and individual trust of immigrants and

natives:A replication of Putnam (2007) in a West-

European country.

BRAM LANCEE & JAAP DRONKERS

Presentation conference on theoretical perspectives on social cohesion and social capital, May 15th 2008

Department of Political and Social Sciences

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Outline

• Putnam’s article • Theory and hypotheses• Measurement• Results• Discussion

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Putnam (2007)*

• Putnam claims that (in the short run) ethnic diversity reduces solidarity and social capital.

• Residents in ethnically diverse neighborhoods tend to ‘hunker’ down.

• Trust in one’s neighbors is lower, community cooperation is more rare, friends fewer.

*Putnam, R. D. (2007). E Pluribus Unum: Diversity and community in the twenty-first century. The 2006 Johan Skytte prize lecture. Scandinavian Political Studies, 30(2), 137-174.

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Objective of this research

• Replicate Putnam’s study as closely as possible in the European context.

• Improving the measurement. • Further disentangle the effect of ethnic diversity

in the neighborhood by including the ethnic diversity of direct neighbors.

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Diversity and Trust

• Societies are becoming more and more ethnically heterogeneous;

• Social capital (of which trust is a part) is generally assumed (and found) to have positive effects.

• There is a public debate about the role of ethnic minorities in social cohesion;

• Hence, the question if and how ethnic diversity affects trust is an important one.

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Contact and conflict theory• Contact theory: more diversity, more inter-ethnic

tolerance.• Conflict theory: diversity fosters out-group

distrust and in-group solidarity.• Putnam: constrict theory: ethnic diversity

reduces both in-group and out-group trust.

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‘Constrict theory’

• Implicit argument:

social context more ethnically diverse More people ‘unlike’ you Less people to identify with ‘Hunker’ down, less trust.

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Ethnic Diversity Trust

• Perhaps in Europe relation different, due to better welfare state, less inequality?

• Putnam: in US, effect is short term.• US = ‘old’ immigration country, Europe rather

‘new’.• If effect is short term, we certainly expect to find it

in the European context.

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Hypotheses (1/3)

H1 ‘Ethnic diversity in the neighborhood negatively affects individual social trust, both for immigrant and native residents, independently of the ethnic diversity of ego’s neighbors.’

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Neighbors Diversity Trust

• If effect neighborhood diversity trust exists, an effect of the ethnicity of the direct neighbors on trust is also likely.

• Diversity of the neighbours is a sub-neighborhood level of measurement, less abstract than the neighborhood level.

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Hypotheses (2/3)

H2 ‘Having neighbors that are ethnically different negatively affects individual social trust, both for immigrant and native residents, independently of the ethnic diversity of the neighborhood.’

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Neighborhood diversityDiversity neighbors

• It is likely that diversity in the neighborhood affects the diversity of direct neigbors

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Hypotheses (3/3)

H3 ‘Ethnic diversity in the neighborhood increases the likelihood of having neighbors that are ethnically different.’

• If H2 and H3 are confirmed, ethnic diversity can have an indirect effect on trust, even if H1 is rejected.

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Conceptual model

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Measurement: Data

• Data for the Netherlands• Individual level: SPVA 1998 (Social Position and

Facilities Use of Ethnic Minorities). • Zip code level and municipality level: Central

Bureau of Statistics, the Netherlands.• Matching four digit zip code of respondent with

neighborhood as defined by CBS.

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Trust: three DV’s

• Scale ‘trust in neighbours’ (containing 8 items on the quality and frequency of contact with the neighbors)

• Scale ’trust in neighborhood’. (containing 4 items on the quality and frequency of contact with the neighbors)

• Scale inter-ethnic trust. (Containing two items on opinion on ethnic background of partner and friends of children)

• Psychometric characteristics of scales are the same for the five ethnic groups.

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H = -( Ei2)

n

i=1

Herfindahl Index of Ethnic Diversity

•Where Ei is the fraction of ethnic group i in the

neighbourhood population, and n is the number of ethnic groups.•In a neighbourhood with two ethnic groups of both 50%, H= -(0.52 +0.52)=-0.50.•Last, index is standardized in range -1 till 0.

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Results: 13 municipalities

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Trust in neighbors

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Trust in neighbors(Continued)

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Inter-ethnic trust

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Inter-ethnic trust (continued)

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Ethnic diversity of the neighbors

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Ethnic diversity of the neighbors(Continued)

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Summary (1/2)

• Ethnic diversity in the neighborhood also in an European context negatively affects trust in neighbors/neighborhood

• Ethnic diversity of the neighbors neg. affects trust.

• Ethnic diversity does not affect inter-ethnic trust• The above is not different for immigrant and

native residents.

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Summary (2/2)

• Ethnic diversity partly explains likelihood of neighbors being ethnically different: immigrants live more often next to someone that is ethnically different.

• For the native Dutch: diversity does increase the likelihood of neighbors being ethnically different

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Discussion

• Distinguishing in different types of trust is useful, it yields different results.

• Different results for different types of trust may hint at language diversity in the neighborhood as alternative explanan of trust.

• Policies promoting ethnically diverse neighborhoods might result in less trust in the neighborhood.

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