Do Institutions or Culture Determine the Level of Social Trust? The Natural Experiment of Migration from Non-western to Western Countries

Do institutions or culture determine levels of social trust in society? If quality of institutions determines levels of social trust, migrants from countries with lower-quality institutions should enhance their level of social trust in countries with higher-quality institutions. If, on the other han...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of ethnic and migration studies 2014-04, Vol.40 (4), p.544-565
Main Authors: Nannestad, Peter, Svendsen, Gert Tinggaard, Dinesen, Peter Thisted, Sønderskov, Kim Mannemar
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cultural diversity
Culture
Denmark
Host countries
Immigrants
Institutions
Migrants
Migration
Multiculturalism & pluralism
Social theory
Social Trust
Trust
Western countries
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Summary:Do institutions or culture determine levels of social trust in society? If quality of institutions determines levels of social trust, migrants from countries with lower-quality institutions should enhance their level of social trust in countries with higher-quality institutions. If, on the other hand, the migrants' level of social trust is determined by their culture, it should not be affected by a different institutional setting. Furthermore, culturally diverse immigrant groups should have different levels of social trust in the same host country. Analysing migration from several non-western countries to Denmark, this paper demonstrates that institutions rather than culture matter for social trust.
ISSN:1369-183X
1469-9451
DOI:10.1080/1369183X.2013.830499