Author:

Keywords:

trust, acculturation, immigrants, integration, Europe, Social Sciences, Demography, SOCIAL TRUST, ATTITUDES, 14 Economics, 16 Studies in Human Society, 38 Economics, 44 Human society

Abstract:

The purpose of the paper is to examine whether an acculturation of trust takes place among non-western immigrants upon migrating to Europe and whether inclusionary integration policies have an effect on this process. Building on the second and third wave of the European Social Survey (ESS) we show that an acculturation of trust does take place, but that integration policy does not affect this process. In spite of some variation across destination countries, we also find that second generation immigrants tend to adapt more to the level of trust of natives in the destination country than first generation immigrants do. This indicates that the acculturation of trust is strengthened with the second generation in the country. The results hold up when controlling for confounding variables including the trust in the country of origin of immigrants.