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Is Migration Threatening Social Trust in Europe?

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Book cover Trust in the European Union in Challenging Times

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Abstract

Bergh considers the relationship between migration and interpersonal trust in the European Union. Interpersonal trust, Bergh avers, is an important foundation for a well-functioning society. The question is how interpersonal trust is affected by increased migration in countries with differing levels of trust. Bergh shows that migrants from low-trust countries who move to high-trust ones show higher trust than those who remain in the former lands. Their trust is lower, however, than that of persons who have always lived in countries with higher trust. Factors such as corruption and weakness in the rule of law cause damage to interpersonal trust, which is very difficult to repair. Bergh contends that the Union must act to strengthen the rule of law and combat economic and social inequality.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Comment: Social trust refers to the share who agrees that most people can be trusted, according to survey results presented in Nannestad et al. (2014). The estimate regarding Danes in Denmark is an average over estimates from different waves of the European Values Study and a number of similar surveys, taken from Berggren and Bjørnskov (2011). The comparison is made controlling for differences in age, sex, education and religiosity.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lund University, Lund, Sweden

    Andreas Bergh

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  1. Andreas Bergh
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Law, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Antonina Bakardjieva Engelbrekt

  2. Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

    Niklas Bremberg

  3. Department of Government, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

    Anna Michalski

  4. University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway

    Lars Oxelheim

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Bergh, A. (2019). Is Migration Threatening Social Trust in Europe?. In: Bakardjieva Engelbrekt, A., Bremberg, N., Michalski, A., Oxelheim, L. (eds) Trust in the European Union in Challenging Times. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73857-4_5

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