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Cited by 66Migration, Refugees, and IntegrationSocial Capital and NetworksSocial and Intergroup Psychology

Immigration, Discrimination, and Trust: A Simply Complex Relationship

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Wilkes, Rima, Wu, Cary·2019·Frontiers in Sociology
DOI 10.3389/fsoc.2019.00032PMC PMC8022697
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Abstract

Trust is integral to the process of immigrant integration. While previous research has considered whether discrimination has an effect on trust, no study has considered the specific extent to which immigrants experience more discrimination than the native-born and how this might matter for immigrant-native gaps in trust. To address this issue we provide the first study to use a formal mediation approach to studying the immigration, discrimination, and trust relationship. Drawing on the 2013 Canadian General Social Survey data (N=27,695) we analyze differences in three kinds of trust (generalized, specific others and political), and the role of discrimination, between Canadian-born whites, Canadian-born people of colour, foreign-born whites, foreign-born people of colour, and Indigenous people. We find that discrimination has a greater impact on social rather than political relationships. Immigrants have lower social trust in general and in others because of race-based discrimination rather than because they are immigrants per se.

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  • Perceived discrimination explains more of the trust gap between racialized immigrants and native-born White individuals than of the gap between White immigrants and native-born White individuals.

    “Using data from a large Canadian survey, they employ a mediational model to demonstrate that perceived discrimination explains more of the trust gap between racialized immigrants and native-born White individuals than of the gap between White immigrants and native-born White individuals.”

    From Prejudice and Discrimination Toward Immigrants (2021) · cites this paper as Wilkes & Wu 2019

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Authors
Wilkes, R., & Wu, C.
Affiliations
University of British Columbia (CA)
Corresponding author
Wilkes, Rima
ORCID
Venue
Frontiers in Sociology
Publisher
Frontiers Media SA
Published
2019-05-17
Volume
4
Pages
32-32
ISSN
2297-7775 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3389/fsoc.2019.00032
PMC
PMC8022697
OpenAlex
W2945436313
Cited by
66
References
4
Citations by year
2026: 11 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 7
FWCI
8.05
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Frontiers in Sociology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
Funders
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Migration, Refugees, and Integration
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social Capital and Networks
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
Keywords
immigrant integration, social trust, public trust in government, discrimination, racial discrimination, generalized trust, people of color, indigenous peoples, foreign-born population, mediation

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