The Role of Host Country Governance in the Erosion of Immigrant Political Trust

Comparative research of survey data across Europe and North America shows that, although immigrants initially report high levels of trust in host country governments, these levels decline over time.[1] Existing accounts often interpret this as evidence of acculturation – that immigrants are becoming the `critical citizen’ inherent to advanced democracies today.[2] However, political trust is not only an attitude reflective of political culture, but also an active evaluation of government performance. What does declining political trust among immigrants in Europe suggest about individual experiences with host country governance? In this paper I use multilevel modeling to explore the relationship between immigrant political trust and host country immigration policies across 28 European countries. The findings show that while overall institutional quality captures much of the variation, there are two additional policy areas significant for understanding immigrant political trust: access to political participation and anti-discrimination legislation. These results demonstrate the value in disaggregating broader policy models, such as multiculturalism and civic integration, and identifying the areas of governance most salient to immigrants themselves, in this case the openness of host country political institutions to immigrant participation and representation.

[1] Maxwell, R. (2013). The geographic context of political attitudes among migrant-origin individuals in Europe. World Politics, 65(1), 116-155; Röder, A & Mühlau, P. (2012). Low expectations or different evaluations: What explains immigrants’ high levels of trust in host country institutions? Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 38(5), 777-92

[2] Norris, P. (2011). Democratic Deficit: Critical citizens revisited. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.