Does Increasing Immigration Affect Ethnic Minority Groups?

• Published date: 01 September 2021
• DOI: 10.1177/00027162211051999
• Author: Matthew R. Bennett,Douglas S. Massey,Danying Li,Miles Hewstone,Miguel R. Ramos
• Date: 01 September 2021

ANNALS, AAPSS, 697, September 2021 49

DOI: 10.1177/00027162211051999

Does Increasing

Immigration

Affect Ethnic

Minority

Groups?

By

DANYING LI,

MIGUEL R. RAMOS,

MATTHEW R. BENNETT,

DOUGLAS S. MASSEY,

and

MILES HEWSTONE

1051999ANN THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMYDOES INCREASING IMMIGRATION AFFECT ETHNIC MINORITY GROUPS?

research-article2021

Immigration is increasing around the world. Academic

work suggests that increasing immigration reduces

social cohesion and subjective well-being, but these

studies mainly focused on white majority populations.

Using the 2002 to 2014 European Social Survey, we

analyze data from 5,149 ethnic minority respondents

living in twenty-four European countries. We examine

the association between immigration and respondents’

well-being, mediated by two critical cognitive mecha-

nisms: perceived discrimination and generalized trust.

We find that in the short term, immigration is associ-

ated with greater perceived discrimination, which in

turn is associated with lower trust and well-being. Over

the longer term, though, immigration is associated with

lower perceived discrimination from ethnic minorities,

yielding greater generalized trust and perceived well-

being.

Keywords: immigration; ethnic diversity; ethnic

minority; well-being; discrimination; con-

tact; trust

The topic of immigration has been brought

to the fore recently by political events, such

as Brexit and the refugee crisis in 2015, but

immigration to Europe has a long history.

Immigration has long shaped the culture and

countries on the European continent. Prior to

the twentieth century, colonialism brought

millions of Asian, African, and Amerindian

Danying Li was a research fellow at the School of Social

Policy, University of Birmingham when she conducted

this research. Her research investigates the effects that

individuals’ socioeconomic status and different social

context can have on health and well-being.

Miguel R. Ramos is an associate professor at the

University of Birmingham. His research investigates

the impact of social diversity on outcomes, including

intergroup contact and well-being and health.

Matthew R. Bennett is a professorial research fellow at

the University of Sheffield. His research interests

include prosocial behavior, social care, and the impact

of social diversity.

Correspondence: TaraDLi_Bham@outlook.com

50 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY

workers to Europe. During the World Wars, immigrants from Africa and Asia

served in the European armies. After World War II, the number of immigrants

in European nations soared owing to decolonization and a shortage of workers

(Emmer and Lucassen 2012). Over the last decades, immigration has increased

markedly within Europe and from non-European countries as well (Eurostat

2020a). On one hand, the freedom of movement and residence within the

European Union (EU) facilitates EU citizens to migrate within Europe. On the

other hand, the number of people from non-EU nations applying for asylum has

grown rapidly since 2010. In 2018, 21.8 million non-EU citizens were living in

the EU-27 countries (Eurostat 2020b).

Rising immigration has increased opportunities for contact between social

groups. Negative attitudes toward immigrants tend to emerge whenever native

residents perceive newcomers as a threat. A European Commission survey

revealed that EU citizens view immigration as the second most important issue

facing the EU today, after terrorism (Eurobarometer 2018). Continued immigra-

tion and refugee resettlement have significantly increased ethnic diversity within

the EU, motivating heated debates over the consequences of growing ethnic

diversity.1

Following Putnam’s (2007) contested view that ethnic diversity drives down

trust, there has been extensive study in the past decade of trust, social cohesion,

and social capital, and the research has mixed results (Dinesen, Schaeffer, and

Sønderskov 2020; van der Meer and Tolsma 2014). Four types of trust have been

studied in the literature, including trust in strangers, outgroup trust, ingroup

trust, and trust in neighbors. Using different indicators of social cohesion and

trust to test the effects of ethnic diversity in various countries, some studies find

that ethnic diversity is harmful to social cohesion and trust, while others find

nonsignificant or even positive relationships. More recently, a debate concerning

impact of ethnic diversity on health and well-being has emerged. Using European

data, Ramos etal. (2019) found that ethnic diversity causes a dip in well-being,

but only in the short term. In the long term, these negative effects are offset by

the beneficial effects of intergroup contact. A similar pattern has been confirmed

in Li etal. (2021), who used data on the diversity of English neighborhoods.

Within this body of work, most studies have focused on the white majority in

Europe and in the United States, overlooking ethnic minorities. We, therefore,

focus on ethnic minorities here to understand how increasing diversity through

Douglas S. Massey is Henry G. Bryant Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs, with a joint

appointment in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. His research

interests include international migration, race and housing, discrimination, education, and

urban poverty.

Miles Hewstone is emeritus professor, University of Oxford. He has published extensively in the

field of intergroup relations.

NOTE: This research was supported by grants from the Nuffield Foundation (WEL/43108 -

M.R.R., M.R.B., D.S.M., and M.H.) and Economic and Social Research Council (ES/

R008507/1 – M.R.B., D.L., M.H.). The views expressed are those of the authors and not nec-

essarily those of who have funded this research.