The cultural divide in Europe: migration, multiculturalism, and political trust

One of the defining features of modern states is their incorporation of notions of political and social community based on shared language, history, and myths. However, large numbers of citizens in modern states have come to believe their national communities are under threat from several modern for...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: McLaren, Lauren M.
Format: Article
Published: Cambridge Universisty Press 2012
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/1566/
_version_ 1848790630595035136
author McLaren, Lauren M.
author_facet McLaren, Lauren M.
author_sort McLaren, Lauren M.
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description One of the defining features of modern states is their incorporation of notions of political and social community based on shared language, history, and myths. However, large numbers of citizens in modern states have come to believe their national communities are under threat from several modern forces, including immigration. Using the European Social Survey (2002-2009), this paper explores the extent to which perceived threats posed by large-scale immigration undermine national political communities by reducing trust in national politicians and political institutions. The findings indicate that even after controlling for other predictors of trust in the political system, concerns about the effect of immigration on the national community have an impact on trust in politics. Moreover, having a lengthy post-war history with mass immigration mediates this effect, while the potentially mobilizing effects of far-right parties on the relationship between concern about immigration and political distrust are somewhat limited.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T18:15:40Z
format Article
id nottingham-1566
institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T18:15:40Z
publishDate 2012
publisher Cambridge Universisty Press
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling nottingham-15662020-05-04T20:22:38Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/1566/ The cultural divide in Europe: migration, multiculturalism, and political trust McLaren, Lauren M. One of the defining features of modern states is their incorporation of notions of political and social community based on shared language, history, and myths. However, large numbers of citizens in modern states have come to believe their national communities are under threat from several modern forces, including immigration. Using the European Social Survey (2002-2009), this paper explores the extent to which perceived threats posed by large-scale immigration undermine national political communities by reducing trust in national politicians and political institutions. The findings indicate that even after controlling for other predictors of trust in the political system, concerns about the effect of immigration on the national community have an impact on trust in politics. Moreover, having a lengthy post-war history with mass immigration mediates this effect, while the potentially mobilizing effects of far-right parties on the relationship between concern about immigration and political distrust are somewhat limited. Cambridge Universisty Press 2012 Article PeerReviewed McLaren, Lauren M. (2012) The cultural divide in Europe: migration, multiculturalism, and political trust. World Politics . ISSN 0043-8871 (In Press) http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=WPO
spellingShingle McLaren, Lauren M.
The cultural divide in Europe: migration, multiculturalism, and political trust
title The cultural divide in Europe: migration, multiculturalism, and political trust
title_full The cultural divide in Europe: migration, multiculturalism, and political trust
title_fullStr The cultural divide in Europe: migration, multiculturalism, and political trust
title_full_unstemmed The cultural divide in Europe: migration, multiculturalism, and political trust
title_short The cultural divide in Europe: migration, multiculturalism, and political trust
title_sort cultural divide in europe: migration, multiculturalism, and political trust
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/1566/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/1566/