Ethnic Diversity and Its Effects on Social Cohesion

Abstract

Recent years have seen a sharp increase in empirical studies on the constrict claim: the hypothesized detrimental effect of ethnic diversity on most if not all aspects of social cohesion. Studies have scrutinized effects of different measures of ethnic heterogeneity in different geographical areas on different forms of social cohesion. The result has been a cacophony of empirical findings. We explicate mechanisms likely to underlie the negative relationship between ethnic heterogeneity and social cohesion: the homophily principle, feelings of anomie, group threat, and social disorganization. Guided by a clear conceptual framework, we structure the empirical results of 90 recent studies and observe three patterns. We find that (a) there is consistent support for the constrict claim for aspects of social cohesion that are spatially bounded to neighborhoods, (b) support for the constrict claim is more common in the United States than in other countries, and (c) ethnic diversity is not related to less interethnic social cohesion. We discuss the implications of these patterns.

VAAs as sources of volatility and fragmentation: self-selection effects and genuine effects

“…With ethnic diversity as one independent variable, the structure of Figure 3 becomes identical to the conceptual model of Figure 1. It should be noted that it may not be ethnic diversity by itself that matters, as was suggested by Putnam (2007), but the lower levels of social and political trust within important minority groups (van der Meer and Tolsma 2014).…”

“…Research in the United States (Putnam (2007(Putnam ( , 1867 finds that ethnic diversity undermines social and political trust. In Europe, lower levels of social and political trust are not caused by ethnic diversity itself, but by related variables like lower levels of trust in some minority groups, higher crime levels and economic deprivation (Tolsma, van der Meer, and Gesthuizen 2009;van der Meer and Tolsma 2014). Municipalities with larger ethnic diversity and minority groups, as well as weaker economic structures (more citizens with lower income, lower educational attainment and higher unemployment levels) also have lower electoral participation.…”

Diversity and social cohesion: the case of Jane-Finch, a highly diverse lower-income Toronto neighbourhood

“…The relationship between diversity and social cohesion is rather complex, depending on prior conditions and experiential, historical and personal factors at both the individual and group levels (Laurence and Bentley 2015;Livingston, Bailey, and Kearns 2010). The complexity of the relationship thus casts doubts on the generalisability of either of the two theoretical strands (Schaeffer 2014;Laurence 2009;Van der Meer and Tolsma 2014;Ahmadi and Tasan-Kok 2015). Underlying factors such as socio-economic inequality, neighbourhood status and institutionalised discrimination play important roles in defining the relationship between diversity and social cohesion (see, e.g., Letki 2008;Li, Pickles, and Savage 2005;Oliver and Mandelberg 2000;Oliver and Wong 2003).…”

La diversité sur le palier. Catégorisations ordinaires d’un voisinage hétérogène à Genève

“…Dans un article classique sur la mixité sociale dans les grands ensembles français des années 1960, Chamboredon et Lemaire (1970) Quarante ans plus tard, analysant les représentations sociales des habitants d'immeubles parisiens socialement et ethniquement mixtes, Bacqué et ses collègues ont observé « un système de classement propre [aux rési-dents], qui divise le collectif résidentiel en deux groupes définis explicitement en termes raciaux : d'un côté "nous ", les Français, les "Blancs ", et de l'autre côté "eux ", les "Africains du Sahel, les Africains du Nord", les "Noirs" » (Bacqué et al, 2010 : 103). Ce résultat pourrait induire, comme c'est le cas dans un nombre considérable de travaux sur les liens entre l'hétérogénéité d'une population et sa cohésion, que le critère ethnique est central dans les classifications, et détermine qui est similaire et qui est différent (Meer et Tolsma, 2014). Cependant, dans le cas étudié par Bacqué, les différences ethniques recoupent également un clivage entre anciens et nouveaux locataires, qui pourrait être plus structurant que les distinctions ethniques.…”