Sören Petermann

Immigration-related diversity and trust in German cities: the role of intergroup contact

This article investigates the relationship between neighbourhood diversity, various forms of intergroup contact and trust in a sample of native Germans clustered in 50 neighbourhoods in several German cities. The authors argue that the consideration and direct measurement of intergroup contact is essential for fully comprehending the consequences of rising ethno-cultural diversity in Western democracies. Our results show that neighbourhood immigration-related diversity in itself does not exert the same negative effects on generalized and outgroup trust as found in the North American context. Instead, intergroup contact moderates the effects of neighbourhood diversity. The results add to our understanding of the different socio-political consequences of immigration-related diversity and immigrant contact in social networks.

Defining and Measuring Transnational Social Structures

Transnational social fields and transnational social spaces are often used interchangeably to describe and analyze emergent structures of cross-border formations. In this article, we suggest measuring two key aspects of these social structures: embeddedness and span of migrants’ personal networks. While clustered graphs allow assessing transnational embeddedness, the standardized diversity index can be used to show variation in the number of countries reported in personal networks. The measures will be exemplified with the data collected in Barcelona from three groups (Chinese, Sikh, and Filipino, N = 25 in each group, 30 alters by ego).

Immigration and social interaction: Do diverse environments matter?

ABSTRACT The article investigates to what extent the presence of immigrants in urban environments is reflected in the personal social interactions of their residents. Starting from the assumption that social interactions are complex products of contextual conditions, individual characteristics and personal preferences, we examine potentially varying effects of the presence of immigrants in a neighbourhood and city on different forms of social interaction, i.e., on neighbourhood contacts as well as on weak and strong ties. The article contributes to the literatures on social interactions and on consequences of immigration. The analysis is based on a unique data set for a random sample of German urban neighbourhoods. We can show that, in German cities, interaction between the long-term residents and those of immigrant background is frequent and common – in the neighbourhoods and in the social networks more generally. However, evidence regarding the impact of the neighbourhood as opportunity context for encounters and ensuing closer interactions is mixed. While a higher immigration-related diversity of the residential environment increases the frequency of inter-group contact in these environments, effects of differing opportunities for interaction in the residential environment on network ties could not be demonstrated. We suggest that this may be explained by a possibly limited importance of neighbourhood, as compared with other social contexts, and by the relative recency of immigration.

Theorie, Operationalisierung und Daten individuellen sozialen Kapitals

Eine der Grundannahmen der Sozialkapital-Theorie ist, dass soziale Handlungen erleichtert oder ermoglicht werden, wenn Akteure auf soziale Ressourcen zuruckgreifen konnen. Speziell individuelles Sozialkapital bezeichnet soziale Ressourcen, die ein Akteur aus seinem personlichen Netzwerk beziehen kann. Verwandte, Freunde oder Bekannte helfen mit Tipps und Ratschlagen weiter, unterstutzen uns im Haushalt, leisten uns Gesellschaft oder auch Beistand und haben ein offenes Ohr auch fur die kleinen Dinge des Alltags. Insofern eine Person mit sozialen Ressourcen ihre Handlungsziele leichter, schneller oder kostengunstiger erreicht, sind diese Ressourcen fur sie wertvoll und erstrebenswert. Die Anwendung der Sozialkapital- Theorie wird jedoch problematisch, wenn soziales Kapital mit seiner erfolgreichen Nutzung gleichgesetzt wird. Um dieses Problem zu umgehen, ist der Fokus auf den Zugang zu samtlichen sozialen Ressourcen zu verlagern. Entsprechend wird im Beitrag der Frage nachgegangen, wie sich der Gesamtumfang sozialen Kapitals operationalisieren und empirisch bestimmen lasst. Um diese Frage zu beantworten, wird zuerst in Kurze die Sozialkapital-Theorie vorgestellt. Im Abschn. 2 wird eine Moglichkeit der Modellierung individuellen sozialen Kapitals besprochen und etwas detaillierter auf handlungstheoretische und forschungspraktische Probleme und deren Losung eingegangen. Im Abschn. 3 wird mit dem Ressourcengenerator eine Methode vorgestellt, die theoretisch begrundete Anpassungen der Sozialkapital-Theorie in Massenumfragen umsetzt. Im 4. Abschnitt wird eine empirische Anwendung vorgestellt, deren Daten mit der vorgeschlagenen Methode erhoben wurden. Dabei werden empirische Verteilungen von Sozialkapitaldimensionen besprochen. Der Beitrag endet mit einem Fazit der besprochenen Methode zur Erfassung individuellen sozialen Kapitals.

Vielfalt als alltägliche Normalität: Interaktionen und Einstellungen in deutschen Städten

Dieser Beitrag untersucht die Beziehungen zwischen migrationsbezogener Vielfalt in Wohnvierteln, verschiedenen Formen sozialer Interaktionen zwischen alteingesessenen Deutschen und MigrantInnen sowie Diversitatseinstellungen und Vertrauen. Zugrunde liegt das Forschungsprojekt „Diversity and Contact“, in dem Daten zum Zusammenleben von Personen mit und ohne Migrationshintergrund in 50 Wohnvierteln mehrerer westdeutscher Stadte erhoben und ausgewertet wurden. Es wird dargestellt, ob und wie sich eine kontextuelle Vielfalt von Nachbarschaften auf verschiedene Formen sozialer Interaktionen und auf Einstellungen zu einer in den Herkunftsbezugen ihrer Mitglieder heterogenen Gesellschaft auswirkt. Hohe Migrantenanteile in der Wohngebietsbevolkerung wirken sich positiv auf lockere Interaktionen aus; negative Auswirkungen etwa auf das gegenseitige Vertrauen wurden nicht festgestellt. Vielfalt ist in deutschen Stadten heute eine weithin akzeptierte Normalitat.

The Immigrant Perspective

While the previous chapters focused on the impact of diversity on neighbourhood populations more generally, sometimes contrasting the non-immigrant and the immigrant parts of such populations, this chapter focuses specifically on how immigrants experience and perceive diversity. Analyses are presented for different groups of the immigrant population in order to gain deeper insights into determinants of intergroup interaction. Based on qualitative interviews, we outline the subjective experience of neighbourhood social life from the immigrant perspective.

Attitudes Towards Immigration-Related Diversity

This chapter we investigate perceptions of diversity and attitudes to others with data from our survey, specifically by way of the three-wave panel data. These data allow a more convincing analysis of causal mechanisms than work using correlations. We investigate what our interview-partners think about immigration-related diversity and how they see others perceived as belonging to particular groups. We discuss why diversity overall is overwhelmingly seen as a positive feature of cities, while some of its consequences are seen in a more critical light. Further, we can show that trust in foreigners and specific immigrant groups is high and unrelated to immigrant shares in the neighbourhood population. In contrast to assumptions in the public debate—and some findings in other countries—higher diversity does not have disintegrative consequences.

Interactions Across Boundaries in More and Less Diverse Contexts

This chapter turns to core results of the project. We outline the social interactions between those without and those with migration background. Here we present results for three different interactions: contacts in the neighbourhood, and weak as well as strong ties, both within and beyond the neighbourhood. We show to what extent different levels of diversity in the neighbourhood are related to frequencies of intergroup interaction. Contrary to pessimistic assumptions in part of literature, we can demonstrate that higher levels of diversity in the neighbourhood are associated with higher frequencies of intergroup interaction.

Diversity in Germany and Its Urban Neighbourhoods

This chapter first briefly outlines the history and structure of immigration to Germany. It then explains the diversity of its cities and of city neighbourhoods. This includes discussion of immigrant concentration, extent and features of spatial segregation and nation origins of the immigrant population. Drawing on our own ‘area explorations’ we present key features of the 50 neighbourhoods investigated in this study: the structure of diversity, its visibility, the character of the public space.

Five Stories of Neighbourhood, Social Life, and Diversity

This chapter explores the connections between neighbourhood features, intergroup interaction and attitudes to diversity further in portraits of five selected neighbourhoods. We use both survey results as well as empirical material from qualitative fieldwork to explore the ways in which residents see their neighbourhoods, and how they experience social life and their interactions with co-residents of different backgrounds. We identify features of an ‘intimate market society’ in two neighbourhoods where economic exchange and an attractive public space facilitate intergroup interaction. The sub-urban character of two other neighbourhoods is linked with a lifestyle that is less conducive to intergroup interaction.