Figure 1
Labour market experiences, immigrants and political assimilation
Table 1
Description of measures
| Dependent social and political measures | Alpha reliability score | |
|---|---|---|
| Trust in democratic institutions | ||
| Trust in politics and state institutions | Composed of 5 items: How much do you personally trust each of the following: 1. country's parliament? 2. Politicians? 3. Political parties. 4. The legal system? 5. The police? Scored 0=no trust al all to 10=complete trust. Overall score is divided by 5 to retain the range between 0 and 10. | 0.84 |
| Satisfaction with democracy | ||
| On the whole, how satisfied are you with the way democracy works in this country? Scored 0=Extremely dissatisfied to 10=Extremely satisfied. | / | |
| Sustaining a democratic culture | ||
| Generalised trust in people | Composed of 3 items: Generally speaking, would you say that most people can be trusted, or that you can’t be too careful in dealing with people?; Do you think that most people would try to take advantage of you if they got the chance, or would they try to be fair?; Would you say that most of the time people try to be helpful or that they are mostly looking out for themselves? Scored 0=No trust 10=High trust. Overall score is divided by 3 to retain the range between 0 and 10. | 0.76 |
| Labour market measures | ||
| Occupation | Occupations are categorised as follows: 1=Lower manual; 2=Higher manual (skilled); 3=Routine white collar; 4=Higher white collar/professional. | / |
| Income | Satisfaction with income scored 1=Very difficult to cope; 2=Difficult to cope; 3=Coping; 4=Coping comfortably. | / |
| Unemployment periods | Were you ever unemployed and seeking work for more than three months. Scored 1=Yes; 0=No. | / |
| Discriminated against | Would you describe yourself as being a member of a group that is discriminated against in this country? Scored 1=Yes; 0=No. | / |
| Controls | ||
| Gender | Scored 1=Males; 0=Females | / |
| Education | Scored 1 =Up to 13 years of education; 0=More than 13 years | / |
| Age | Scored 1=over 45; 0=less than 45 | / |
Table 2
Means and significant differences between Non-Western and Eastern European immigrants
| Non-Western immigrants | Eastern European immigrants | Two-tailed T-test | Significance | N | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Satisfaction with democracy | 6.2 | 6.47 | .12 | ns | 673 |
| Trust in state institutions | 5.0 | 4.9 | .14 | ns | 599 |
| Generalised trust in people | 5.4 | 5.6 | .87 | ns | 730 |
Table 3
Ethnic origin and political and social measures
| Generalised trust in people | Trust in politicians | Satisfaction with democracy | N | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Native Irish | 5.68 | 4.35 | 4.96 | 9561–9959 |
| First generation immigrants | 5.45** (1&3) | 4.96** (1) | 6.3** (1&3) | 499–755 |
| Second generation immigrants | 6.0 | 4.6 | 4.91 | 155–165 |
Table 4
Ethnic origin and LM characteristics (means and Anovas reported)
| Occupational level | Income | Unemployed | Discrimination | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Native Irish | 2.8 | 2.94 | 0.26** (2 & 3) | 0.04 |
| First generation immigrants | 2.55** (1 & 3) | 2.66** (1 & 3) | 0.43 | 0.17** (1 & 3) |
| Second generation immigrants | 2.97 | 2.95 | 0.36 | 0.07 |
Table 5
Impact of origin on political and social measures controlling for LM characteristics, gender, age and educationa: Standardised coefficients reported: (T-values in parentheses)
| Mean generalised trust | Mean trust in politicians | Mean satisfaction with democracy | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Generation | ns (−.9) | 0.11** (10.8) | 0.18** (17.3) |
| 2nd Generation | ns (2.1) | ns (1.8) | ns (−0.2) |
| Reference category: Natives | |||
| Labour market characteristics | |||
| Occupation | |||
| Higher manual | ns (1.9) | ns (0.7) | ns (0.6) |
| Routine WC | ns (1.5) | 0.06** (4.4) | ns (2.3) |
| Higher WC | 0.07** (4.7) | 0.06** (4.3) | ns (2.3) |
| Reference category: Lower manual | |||
| Income | |||
| 2. Difficult | 0.11** (6.4) | 0.09** (5.2) | ns (1.3) |
| 3. Coping | 0.24** (11.8) | 0.21** (10.2) | 0.1** (5.0) |
| 4. Comfortable | 0.31** (16.0) | 0.3** (14.7) | 0.19** (9.2) |
| Reference category: Very difficult | |||
| Unemployed | −0.04** (3.3) | −0.08** (7.7) | −0.08** (7.3) |
| Discriminated against | −0.04** (4.1) | −0.08** (7.7) | −0.08** (7.7) |
| Controls | |||
| Gender/male | ns (1.0) | 0.06** (5.4) | 0.09** (7.9) |
| Over 45 age | ns (2.0) | 0.07** (6.4) | 0.07** (6.1) |
| Under 13 years of Education | −0.08** (7.2) | −0.07** (6.0) | −0.1** (8.7) |
| R2 | 0.07 | 0.09 | 0.09 |
| F score | 55** | 70** | 67** |
| N | 9401 | 9028 | 9048 |
a The regressions were also run specifying year dummies for the five ESS rounds. While there were differences in the results in some rounds for the dependent measures the impact on the coefficients of the three cohorts (natives, First and second generation immigrants) and labour market characteristics remained essentially unchanged.
Table 6
Impact of LM characteristics on political and social measures by ethnic origin (Standardised beta coefficients reported: T-values in parentheses)
| Generalised trust in people | Trust political institutions | Satisfaction with democracy | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Natives | 1st Gen | 2nd Gen | Natives | 1st Gen | 2nd Gen | Natives | 1st Gen | 2nd Gen | |
| Occupation | |||||||||
| Higher managerial | ns(1.7) | ns(1.0) | ns(−.3) | ns(0.2) | ns(1.6) | ns(0.8) | ns(0.2) | ns(1.6) | ns(1.1) |
| Routine white collar | ns(1.0) | ns(1.3) | ns(0.5) | 0.06**(4.1) | ns(1.4) | ns(1.3) | ns(2.4) | ns(0.3) | ns(0.8) |
| Higher white collar | 0.06**(4.1) | ns(2.5) | ns(0.1) | 0.06**(3.8) | ns(1.4) | ns(1.9) | ns(2.4) | ns(0.2) | ns(0.7) |
| Ref cat.: lower | manual | ||||||||
| Income | |||||||||
| Difficult | 0.11**(6.3) | ns(1.1) | ns(1.3) | 0.09**(4.9) | ns(1.4) | ns(0.2) | ns(1.0) | ns(1.1) | ns(0.4) |
| Coping | 0.26**(11.9) | ns(1.6) | ns(1.8) | 0.22**(10.0) | ns(1.4) | ns(1.3) | 0.12**(5.2) | ns(0.3) | ns(0.1) |
| Comfortable | 0.34**(16.0) | ns(1.0) | 0.46*(3) | 0.31**(14.4) | ns(1.6) | ns(2.1) | 0.2**(9.0) | ns(1.4) | ns(1.7) |
| Ref. cat.: Very | difficult | ||||||||
| Unemployed | −0.03*(2.7) | −0.12**(2.8) | ns(1.7) | −0.09**(8.2) | ns(0.6) | ns(0.9) | −0.08**(7.2) | ns(−1.3) | ns(0.8) |
| Feel discriminated against | −0.04**(3.8) | −0.11**(2.6) | ns(0.8) | −0.08**(7.8) | ns(−0.5) | −0.28** (3.5) | −0.1**(8.8) | ns(0.5) | ns(−2.2) |