Does Discrimination in Childhood Reduce Trust and Participation Among Adult Immigrants?

VARIABLE	QUESTIONS	RANGE	RESPONSE RATE
Institutional trust	To which extent do you personally trust the following institutions (in your country of residence): Government Police Parliament Politicians	0 (no trust at all) to 10 (complete trust)	95%
Social trust	Do you believe most people can be trusted or that you cannot be too careful when dealing with other people? Do you believe most people will try to take advantage of you if they get the chance, or will they try to treat you reasonable and fair? Do you believe most people are helpful, or do most people look out for themselves?	0 (no trust at all) to 10 (complete trust)	94%
Attachment	To which extent do you feel an attachment to Norway?	0 (no attachment) to 10 (complete attachment)	86%
Participation	Are you a member of: A sports team or group for physical activity? A political party or group? An aid organization or charity? A religious group? A cultural or ethnic organization?	1 (Participate in the activity) to 0 (do not participate in the activity)	100%
Participation	Employed/not employed	0 (not employed) to 1 (employed)	100%
Discrimination in school	During your time at primary and secondary school, how frequent will you say the following is true: My classmates accepted me for who I was My teachers accepted me for who I was The teachers respected all students equally regardless of their cultural background I felt like I had to be a different person at school than at home The teachers gave all the students the opportunity to express their culture The teacher put students with migrant background in the same category	0 (never) to 5 (very often)	90%
Recent discrimination	During the last 12 months, have you experienced being treated differently due to your religion or ethnic background in any of the following situations? In contact with the police By employees of public office At the work/study place In restaurants, cafés, or similar In a store or bank On public transport By strangers on the street	0 (has not experienced discrimination) to 1 (has experienced discrimination)	100%

Table 2

Descriptive statistics.

	MINORITY				DIFF.	MAJORITY		DIFF. MIN/MAJ
	IMMIGRANTS		DESCENDANTS OF IMMIGRANTS			MAJORITY
	MEAN	STANDARD DEVIATION	MEAN	STANDARD DEVIATION		MEAN	STANDARD DEVIATION
Institutional trust (score)	5.15	2.30	5.06	2.21	0.09	5.7	2.0	–0.60***
Social trust (score)	4.55	2.33	4.66	2.16	–0.12	5.6	2.2	–0.98***
Attachment (score)	8.32	2.29	8.51	2.12	–0.19	8.8	2.0	–0.42***
Employed (share)	0.66	0.48	0.68	0.47	–0.02*	0.76	0.42	–0.10***
Participation in sports (share)	0.33	0.47	0.33	0.47	0.00	0.36	0.48	–0.03
Participation in political party (share)	0.06	0.24	0.05	0.22	0.01*	0.05	0.22	0.01
Participation in aid organization or charity (share)	0.20	0.40	0.25	0.43	–0.05*	0.19	0.39	0.04*
Participation in religious group (share)	0.06	0.24	0.14	0.34	–0.07*	0.07	0.25	0.04**
Participation in cultural/ethnic organization (share)	0.08	0.28	0.11	0.31	–0.03	0.05	0.23	0.05***
Discrimination in school (score)	2.44	0.74	2.32	0.71	0.12**	2.20	0.70	0.17***
Recent discrimination (score)	0.59	0.49	0.60	0.49	–0.01	0.28	0.45	0.32***
Control variables
Age (categories*)	1.50	0.70	1.62	0.72	–0.13***	2.47	1.13	–0.90***
Secondary school as highest completed educational level (share)	0.38	0.49	0.25	0.43	0.13***	0.16	0.37	0.14***
High school as highest completed educational level (share)	0.41	0.49	0.39	0.49	0.02	0.33	0.49	0.07**
University/college as highest completed educational level (share)	0.19	0.39	0.34	0.47	–0.15***	0.41	0.49	–0.13***
Married (share)	0.10	0.30	0.16	0.36	–0.06***	0.22	0.42	–0.09***
Male (share)	0.49	0.50	0.49	0.50	0.00	0.47	0.50	0.02
Iraq (share)	0.33	0.47	0.04	0.20	0.29***	–	–	–
Pakistan (share)	0.05	0.23	0.25	0.43	–0.20***	–	–	–
Poland (share)	0.25	0.43	0.13	0.34	0.12***	–	–	–
Turkey (share)	0.07	0.25	0.24	0.43	–0.17***	–	–	–
Vietnam (share)	0.06	0.23	0.26	0.44	–0.20***	–	–	–
Somalia (share)	0.24	0.43	0.08	0.27	0.16***	–	–	–

[i] Note: *The age groups are 1 = 20–24, 2 = 25–28, 3 = 29–32, and 4 = 33–36, the variable immigrant is opposed to descendants of immigrants.

*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.

Table 3

Results from linear regressions of background variables on discrimination, minority.

	(1) DISCRIMINATION IN SCHOOL	(2) DISCRIMINATION IN SCHOOL	(3) DISCRIMINATION IN SCHOOL	(4) DISCRIMINATION IN SCHOOL	(5) DISCRIMINATION IN SCHOOL	(6) DISCRIMINATION IN SCHOOL
Iraq	0.11*
Iraq	(0.06)
Pakistan		0.05
Pakistan		(0.05)
Poland			–0.18***
Poland			(0.04)
Turkey				0.01
Turkey				(0.05)
Vietnam					–0.06
Vietnam					(0.05)
Somalia						0.14*
Somalia						(0.06)
Age	0.00	–0.00	0.00	–0.00	–0.00	0.00
Age	(0.03)	(0.03)	(0.03)	(0.03)	(0.03)	(0.03)
Male	–0.03	–0.03	–0.03	–0.03	–0.03	–0.03
Male	(0.04)	(0.04)	(0.04)	(0.04)	(0.04)	(0.04)
Immigrant	0.09*	0.13***	0.14***	0.12**	0.11**	0.10**
Immigrant	(0.04)	(0.04)	(0.04)	(0.04)	(0.04)	(0.04)
N	1,559	1,559	1,559	1,559	1,559	1,559

[i] Note: The variable immigrant is opposed to descendants of immigrants. Robust standard errors in parentheses.

*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.

Table 4

Results from the linear regression of discrimination on individual levels of trust and attachment, minority.

	(1) INST. TRUST	(2) SOCIAL TRUST	(3) ATTACHMENT
Discrimination in school	–0.91***	–0.68***	–0.50***
Discrimination in school	(0.10)	(0.10)	(0.11)
Age	–0.29***	0.02	0.13
Age	(0.09)	(0.09)	(0.09)
High school as the highest completed educational level	0.13	0.14	0.10
High school as the highest completed educational level	(0.13)	(0.13)	(0.15)
University/collage as the highest completed educational level	0.38*	0.70***	0.32
	(0.15)	(0.15)	(0.17)
Married	0.17	0.03	–0.13
Married	(0.17)	(0.17)	(0.19)
Male	–0.32**	–0.03	–0.35**
Male	(0.11)	(0.11)	(0.12)
Immigrant	0.46	0.61	–0.03
Immigrant	(0.37)	(0.37)	(0.40)
Discrimination in school * immigrant	–0.11	–0.31*	–0.06
Discrimination in school * immigrant	(0.15)	(0.15)	(0.18)
Control for country of origin	x	x	x
N	1,559	1,559	1,484

[i] Note: The variable immigrant is opposed to descendants of immigrants. Robust standard errors in parentheses.

*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.

Table 5

Results from a linear regression of discrimination on participation, minority.

	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)
	EMPLOYED	PARTICIPATION IN SPORTS	PARTICIPATION IN POLITICAL PARTY	PARTICIPATION IN AN AID ORGANIZATION OR CHARITY	PARTICIPATION IN A RELIGIOUS GROUP	PARTICIPATION IN A CULTURAL/ETHNIC ORGANIZATION
Discrimination in school	–0.03	0.00	0.02	0.03	–0.01	0.03
Discrimination in school	(0.02)	(0.02)	(0.01)	(0.02)	(0.02)	(0.02)
Age	0.04*	–0.04	–0.02	–0.00	–0.03*	0.03
Age	(0.02)	(0.02)	(0.01)	(0.01)	(0.01)	(0.02)
High school as the highest completed educational level	0.04	0.08**	0.02	–0.01	0.02	0.05
High school as the highest completed educational level	(0.03)	(0.03)	(0.02)	(0.02)	(0.02)	(0.03)
University/collage as the highest completed educational level	0.21***	0.10**	0.01	–0.02	0.01	0.13***
	(0.03)	(0.03)	(0.02)	(0.02)	(0.02)	(0.03)
Married	0.06	–0.04	0.00	0.00	0.06*	–0.09**
Married	(0.03)	(0.04)	(0.02)	(0.03)	(0.03)	(0.03)
Male	0.02	0.21***	0.02*	–0.02	–0.01	–0.06**
Male	(0.02)	(0.02)	(0.01)	(0.02)	(0.02)	(0.02)
Immigrant	–0.01	–0.02	–0.03	–0.02	–0.05	–0.09
Immigrant	(0.08)	(0.08)	(0.04)	(0.05)	(0.05)	(0.08)
Discrimination in school* immigrant	0.02	–0.01	0.02	–0.00	0.00	0.01
Discrimination in school* immigrant	(0.03)	(0.03)	(0.02)	(0.02)	(0.02)	(0.03)
Control for country of origin	x	x	x	x	x	x
N	1,559	1,555	1,555	1,555	1,555	1,555

[i] Note: The variable immigrant is opposed to descendants of immigrants. Robust standard errors in parentheses.

*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.

Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33134/njmr.618 | Journal eISSN: 1799-649X

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Language: English

Page range: 8 - 8

Submitted on: Sep 4, 2022

Accepted on: Aug 18, 2023

Published on: Apr 4, 2024

Published by: Helsinki University Press

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Keywords:

Trust,

© 2024 Ingeborg Sofie Fretheim, Ragnhild Haugli Bråten, Julie Willerslev Kjær, Arne Holm, Guro Landsend Henriksen, published by Helsinki University Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Volume 14 (2024): Issue 2