Immigration, Political Community and Distrust in Politics in Europe

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 that their national communities are under threat from several modern forces, including migration. Using the four rounds of the European Social Survey (2002-2009), this paper explores the extent to which threats posed by large-scale migration 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. In addition, it appears that this relationship is partly mediated by the quality of governance and migrant policies in the country: in countries where governance is of a good quality and where migrant policies are more migrant-friendly, the impact of concern about immigration on trust in politics is stronger than in countries with poor governance and where migrant policies are the least migrant-friendly. The implications of these findings are discussed in the concluding section of the paper