As a consequence of global labour mobility, armed conflicts, and climate change, international migration is continuously growing, making the study of intergroup relations increasingly relevant. Perceptions of immigrants and immigration of the native population can be a factor that either supports or discourages immigrants’ social inclusion in the destination countries. This article examines the link between generalised social trust and threat perceptions both at the aggregated and the individual level. Generalised trust has, at the aggregated level been described as a characteristic of societies that are more egalitarian, more cooperative and more integrated. In a similar vein, high-trusting individuals have been found to be more tolerant and willing to empower new minorities. While the significance of generalised trust on feelings of threat has been under some scrutiny in previous research, we contribute by examining whether or not the association between generalised trust and perceptions of threat varies between country clusters of high, medium or low contextual trust. Our data come from the 7th European Social Survey. The study shows that generalised trust is, indeed, closely correlated with lesser feelings of threat, and the effect is further enhanced when the overall level of generalised trust is high.
