Political Trust and Migrant Groups

The movement of people across borders is an established fact of life. In Germany alone, the share of residents with a migration background increased from 18% in 2005 to 30% by 2023, including 41% of under-15s. Despite this, there remains remarkably little systematic scientific knowledge about the political attitudes of migrant groups. Countries which undergo demographic changes are known to witness new political cleavages, but these contexts also promise new insights into the stability and drivers of political attitudes. Recent studies support the idea that political attitudes result from early socialisation and change little over time, particularly with regard to political trust. Others have found evidence of Euroscepticism, low turnout, and a lack of political participation among ethnic minorities in several European countries, potential indicators of political distrust. However, these attitudes also vary across generations and backgrounds, and the studies do not directly address questions political trust, distrust, scepticism or ambivalence, leaving questions of stability unresolved. I therefore combine these two strands of research to ask how a history of migration affects political trust attitudes. To address this question, I make use of original survey data collected as part of the ActEU project, a Horizon Europe-funded study of political trust in 10 EU countries, as well as existing surveys of migrant groups in France, Germany, and the Netherlands. The results promise to illustrate differences and similarities between minority and majority groups and factors which change or strengthen trust and political attitudes more generally.