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VAM-Velferd, arbeid og migrasjon

Trust among refugees. The impact of welfare state institutions

Alternative title: Tillit blant flyktninger. Betydningen av velferdsstatlige institusjoner og aktører.

Awarded: NOK 11.9 mill.

Trust is often described as a prerequisite for well-functioning societies. In an international context, the population of the Nordic countries have very high levels of trust, both in each other and in society's institutions. These high levels of trust are often highlighted as an essential part of the Nordic welfare state's recipe for success. But how will increased migration to the Nordics from countries where the population is characterized by far lower levels of trust affect the Nordic societies? Will immigrants adapt to the Nordic levels of trust, or is trust something that changes little over time? Can state institutions, which tend to treat asylum seekers in particular with considerable distrust, create trust among refugees after resettlement? In this project, we study how institutional trust develops over time among refugees from Syria and Ukraine who are living in Norway and Denmark. Our focus is on the role of the welfare state: how do its institutions, policies and practices influence the level of trust that refugees develop towards host country institutions? What helps to build up refugees' trust in the welfare state's institutions and what helps to break it down? Methodologically, the project rests on a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches. We combine 1) a longitudinal survey among refugees in Norway and Denmark with 2) administrative register data at individual level and 3) qualitative interviews and observations of meetings between refugees and ground bureaucrats in some of the welfare state's institutions. With a comparative study of refugees’ experiences within two different welfare and integration regimes, we aim to increase knowledge on how institutional design and street-level implementation may build or break trust.

This project sets out to study how institutional and social trust develops over time among newly arrived refugees in Norway and Denmark. Our focus is on the role of welfare state institutions: How do different institutions, policies and street-level practices influence refugees’ trust in host country institutions? Our main source of data will be a longitudinal survey among refugees in three rounds, linked with data from administrative sources. We will also collect qualitative data, interviewing street-level bureaucrats and refugee users in dyadic pairs, strategically sampled from the survey. In our efforts to understand if and how institutions may influence trust, refugees constitute an interesting case. They provide an opportunity to test to what extent trust is a persistent cultural trait or formed by contemporary experiences. The comparison of refugees resettled in Norway and Denmark is motivated by variations in integration and welfare policies towards refugees and immigrants. With a comparative study of refugees’ experiences within two different welfare and integration regimes, we aim to increase knowledge on how institutional design and street-level implementation may build or break trust. By focusing on newly arrived refugees and by interviewing them in their native language, we will reach respondents who are less likely to be represented in population surveys. Our panel design will provide a better analytical tool for studies of temporal patterns and causal relationships than the more commonly used cross-sectional surveys that will be prone to selection-type errors. Our aim is to provide new insights into the underlying mechanisms that may build or break institutional trust, with the intention of bringing the academic field of socio-cultural integration forward, as well as informing policymakers on how to shape integration policy that promotes social cohesion and respectful interactions and transparency of interaction styles within bureaucratic procedures.

Funding scheme:

VAM-Velferd, arbeid og migrasjon