Equal Treatment Regulations and Ethnic Minority Social Trust

Immigrants and ethnic minority members typically hold lower levels of social trust than majority members due to fewer socio-economic resources and a higher risk of discrimination. While institutional factors are a strong predictor for different levels of social trust across countries, we know little about whether and how institutional and political contexts influence group-related differences in trust within societies. This study examines how institutional fairness and anti-discrimination policies influence social trust gaps between natives and immigrants as well as ethnic minority members. Offering a nuanced perspective, I argue that regulations promoting equal treatment may also have unintended consequences on ethnic minority trust by increasing the sensitivity towards remaining inequalities and discriminatory practices. Multilevel models test the theoretical arguments using repeated cross-sectional survey data from European countries merged with time series information on political context. The results show that an increase in institutional fairness is related to widening social trust gaps. Findings from additional tests on potential mechanisms suggest that institutional fairness promotes norms of equal treatment which in turn magnify the extent to which ethnic discrimination impedes social trust