Ethnic Concentration in the Neighbourhood and Ethnic Minorities’ Social Integration: Weak and Strong Social Ties Examined
Abstract
Although ethnic concentration in the neighbourhood is often thought to constrain ethnic minorities’ social ties with majority group members, the results of empirical studies are mixed. However, previous studies have differed in the type of social ties examined—for example, neighbours, friends, marital partners—whereas it is questionable whether ethnic residential concentration constrains weak and strong social ties to the same extent. This study analysed survey data from the Netherlands and found that the greater the ethnic concentration in the neighbourhood, the less often ethnic minorities have social ties with the native Dutch. Ethnic residential concentration is also found to constrain the strength of those social ties in terms of support, advice and frequency of contact. Ethnic residential concentration thus not only constrains the probability of having a social tie with natives in general, but of strong social ties in particular.
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Appendix
| Probability of having at least one social tie vs no social tie (N = 3426) | Probability of having at least one strong social tie vs a weak social tie (N = 2508) based on | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frequency of contact | Received support | Received advice | ||||||
| Intercept- only model | Model presented in Table 3 | Intercept-only model | Model presented in Table 4 | Intercept- only model | Model presented in Table 4 | Intercept- only model | Model presented in Table 4 | |
| Neighbourhood variance | 0.362 (0.081) | 0.142 (0.066) | 0.174 (0.077) | 0.107 (0.077) | 0.167 (0.067) | 0.127 (0.068) | 0.360 (0.087) | 0.317 (0.086) |
| Individual variancea | 3.290 | 3.290 | 3.290 | 3.290 | 3.290 | 3.290 | 3.290 | 3.290 |
| (Residual) Intraclass Correlation | 0.099 | 0.041 | 0.050 | 0.029 | 0.048 | 0.037 | 0.099 | 0.088 |
a
Individual variance is fixed at π2/3 = 3.290 in multilevel logistic analyses.
| Probability of having at least one strong social tie vs a weak social tie (N = 2508) based on | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Probability of having at least one social tie vs no social tie (N = 3423) | Frequency of contact | Received support | Received advice | |||||
| Intercept | 1.338 | (0.059)*** | 0.846 | (0.053)*** | −0.159 | (0.048)*** | 0.393 | (0.055)*** |
| Neighbourhood level | ||||||||
| Ethnic concentration | −0.550 | (0.070)*** | −0.177 | (0.068)** | −0.220 | (0.064)*** | −0.133 | 0.073~ |
| Economic disadvantage | 0.186 | (0.071)** | −0.074 | (0.066) | 0.051 | (0.060) | 0.096 | 0.067 |
| Individual level | ||||||||
| Ethnic group (ref. = Turkish) | ||||||||
| Moroccan | 0.131 | (0.054)* | 0.178 | (0.058)** | 0.162 | (0.056)** | 0.138 | 0.057* |
| Surinamese | −0.001 | (0.068) | 0.078 | (0.064) | 0.099 | (0.059)~ | 0.104 | 0.062~ |
| Antillean | 0.082 | (0.068) | 0.163 | (0.067)* | 0.078 | (0.062) | 0.108 | 0.066 |
| Interactions | ||||||||
| Ethnic concentration * Moroccan | −0.096 | (0.053)~ | 0.059 | (0.061) | 0.033 | (0.060) | 0.054 | (0.060) |
| Ethnic concentration * Surinamese | −0.039 | (0.054) | −0.010 | (0.057) | 0.030 | (0.054) | 0.001 | (0.057) |
| Ethnic concentration * Antillean | −0.123 | (0.055)* | 0.033 | (0.058) | 0.029 | (0.055) | 0.067 | (0.058) |
Notes: Controlled for gender, age, household composition, educational level, at school, socioeconomic position, migration background, Dutch language proficiency and opposition to social ties with native Dutch. ~p < 0.1; * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001.
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