Disentangling Ethnic Heterogeneity and Social Cohesion: Evidence from an Australian Panel Data

Qing Guan , Australian National University
James O'Donnell, Australian National University

With immigrant populations growing in many developed countries and heightened concern for inter-group conflict, social cohesion has become an increasingly critical issue today. Evidence suggests mixed relationships between ethnic heterogeneity and social cohesion at subnational levels, but are relatively consistent in support of a negative relationship at the neighbourhood level. However, the majority of existing studies focus on North America or Europe, and are largely based on cross-sectional data. In this paper, we use 21 waves of panel data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamic in Australia survey to further test and disentangle this relationship. Social cohesion is measured as neighbourhood satisfaction, trust, and informal interactions. Ethnic heterogeneity is measured by ethnic diversity, relative ethnic group size, and level of segregation. Multilevel mixed effects models are used to test how neighbourhood ethnic heterogeneity affects individual’s social cohesion, controlling for their ethnicity/immigrant status as well as a range of alternative explanatory variables at both individual and neighbourhood levels. Differing effects are tested for foreign-born and Australia-born persons. Preliminary analysis suggests low correlations between neighbourhood satisfaction and neighbourhood trust/support/informal interactions. Immigrants from less traditional origins have consistently lower neighbourhood social cohesion than non-immigrants and immigrants from main English-speaking countries. Next, we will model the aforementioned relationship, expecting the possible negative relationship to be attenuated by increased residential integration of skilled immigrants and recent arrivals. Further findings from this study will contribute to the ethnic heterogeneity and social cohesion debate, with evidence from panel data and models that warrant rigorous methodology design.

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 Presented in Session P3. Migration, Economics, Policies, History