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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   9736 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 16, 2024

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How do they run a 1%-2% immigration rate

Where are the immigrants from? A Bavarian/Piedmontese family moving to Switzerland counts as an immigration background but is not likely to lower trust significantly (they're crossing a border but originate in a different part of the same mountain range) while a family coming from another continent that speaks a different language is going to be far more challenging to assimilate quickly.

Where are the immigrants from?

That's relatively diverse, at least from language, income and a "native trust level" perspective. The largest groups are, in descending order: Italy, Germany, Portugal, France, former Yugoslavia, Albania and Turkey. None of those groups is more than 10%, an together they're below 60% of immigration origin.

Maybe that diversity helps with not forming ghettos. Maybe all these origin countries have higher-trust societies than the most common countries the US gets immigrants from. But my intuition says this isn't the case.

The largest groups are, in descending order: Italy, Germany, Portugal, France, former Yugoslavia, Albania and Turkey.

Maybe all these origin countries have higher-trust societies than the most common countries the US gets immigrants from. But my intuition says this isn't the case.

Number one origin for immigrants in the US by far is Mexico, number two is India, followed by the Dominican Republic, Vietnam, Philippines, El Salvador, Brazil, Cuba, and South Korea.

I believe your intuition is bad. Mexico, India, the DR, El Salvador, and Brazil are notoriously low trust.

I believe your intuition is bad. Mexico, India, the DR, El Salvador, and Brazil are notoriously low trust.

I see your point. Even the low trust countries from Switzerland's list are probably ahead of every single one of those...

At least on this metric, all of the countries listed are rather lower trust than Switzerland itself, which has been gaining in trust over the past 30 years despite immigration from lower trust societies.

Italy, France, and the DR are similar trust societies. Same for Portugal and India, and El Salvador and Turkey. Albania is lower trust than any other country mentioned.

Italy and Germany (#1 and #2 for Switzerland) are significantly higher than Mexico and India (#1 and #2 for the US) by that metric. Though that metric may be suspect; it has China higher than Switzerland, and there's at least plenty of anecdote pointing towards China being low-trust. Perhaps they don't trust the surveyors.

They're mostly Germans and Italians with some Iberians thrown in.

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