Integration of migrants improves with time
Glasgow is a city that has become increasingly ethnically diverse over the past fifteen years: the ethnic minority population in the city doubled in size in the inter-census period 2001 to 2011. Migration is a large part of the explanation for these changes, consisting of EU migrants, economic migrants and students from beyond Europe, and asylum seekers and refugees from areas of conflict in Africa and the Middle East.
Given the importance placed upon migration as a source of population growth and economic dynamism for Scotland, there is a lot of interest in finding out how well integrated migrants are within the communities in which they live. GoWell is well-placed to consider this issue because many migrants, at least initially, tend to settle in deprived areas, including several of GoWell’s study areas.
Our new briefing paper, Migrant Social Integration in Glasgow’s Deprived Communities, is based upon analysis of GoWell’s Wave 2 (2008) and Wave 3 (2011) community surveys. It uses a sample of around 1,300 migrant interviews to examine the effects of time and other factors (education, employment and English language competency) upon self-reported social integration indicators for migrants.
A total of 21 indicators were considered across three domains: trust, safety and reliance; social relations, and sense of community. Four groups of migrants were included – British citizens not born in the UK, asylum seekers, refugees, other migrants – although since the effects were often similar, the groups were combined for much of the analysis.
The paper commences by showing how social integration for migrants is generally lower than for British-born citizens living in the same places. This is especially true for some of the indicators of trust and of neighbourly behaviours. The paper also reports that living in a regeneration area, as many migrants did, lowered the chances of positive social integration for migrants, reflecting the particular challenges facing these areas, as well as their instability.
The briefing paper goes on to examine the effects of functional factors upon social integration, demonstrating in particular the positive associations of education with social relations, employment with sense of community, and English language competency with social support.
Lastly, the briefing paper reports on the effects of time upon social integration. Indicators in all three of the social integration domains improved with time, although the effects of length of residence in a community were stronger than the effects of total time spent in the UK.