Author of ASI briefing paper "The Ties that Bind" writes for Conservative Home
Author of new ASI briefing paper "The Ties that Bind: Analysing the relationship between social cohesion, diversity and immigration" writes for Conservative Home:
Claims that immigrants are undermining the social fabric of the UK are largely unfounded. A new briefing paper from the Adam Smith Institute released today suggests that restricting net migration is likely to be counter-productive at improving social cohesion.
Opinion polling regularly shows that immigration is one of the most important issues for the electorate. The social impact of immigration is frequently cited as a reason to contain migration flows.
The paper, “The Ties that Bind: An analysis of the relationship between social cohesion, diversity, and immigration”, is a comprehensive review of the academic literature on the relationship between immigration and social cohesion in the Europe, the UK and the United States.
It concludes that higher levels of diversity only lead to a slight negative impact on generalized trust within UK communities; however, there is virtually no evidence to suggest that diversity undermines other measures of social cohesion, including civic participation, trust in authority and volunteer work in the UK. Furthermore, the paper finds that if other factors are controlled for – including neighborhood status and economic deprivation – the negative relationship between diversity and cohesion often disappears.