Do Minorities Trust Less? Understanding Differences in Social Trust among Canada’s Major Ethno-Racial Groups

ABSTRACT

Using data from Canada’s General Social Survey, this article assesses ethno-racial differences in social trust. Bivariate findings reveal that the three most culturally distinctive minorities—visible minorities, the French, and Indigenous Peoples—exhibit the lowest trust of all groups. Multivariate analyses show that controls for “ethno-cultural markers” (religion, language, immigration status), socioeconomic influences (education, income), and social engagement indicators (voluntary association activity, ethnic diversity of friendships) explain the lower trust between the French and, less so, among visible minorities. Socioeconomic factors partly account for lower trust among Indigenous Peoples, but they still express comparatively low social trust even with controls. The article discusses how interpretations focusing on “social distance” and “social boundaries” processes help in understanding social trust differences across Canada’s major ethno-racial communities.

KEYWORDS:

• Canada
• ethno-racial minorities
• indigenous peoples
• social trust
• boundaries

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The term “visible minority” is used in Canadian government statistics as a rubric for people identifying with non-white ethno-racial groups, including East Asians, South Asians, Blacks, Arabs/West Asians, South East Asians, and Latin Americans. The data set does not permit further breakdowns of visible minorities into these sub-categories.

2. Canada’s Indigenous Peoples are internally diverse, but the data set does not allow further subdivision. The analysis follows conventional research by treating Indigenous Peoples as a single category.

3. The term “ethno-cultural marker” is used to distinguish these factors from ethno-racial background itself, while signifying that these cultural variables share clear empirical and conceptual overlaps with ethnicity or race. Immigration status is not a relevant factor for the French and Indigenous Peoples, who are overwhelmingly Canadian-born, but is quite pertinent for other groups, especially visible minorities.

4. Survey estimates were weighted to represent the target population, but weighting produces too large a sample for meaningful statistical significance tests. Therefore, the weight was adjusted by dividing the sample weight variable by its average weight.

5. Social trust items were coded so that responses indicating the highest social trust received the highest scores. Mean values were substituted for the few missing cases for each item. Preliminary analyses revealed essentially the same results with missing cases excluded.

6. A “Canadian” category was retained in analyses to maintain sample size, but not reported in tables, because the vast majority were French Quebecers with patterns virtually identical to the French group included in the tables. An “Other” ethno-racial category was also retained in the analyses, but not reported, due to its indeterminate nature. The same procedure was followed for “Other” religion and “Other” language categories.

7. Another socioeconomic factor, occupation, was excluded because many respondents were not in the labor force.

8. This item has limitations, as discussed in the conclusion, but was the best available measure.

9. Given the large sample, results that are statistically significant at conventional levels (p < .05, p < .01, or even p < .001) represent very minor substantive effects. Therefore, the analysis applies a more conservative alpha level, concentrating almost exclusively on findings significant at .0001 or better.

10. Intermediate models were run, with each explanatory factor assessed for its individual effect on trust for all ethno-racial groups. The intermediate models are not reported in tables to conserve space, but are available on request.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Monica Hwang

Monica Hwang is assistant professor in the department of sociology at St. Thomas More College, University of Saskatchewan. Her research, which focuses on racial/ethnic inequality, has appeared in the Canadian Journal of Sociology, Canadian Journal of Political Science, Canadian Ethnic Studies, and America Review of Canadian Studies. She is co-editor, with Edward Grabb and Jeffrey Reitz, of Social Inequality in Canada: Dimensions of Disadvantage (Oxford University Press, 2017).