No man is an island: trust, trustworthiness, and social networks among refugees in Germany

Abstract

We analyze possible links between both trust and trustworthiness among Syrian refugees in Germany in relation to two different forms of social networking: bonding networks, which include only other Syrians, and bridging networks, which include people from the host country. Our results show that Syrians who engage in bonding networks show higher levels of trust and (un)conditional trustworthiness when interacting with a Syrian compared to a German participant. In turn, for refugees engaged in bridging networks, the positive discrimination refugees display towards their own peers decreases regarding trust and conditional trustworthiness and vanishes regarding unconditional trustworthiness. Newly arrived Syrian refugees tend to engage in bonding networks, whereas the length of stay and having a private home coincide with more bridging networks.