Understanding the Integration Process Through the Concept of Trust: a Case Study of Latin American Professionals in Québec

Abstract

This paper focuses on social representations held by professional immigrants and on the notion of trust as a key factor in the integration process. Using a sample of 455 online surveys and focus groups with 29 people, this paper examines the role of trust in the socioeconomic integration of Latino professionals belonging to Quebec's Latin American Chamber of Commerce. Placed on a socioeconomic integration continuum, the data demonstrate a variety of processes regarding trust in institutions and networks. Positive and negative feelings of trust have a variable impact on the integration of individuals who self-identify as members of a specific cultural group.

Migration and community in an age of digital connectivity: A survey of media use and integration amongst migrants in Iceland

“…We operationalised integration based on several variables (see Table 3) covering social, economic, and political factors that are commonly used to measure integration. We further included life satisfaction and trust in institutions of the receiving society as subjective measures of integration in the receiving society (Amit, 2009;Arcand et al, 2020).…”

“…While there is no common understanding of integration (Alencar & Deuze, 2017), it is often understood as having a better position on the labour market and being socially and politically involved in the receiving society. More recently, subjective experiences of migrants -such as life satisfaction, the "overall assessment of an individual's quality of life according to his/her personal judgment and criteria" (Amit, 2009: 516), or trust in the receiving society (Arcand et al, 2020) -have been considered as measures of integration.…”