When people uproot themselves, all people - immigrant and US-born - yearn to maintain security, stability, and dignity in their new communities, especially if the environment is unfamiliar and hostile. This endeavor is as old as human history. In a recent study that has received significant media attention, Robert Putnam, author of “Bowling Alone,” found that social capital in the form of neighborhood friendships and political involvement has been diminished by racial/ethnic diversity in communities.

Social capital represents one of the most powerful and popular metaphors used to describe personal interactions within a community. It is broadly understood as community relations that affect personal interactions, social capital has been used to explain voting patterns to health issues to the economic success of countries. I have heard of Putman before he became well know after his book Bowling Alone. My first job after I graduated grad school, Putnam had already made a name for himself among community planners. My first task was to familiarize myself with his 1995 article “Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital,” which at that time he defined social capital as:

features of social organization such as networks, norms, and social trust that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit.

In Bowling Alone, Putnam used the example of bowling as an activity which used to be highly associational, representing not only recreational channels but also a source of social interaction, a component of social capital. Now, social capital refers to “social networks and the associated norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness.” In other words, social capital refers to the collective value of the people we know and the inclinations that arise from these networks to do things for each other - “norms of reciprocity.”

If what Putnam found in his study is true - people living in highly diverse communities seem to distrust both their in-group and out-group more than people living in low diversity communities do - then this is very disturbing. This lack of trust correlates to less civic and political involvement - less confidence in local government, less confidence in a personal ability to affect the political process, less registering to vote, less charity and volunteering. Putnam’s paper is seen as a win among the anti-immigration activists, which is giving Bill O’Reilly additional evidence that not only will immigrants are the cause for unemployment, but they can be blamed for causing people to hunker down and becoming less engaged in civic participation - meaning fewer people are voting, volunteering, giving less to charity, and working together less on community projects.

More concerning is the editorial piece, “The Death of Diversity,” by Daniel Henninger, of the Wall Street Journal. Henninger jumped on Putnam’s research to push forward the message that diversity is dead. Henninger summarizes Putnam’s findings by stating that “diversity as an ideology may be dead, or not worth saving.” Leaving aside his alarmist “diversity is dead” analysis, Henninger missing the point of Putnam’s entire article. Many would agree being more than a little disingenuous, in order to validate conservative naysayers and their push for anti-immigration policies and to justify a push for self-imposed racial segregation in neighborhoods. Putnam foresaw – and rightly so – that his results of this study would be manipulated, so he decided to provide personal insights, historical citations and some survey data that suggests there’s hope down the road based. Putnam wrote:

Increased immigration and diversity are not only inevitable, but over the long run they are also desirable. Ethnic diversity is, on balance, an important social asset, as the history of my own country demonstrates.

In the medium to long run, on the other hand, successful immigrant societies create new forms of social solidarity and dampen the negative effects of diversity by constructing new, more encompassing identities. Thus, the central challenge for modern, diversifying societies is to create a new, broader sense of ‘we’.

Putnam is correct in believing that his study will be easily manipulated by the Republican Party and the nativists. Jenifer Fernandez Ancona,on Open Left, points out the nativists are using this to their advantage to push their anti-immigrant agenda by highlighting the harm the study suggests will come from large-scale immigration, and that they are unlikely to stop. Therefore, it is not a surprising current political and social climate is demonizing asylum seekers, immigrants and refugees as undesirable, undeserving, and overwhelming.

Does diversity really damage a sense of community? Does that mean people are better off living with “their own kind”? These are very important questions to answer because recent public opinion is stressing that diversity can only be achieved through promoting shared values through “assimilation.”

The idea that it is diversity that drives social capital down does have its critics. Among them is Alejandro Portes who argues that one Putnam’s flaws in his theory, is that Putnam asserts that civic virtue is the key factor differentiating well-governed communities from poorly governed ones. Portes also notes that other critics have noted that Putnam takes an elitist stance that the responsibility for the decline of social capital is based on the behavior of the masses, rather than on the economic and political changes brought on by the corporate and governmental establishment. One of Portes’ criticism about Putnam is that he focused on the positive, beneficial effects of social interaction without taking into account the less attractive features.

Through ethnic resilience, perseverance, and community solidarity, immigrants have struggled and fought to survive and thrive in American society. However, the outcomes have not been as successful and extravagant as initially perceived. Over many generations in America, Latin@ and Asian experiences reveal, an alternative immigration history of voices silenced lost hopes, and unfulfilled dreams. Victimization, discrimination, and exclusion have been at the heart of this neglected history of Asian and Latin@ communities in America. The explanation behind this relationship refers to the perceptions of power threat: dominant group is hostile towards minority groups over the economic and social privileges they fear to lose.

History has shown that dominant social groups often exploit and discriminate against new migrants instead of allowing them to fully integrate into society. The formation of cultural communities among migrants who share common ethnic identities and experiences serves as support systems for newcomers going through processes of resettlement, cultural adjustment, and social development. Alejandro Portes argues that while poorly educated migrants who come to fill the jobs that natives won’t do and lack legal status have greater difficulty supporting their youths. Therefore, it is possible their children will undergo a process of “downward assimilation,” - high school drop-out rates, male rates of incarceration, and female rates of adolescent and early youth childbearing - which ultimately leaves them with limited opportunities and considerable inequality.

Xavier de Souza Briggs warns that the impact of social capital can be favorable for one group while undesirable to another group, especially if racial attitudes and racial prejudice is involved. de Souza Briggs also argues that social capital building within the “fault lines” of race/ethnicity, social class, gender, and other cleavages will not always produce desirable outcomes for the weaker community. In most cities, degrees and types of participation in any civic process, and lines of personal and organizational affiliation, tend to be segregated like in larger society. In fact, it would be foolish to think we can “sweep race, class, sexual preference, and other social borders under the carpet” because of the powerful belief that social capital will solve everything the minute it is put into practice.

In recent years, immigration and racial diversity has been viewed as a key factor undermining social cohesion and social solidarity. Now that Putnam’s article found that people living in racially diverse neighborhoods do not interact less with their neighbors, it is easy to assume that people do not feel safe in their own neighborhoods, but the impact of race on American life is wide and deep. To understand perceptions of racism, one must certainly consider how race is perceived. People of Color and Whites differ greatly in their beliefs about the prevalence of racism in general, and how racism shapes events. The “engineers of consent” are not party or interest group leaders, but the legion of pundits and spokespersons who make their daily rounds on television news programs and the editorial pages of our newspapers.

Media attention to particular aspects of inequality is shaped in part by the presence or absence of major news events, published reports, court decisions, or legislative debates. It has been found when the media over-represents in its news stories the number of minorities receiving welfare benefits it is likely to result in public misperceptions that reinforce existing biases and stereotypes. This has a tendency to blame the victim, when the victim is positioned, as “one of them” rather than “one of us” tends to result in a minimization of the importance of any disparity to members of the privileged group. To be clear, this is not to say that the news media is creating an individuals’ viewpoints, but rather that the media are particularly successful at both activating certain ideas and inspiring individuals to adopt and apply those ideas in political perspective and to exhibit linkages between race-related values, political perceptions, and policy evaluations about race. Therefore, it is not surprising that people have a lack of trust with their neighbors in racially diverse neighborhoods, even within racially segregated neighborhoods.

Whether or not one feels media plays a central role in setting policy agendas by highlighting the negative associations of racial diversity, it is important that this issue not be disregarded. The fact is, the framing of inequality takes different forms as a function of the spheres in which the inequality is observed. Inequalities in the quality of life that people enjoy are often framed in the context of differential access to goods and services, and in terms of observable status obtained. Inequality is also discussed in terms of the institutional processes that limit, or reinforce disparity.

Americans tend to tolerate substantial inequality if they assume that opportunity is available to those who are willing to work hard. This view reinforces the belief that the American Dream being possible for anyone willing to devote the time and energy that the generation of wealth requires. The ways in which the media frame disparity shapes both our estimate of the magnitude of the gap, as well as our sense of who bears the burden for its existence.

Diversity may well have a negative effect on individuals’ choice to interact with fellow neighbors, however, an ethnic community does provide immigrants with a sense of familiarity and protects them from discrimination; and secondly, it provides the second generation with alternative economic and social resources. Thus resources within an ethnic community are beneficial in protecting immigrants against discrimination; they also provide the second generation with the appropriate economic and moral support necessary for social mobility. As Portes asserts, community formation is, therefore, a rational strategy, not an indicator of escapism and failure.

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Tags: American Dream, Diversity, Immigration, news media, Racism, Robert Putnam, social capital |  Print This Post |
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