Encouraging interactions between recent migrants and long-term residents in smaller communities

Migration leads to a change in an individual’s social network, and to a certain extent a rupture, creating a need to establish new contacts in the destination community. These connections can provide an important source of logistical, emotional, and material support for migrants looking to settle in. While other newcomers are often an important part of migrants’ social networks, those who have lived in the community for longer (who may or may not have migrated themselves) are an important source of information and advice related to the various aspects of life in the local community, including finding a place to live, learning the language, and landing a job. As highlighted by Whole-COMM research, social networks are crucial for positive integration experiences on the part of recent migrants (meaning those who have arrived since 2014), but building these networks in destination communities can be challenging. Social contact between newcomers and long-term residents, as underscored by social contact theory, moreover, fosters positive intergroup attitudes, helping to reduce stereotypes and prejudices. Thus, increased interactions can support integration and social cohesion in local communities.

Yet across the countries studied by Whole-COMM, there was overall little interaction or social relations between recent migrants and long-term residents. Furthermore, adults found it more difficult to form new connections compared to younger migrants, especially if they did not have children (those who did had opportunities to come into contact with other parents). This policy brief looks at the spaces in which adult migrants and long-term residents did interact in meaningful ways and offers suggestions on how to increase the possibilities for such encounters, with the ultimate aim of improving integration experiences and social cohesion. It highlights research conducted outside of larger destination cities, areas which are increasingly seeing the arrival of migrants but which have received relatively less attention from the policy sphere.