Trust, immigration, and Rorty

This paper argues that successful integration is not just a matter of immigrants’ cultural integration but also depends on the surrounding conditions such as economic equality and the dominant narratives about the countries of origin of immigrants in the receiving country. Rorty stated that security and empathy (induced through stories) are needed if humans are to see their similarities and if we want to prevent dehumanization and its associated wrongs. This paper takes these ideas as their starting point and applies them to the case of immigrant integration in Western societies. It posits trust as a proxy for integration. If we trust people, we see them in relevant ways as similar to us so that we are open to collaborating with them in various ways – as neighbours, co-workers, friends… Empirically, trust depends on a variety of factors. Two prominent ones are the perceived risk of trusting someone and shared values. The paper will ask what this means for building trust, and empathy, between immigrants and native populations and how it connects to Rorty’s thoughts about moral progress. The paper argues for two things. First, categorizing certain groups as non-Western is born out stories that emphasize difference instead of similarity. They thus prevent us from perceiving members of these groups as sharing values with us and create mistrust. Second, conditions of inequality and economic deprivation make it more risky to trust ‘others’ and more important to identify ingroup members who are supposedly willing to help each other. Taken together, these two points underline Rorty’s statement that we need both security and the right kind of stories to be able to see each other as trustworthy, and thus as deserving members of a group and partners for cooperation. These facts must be taken into consideration when discussing how integration policies should be designed and which factors determine their success.