The consequences of diversity for social interactions in urban neighbourhoods

The paper presents selected results from a large-scale empirical study in German cities entitled “Diversity and Contact”. In the past few years, the consequences of the increasing migration-related diversity in the cities of Europe and North America have been the subject of controversial debates. While some assume disintegrative effects on social relations others question that or expect that bridging contacts will develop and help counteract negative responses to diversity in the social environment.

A study currently conducted at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Göttingen investigates the relation between contextual diversity and interaction between migrants and non-migrants as well as their impact on selected attitudes. The study uses a longitudinal (three-wave) survey with 2500 participants as well as qualitative methods. The unique stratified random sampling design which selects individuals from 50 neighbourhoods (ca. 7500 inhabitants) located in 16 cities enables us to represent “urban normality” in Germany rather than the exceptional situation of neighbourhoods with very high shares of immigrants.

The paper presents results from the first wave of the survey. It focuses on links between contextual diversity and interactions across group boundaries. The paper will present data on different modes of interaction (from strong ties to everyday casual encounters) and their sites. It will discuss the relevance of neighbourhood for these interactions and correlations with leisure time spent there. Our results show that effects of contextual diversity are weaker than shown for the United States.