Harvard’s Robert Putnam Spotlights How Current Immigration Discussion Ignores Crucial Need for Social Integration

Study Urges Renewal of US Tradition as Successful Immigrant Nation

At a time when the U.S. public and leaders are wrestling with the right approach to immigration policy, a five-year study by Professor Robert D. Putnam shows that effective immigration policy must be about more than numbers and borders. The study describes the threat to social cohesion posed by diversity and highlights promising approaches for addressing that problem. “Limiting ‘immigration policy’ to what happens at the border,” Putnam argues, “is like trade policy without trade adjustment policy.” Immigration challenges community cohesion, and in the face of that challenge, public policy needs to reinforce community integration and create a sense of shared citizenship.

Robert D. Putnam, the Peter & Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and visiting professor at University of Manchester in the U.K., published these findings in “E Pluribus Unum: Diversity and Community in the Twenty-first Century,” [http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9477.2007.00176.x] (Scandinavian Political Studies June, 2007). E Pluribus Unum provides a rigorous new analysis of the challenges posed by immigration and diversity, looking at social ties and trust both within and between ethnic groups.

In a rapidly diversifying country, Putnam notes, native-born citizens are unnerved by what they perceive as new and “different.” Putnam’s study traces how those reactions are unfolding in America today, as many Americans “hunker down” in the face of increasing ethnic diversity. But Putnam adds that America’s history proves that we can become comfortable with what was once unfamiliar and expand our sense of who “we” are, overcoming the challenges, and reaping the benefits, of immigration and diversity.

Putnam’s study underscores three crucial points:

1. Ethnic diversity is increasing and inevitable and in the long-run is a valuable asset for advanced countries. The study highlights the economic, cultural, and developmental benefits from immigration and diversity for both sending and receiving countries. Immigrants comprise a disproportionate share of America’s Nobel Laureates and distinguished scholars and artists. Economic productivity is often higher (and crime rates often lower) in places with greater numbers of immigrants.

2. Putnam’s research indicates that at least initially our fear of what is new and different means that increased immigration and diversity reduce trust, social solidarity, and social capital. (Previous research suggests that where levels of social capital are higher, children grow up healthier, safer and better educated; people live longer, happier lives; and democracy and the economy work better.) Extensive analysis of a large national sample of Americans finds that controlling for many other factors at the individual and community level, people of all ethnic backgrounds tend to “hunker down” in more diverse neighborhoods. Trust (even of one’s own race) is lower, friends fewer, altruism and community cooperation rarer, confidence in local institutions weaker, and TV-watching more frequent.

3. In the long run, successful immigrant societies like the U.S. overcome such fragmentation by creating new, cross-cutting forms of social solidarity, and more encompassing identities. The study notes that the U.S. has done this through popular culture, education, national symbols, and common experiences. In addition to the successful history of American immigrant assimilation a century ago, Putnam lauds the US Army, many evangelical megachurches, and (as with European immigrants a century ago) the Catholic Church, as contemporary success stories for encouraging shared identities and inter-ethnic ties.

Putnam advocates policies explicitly designed to foster a shared sense of citizenship and mutual obligation to speed this assimilation, a process that otherwise can take decades.

• Decrease linguistic isolation by expanding public support for English-language training, and prioritizing programs that encourage personal ties among immigrants, as well as between immigrants and natives.
• Promote opportunities for meaningful cross-ethnic interaction where Americans (new and old) work, learn, recreate, and live. “Community centers, athletic fields, playgrounds and schools helped incorporate new immigrants a century ago, and we need to reinvest in such places and activities again,” Putnam states.
• Offset the mismatch between diversity’s national benefits and localized costs. The benefits of immigration and diversity (for example, scientific creativity, fiscal dividends) are often felt nationally, while the short-run costs (for example, fragile communities, educational and health costs) are often concentrated locally. Putnam thus advocates that the federal government aid affected localities to alleviate this mismatch.
• Foster intra-ethnic ties as a step toward broader societal bridging. Ethnic associations (such the Sons of Norway or the Knights of Columbus or Jewish immigrant aid societies) were important steps toward immigrant civic engagement a century ago. Intra-ethnic ties can thus be a prelude to broader social integration, rather than precluding it.

“Becoming comfortable with diversity is not easy or quick,” asserts Putnam, “but it will be speeded by our collective efforts and in the end well worth the effort. One great achievement of human civilization is our ability to redraw more inclusive lines of social identity. Our national motto – e pluribus unum – reflects precisely that objective – namely to create union out of diversity. Our current immigration debate needs to focus more on that task.”

Full text of the article is available at Scandinavian Political Studies website, and will available free of charge until August 31st, 2007:
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9477.2007.00176.x 

Professor Putnam will provide a media availability on June 19, 2007 at 1 PM (EDT) to comment on his findings and answer questions from journalists regarding his work. Participants will need to dial in 866.890.3820 and will need to contact the Kennedy School press office at 617 495-1115 for a passcode.

The research has been generously funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Rockefeller Foundation.

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The article in Scandinavian Political Studies (E Pluribus Unum) expands upon Putnam’s acceptance speech for the 2006 Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science, the world’s highest accolade for a political scientist. 

Putnam, the former dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, author of the best-selling Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, has popularized the notion of “social capital” (that social and civic connections make individuals and communities stronger in tangible ways like better government, lower crime, improved educational attainment, and happier and healthier citizens).

For more information, please visit the website of the Saguaro Seminar at www.ksg.harvard.edu/saguaro

Scandinavian Political Studies, published quarterly by Blackwell Publishing, is the only English language political science journal from Scandinavia. It is an indispensable source for all those researching and teaching in Scandinavian political science, public policy and electoral analysis. For further information please visit www.blackwellpublishing.com/scps.

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