Social Integration

For social integration, our measure captures social ties and interactions with natives in the host country, as well as bridging social capital as evidenced by participation in organizations with fellow citizens.

In the short form IPL-12 we ask respondents about the number of host country nationals they had a phone, text, or messenger conversation with over the last four weeks. The second question asks about the frequency of having dinner with host country nationals. This question is based on Max Weber’s concept of commensality.

The long form IPL-24 includes a more extensive measure of social participation. Here we first ask respondents about their involvement with five different types of social organizations. Inspired by Robert Putnam's concepts of bridging and bonding social capital, we then ask respondents to estimate the share of host country nationals among the group members of each organization. We also ask how often a respondent provides everyday favors to host country nationals.