Do people stay ‘hunkered down’ in diverse spaces? A longitudinal analysis of positive and negative social contact and the development of trust in linguistically diverse areas

The constrict thesis hypothesises that people ‘hunker down’ or withdraw from social and civic life in the face of migrant and ethnic diversity, degrading the collective social capital and cohesion of diverse communities. The large body of research since has focused on the second part of this thesis: the relationship between diversity and social capital and cohesion and the moderating role of the wider urban ecology, neglecting the first part: whether people are engaged and socially connected within diverse spaces or whether they withdraw and hunker down. In this study, we draw on longitudinal survey data from Australia to quantitatively examine both aspects, analysing and projecting trajectories of pro- and anti-social behaviours and trust in linguistically diverse areas. The results suggest that pro-social behaviours become more common the longer people have lived in diverse areas, while hostility between neighbours declines. This finding is argued to be important for understanding processes of intergroup contact and the development of intercultural harmony. Indeed, the results suggest that while an element of hunkering down in diverse spaces appears at play, this can with time and enabling conditions give way to greater sociability and cohesion in diverse spaces.