Applied Micro Seminar - Carlos Vargas-Silva "Trust Beyond Borders: The Role of Non-State Actors in Shaping Immigration Prefences"

Evidence for high-income countries suggests that greater political trust, defined as confidence in state actors, relates to more openness towards immigration. We argue that in contexts of weak state governance, trust in non-state actors, such as the church or international organizations, could also be relevant. To explore this, we conduct face-to-face surveys, each including a conjoint experiment, in three border locations experiencing large inflows of Venezuelans: Boa Vista (Brazil), Cúcuta (Colombia), and San Fernando (Trinidad and Tobago). Results indicate that individuals with higher levels of trust in international organizations have lower preference for communities with a closed door to immigration. The findings suggest that a nuanced conceptualization of trust that accounts for non-state actors helps explain how public attitudes toward immigration are shaped in settings of weak state governance. This implies that national-level or state-centric analyses are insufficient, and that analyses must be tailored to local governance settings to capture the role of non-state actors. Finally, the results show that in regions with weak state governance, international  organizations may act as trusted intermediaries to enhance openness to immigration.