Linguistic Proximity and Immigrants’ Exposure to Host Institutions and Society

Linguistic Proximity and Immigrants’ Exposure to Host Institutions and Society | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Linguistic Proximity and Immigrants’ Exposure to Host Institutions and Society Oğuz Korkut Keles This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9006739/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Immigrants’ exposure to democracy is often measured by years spent under democratic institutions, but meaningful exposure is better captured by behavior at civic interfaces—participation in civic life and interpersonal trust. Using the Integrated Values Surveys (WVS/EVS, 1980–2022), I study whether cultural proximity—proxied by a tree-based measure of native-language relatedness (LPN)—is associated with these behaviors. Across logit and OLS specifications with host-country and survey-year fixed effects, origin-continent fixed effects, and rich controls for demographics, geography, and other pre-determined covariates, higher LPN predicts greater civic participation among first-generation immigrants from the Old World and higher interpersonal trust. In the second-generation— restricting to respondents whose parents share the same origin—parents’ LPN likewise predicts greater civic participation, while the association with interpersonal trust remains positive but is estimated less precisely in the more demanding sensitivity analysis. The civic-participation results are stable across sample restrictions and control sets, whereas the trust results remain positive but are estimated less precisely once potentially endogenous post-migration controls are introduced. Overall, the findings suggest that immigrants do not encounter host-country institutions through residence alone; they encounter them through civic and social interfaces, and inherited cultural proximity helps shape access to those interfaces. Linguistic Proximity Immigrants Civic Participation Interpersonal Trust Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files Regressions.do regressionreadyslim.dta ReadMe.txt Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9006739","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":599382429,"identity":"c709a075-be80-422d-a85f-552da70cbc26","order_by":0,"name":"Oğuz Korkut Keles","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA5klEQVRIie3PPQuCQBjA8UcOdLlwfQ6hvoIhSIHRVwkCp5oCxwiEczFaG/oSLc3CgW7NDW2CU0Pg0tgVOLRcugXdf7gXeH5wB6DT/WAIQF67C5Zc7wD2+/KdzOSU3Iw9ANt0IoS2ISzZll7vAZ5NiKgn/IpgxSdUEYcW3pzOwGexGTpLXiHQPFKSPoZESBK4gvpkycUacOG3I1Nh1/WYC4TBTU0cSd4Pc+XfHeNFkKoJS3MyPITooTB9lp4rNGm4GqkIFpzgLQiGuyQu74/oirYljhcVaWRzyMBsMf5R1hXodDrdH/QEgoo6jLBoVhwAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"Pompeu Fabra Uni","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Oğuz","middleName":"Korkut","lastName":"Keles","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-03-02 07:09:40","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9006739/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9006739/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":105035275,"identity":"2754f4ca-f0db-4c46-9a54-2ed4165cda51","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-03-20 07:25:46","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":326861,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"PoliticalBehaviourLinguisticProximityandImmigrantsExposuretoHostInstitutionsandSociety1.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9006739/v1_covered_43d66db9-f556-4d01-83e2-8859c5eaf2bf.pdf"},{"id":104400503,"identity":"ec290029-a79b-4305-8833-4f60b8d2bcbe","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-03-11 12:10:10","extension":"do","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":24405,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Regressions.do","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9006739/v1/f6321fb1c3ea6fbf958bfac5.do"},{"id":103833347,"identity":"8e13af1c-41d9-489f-8774-c07509cb073e","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-03-03 13:14:04","extension":"dta","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":2038733,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"regressionreadyslim.dta","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9006739/v1/a9b7802cfe7481b5b1fc4e17.dta"},{"id":103833345,"identity":"37d05053-0adc-4ce6-88eb-88338bb11590","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-03-03 13:14:04","extension":"txt","order_by":2,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":139,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"ReadMe.txt","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9006739/v1/28e631203bc56bbe5c246ad9.txt"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"\u003cp\u003eLinguistic Proximity and Immigrants’ Exposure to Host Institutions and Society\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Linguistic Proximity, Immigrants, Civic Participation, Interpersonal Trust","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9006739/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9006739/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"Immigrants’ exposure to democracy is often measured by years spent under democratic institutions, but meaningful exposure is better captured by behavior at civic interfaces—participation in civic life and interpersonal trust. 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