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Romans Eight!'s avatar

I would love to see a chart of some expatriate locations that are welcoming that have high trust.

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Barnard's avatar

By welcoming do you mean they have relatively open immigration policies? They don't exist. The biggest stand alone factor in developing high social trust is strict control over who lives in your community. Scandinavian countries used to have very high social trust this has been severely eroded as they have allowed high levels of immigration and refugee resettlement. Japan has mostly kept high social trust by operating under tight immigration controls. Although there is significant pressure to relax immigration restrictions because of their very low native birthrates. There are certainly other factors as well, but you can't have high social trust without controlling who moves into the community.

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Nathan James's avatar

Right. The other factors are enforcing social norms, particularly ethical treatment of neighbors, but also an agreed upon system of manners. Tight immigration is necessary for two reasons, first, because it's impossible to significantly alter the behavior of a large mass of people, and second, because it takes time to develop a deep sense of being fellow citizens. History matters.

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