ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author suggests that overriding community concerns often lead nationals within a pan-ethnic group, who otherwise might compete with each other for resources and attention, to multiple collaborative arrangements. The prevailing reality shows that social trust manifests itself in a much more volatile fashion than the literature suggests. While ethnic groups often compete for resources, jobs, status, cultural recognition, and the like, these groups also concurrently cooperate and show extraordinary solidarity when confronted with overriding issues impairing their own social well-being or the welfare of others. The author argues that immigrants learn to trust one another through the socialization they experience during the process of community formation and identity representation. They examine how community formations and identity footprints impact cascading trust. The author also examines the post–Second World War migrant experience in Washington, DC, a community where they conducted extensive fieldwork and archival research.
