Social Capital as Protection Against the Mental Health Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The corona pandemic has a huge impact on the mental wellbeing of the Dutch population. Based on a large-scale panel survey (N = 22,696) on the social impact of COVID-19, this article firstly examines which social groups are most susceptible to the mental health consequences of the pandemic. Secondly, we examine whether social capital provides protection against this impact. We find that the mental health impact of COVID-19 is considerable and that it increased over the course of 2020. Women, young people, respondents with low incomes and/or poor self-perceived health, experience relatively more fear and stress due to the pandemic. We do not find a difference between respondents with or without a migration background. Social capital (received support, trust in people and in institutions) has the expected effect: the more support and trust, the less fear and stress. There is a mediation effect. Older people, respondents with high incomes and/or good health experience less fear and stress, partly because they have more social capital. This is different for females. They would experience even more fear and stress, compared to men, were it not for the fact that they have more social capital. Hence we conclude that social capital indeed provides some protection against the negative mental health consequences of COVID-19.

The economic recession and civic participation: the curious case of Rotterdam's civil society, 2008-2013.

This paper investigates how the 2008-9 recession affected civic participation in disadvantaged and affluent neighbourhoods in the city of Rotterdam. We hypothesize that levels of civic participation may either diverge or converge across neighbourhoods with a different socioeconomic status. We build upon a recent wave of studies examining how civil society has been affected by the 2008-9 recession. Using five waves from the Rotterdam Neighbourhood Profile survey (N = 63,134; 71 neighbourhoods), we find converging trends in civic participation. Between 2008 and 2013, civic participation declined in affluent neighbourhoods but increased slightly in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. This convergence is partly due to the level of perceived problems in the neighbourhood and differences in the types of volunteering found in disadvantaged and affluent neighbourhoods. In addition, we argue that these converging trends can be better understood by considering the neighbourhood organizational infrastructure and local policy configurations. Next to examining the impact of the 2008-9 recession on civic participation, we contribute to research on civil society by comparing the UK and Dutch context.

Migration aspirations and migration cultures: A case study of Ukrainian migration towards the European Union.

An abundant body of research focused on macrolevel, mesolevel, and microlevel factors explaining why individuals move across international borders. In this paper, we aim to complement the existing literature by exploring how, within a single country, mesolevel factors differently impact migration aspirations, focusing on a case study of Ukraine. We particularly focus on how migration aspirations of individuals in two different regions can be explained by their international social networks with family members, on the one hand, and with friends, on the other. Furthermore, we explore whether regional migration characteristics play a role, as well as the interaction of such characteristics with individuals' frequency of contact with transnational networks. Our analyses are based on the EUMAGINE project and suggest that the interplay between regional migration characteristics and transnational social contact are key for explaining the decline of migration systems over time.