Participating in a diverse world: immigrant political participation within diverse communities

This literature review explores the relationship between neighbourhood diversity and political participation arguing that social capital is well-suited for assessing the political context created by communities. Emphasis is placed on the Canadian context which is characterized by a lack of scholarship. Particularly, this review explores how existing studies can explain the impact of community diversity on political participation and whether immigrants, as a group, are disproportionately affected by such diversity. This review also outlines how social capital might be useful in determining how context, such as, diversity, determines individuals' political behaviours. Generally speaking, this review finds that it is difficult to draw definitive conclusions regarding the effects of diversity on political participation and that there is an overwhelming empirical gap in the literature on immigrant political participation.