Rethinking Mistrust
Elements Toward a Situated Theory on Immigrant Workers
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 24217418 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Maude Arsenault (0000-0002-6766-5790, Université de Montréal Montreal Quebec Canada), Daniel Côté (0000-0003-3000-5622, IRSST Montréal Québec Canada) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 63 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | e70054-e70054 |
| Publication date | 2026-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue canadienne de sociologie (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1755-6171 • E-ISSN: 1755-618X |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/cars.70054 |
| PMID | 42778988 |
| OpenAlex | W7214179993 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 41 |
This article explores mistrust as a socially situated phenomenon by using the care trajectories of injured immigrant workers in Québec as a conceptual entry point. Rather than focusing on the individual characteristics of trusters, it examines how mistrust emerges from a subjective evaluation of environments perceived as threatening. Drawing on a body of work on mistrust and trust, the article proposes a two‐tiered model distinguishing between underlying mistrust, rooted in generalized social vulnerability, and directed distrust, focused on specific actors. The study identifies four key factors shaping perceptions of environmental threat: precariousness, lack of support, diminished recognition, and limited agency. Ethnographic cases highlight how these factors interact to produce mistrust, and how their presence or absence modulates its expression. The article also incorporates a distinction between mistrust and distrust to refine conceptual clarity. Though grounded in a specific empirical context—immigrant workers navigating Quebec's work injury rehabilitation system—the model is offered as a more generalizable analytical tool. By treating mistrust not as a deficit or pathology but as a rational, context‐responsive orientation, this article contributes to the development of a situated theory of mistrust applicable across diverse social fields.
agency · care pathways · Distrust · immigrant workers · Precarity · Quebec · Social recognition · Social vulnerability · Migration, Identity, and Health · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Social Capital and Networks
Trust in health care
Institutional betrayal.
Grounded Theory
Trust and Distrust Definitions
When Institutions Harm Those Who Depend on Them
The Craft of Sociology
Discrimination, Exclusion and Immigrants' Confidence in Public Institutions in Europe
Demographic and socio-cultural correlates of medical mistrust in two Australian States
Staggered Inclusion
The precariat
The Causes of Mistrust amongst Asylum Seekers and Refugees
Networks, Norms, and Trust
Whose Responsibility Is It to Dismantle Medical Mistrust? Future Directions for Researchers and Health Care Providers
The impact of discrimination and support on immigrant trust and belonging
Segregation, mistrust and minorities
L'analyse par théorisation ancrée
La production de la théorie à partir des données
Low Expectations or Different Evaluations
Trust among recent immigrants in Canada
Social Capital and Social Trust in Britain
Economic conditions and native-immigrant asymmetries in generalized social trust
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |