As evidence, he cited his ability to predict trust levels in American states based on where their immigrants had come from over the last 150 years. There are, according to the research Bjørnskov used, high levels of trust in those states, such as Minnesota, that received a large number of immigrants from Scandinavia in the mid-nineteenth century (i.e., pre–welfare state), and low levels of trust in those that welcomed, say, Greeks and southern Italians.
