An Intersectional Analysis of Migrant Networks: The Discouraged Networker Phenomenon

• In Event: 469 - Section on International Migration Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 09. Migrant Social Capital

Abstract

This study provides an intersectional analysis of migrant networks by analyzing by exploring the networking behavior of Central and Eastern European young transmigrant women in the Unites States. The major research question is twofold: 1) What type of social networks do transmigrant women participate in, in their daily lives? 2) Why do they build certain types of networks and not others? Study participants’ networking patterns in the host country showed that they were more likely to build strong ties with their female co-nationals, who were former au pairs and thus shared similar material conditions, everyday struggles and lifestyles with them. They avoided forming or were solely forming weak ties with Americans because the study participants were perceived as class inferiors, and experienced discriminatory and exploitative practices in American host parents, employers, or the institutions that created negative perceptions about Americans. They were also discouraged to form strong ties with their non-au pair co-nationals from different genders, immigration, occupational and class backgrounds because their co-nationals perceived them as ethnic inferiors mainly due to their mode of entrance –au pair employment-and immigrant statuses in the United States. The findings of this research draw on a three-year-long feminist ethnographic study of thirty women who originated from Eastern and Central European post-communist countries, entered the United States through au pair programs and were residing in the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Area.

Author

• Nihal Celik, Saint Anselm College