The Economic Integration of Immigrants: Social Networks, Social Capital, and the Impact of Gender

• In Event: 411 - Section on Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 11. Networks and Inequality.

Abstract

Most studies examining how embeddeddness in different network structures link to gender disadvantages in immigrants' mobility in North America are limited to qualitative accounts on specific ethnic groups. Using the nationwide 2008 General Social Survey (GSS) of Canada, the present study examines the relationship between social networks and earnings across gender and nativity status on a random sample of Canadians. The study also considers length of time in Canada to expand the temporal scope. Consistent with the literature, significant foreign/native-born earnings differentials are observed among recent immigrant men and women. This difference is more than twice as large for immigrant women when we control for human capital and socio-demographic characteristics. Moreover, immigrant men report higher earnings from native-born women. Supporting Granovetter’s (1974) claim that bridging ties are important to the economic and occupational mobility of groups occupying low status positions in the social hierarchy, such as women, the study finds a significant positive association between local weak ties and earnings among women, not for men. Future research concerning the declining economic integration of foreign-born women needs to consider inequality in access to beneficial job informants and opportunity to develop bridging capital in host countries.

Author

• Maria M. Majerski, University of Toronto