Short and Long-term Integration: Assessing the Impact of Immigrant Social Networks

• In Event: 2384 - Section on International Migration Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 02. Comparative Immigrant Integration

Abstract

Previous studies come to contradictory conclusions regarding the relationship between immigrants’ social network and their labour market integration. While some empirical papers show that immigrant networks facilitate labour market integration, others find that ethnic ties lead to lower-paying jobs. This paper tackles this impasse by exploring the effect of immigrant social connections on short and long-term labour market outcomes using data collected in the Swedish Level-of-Living survey in 2010. It could be that the effect of immigrants’ social networks on economic outcomes changes over time in the host country. Results from Cox regressions show that family and labour migrants without connections have a somewhat longer time to their first job than migrants who have contacts in the host country at arrival. By contrast, political migrants without connections enter the labour market at a similar rate as those with social connections, even outperforming migrants with family contacts. Regarding long-term labour market integration, OLS estimates reveal that the relationship between immigrants’ social connections and their economic outcomes changes over time in the host country. In particular, contacts that promoted a smooth entry into the labour market are associated with lower income at the interview. These findings suggest that the jobs immigrants find with the help of their social contacts after immigrations tend to have little career prospects, leading to lower income in the longer run.

Author

• Rosa Weber