Network Integration: Inter- and Co-ethnic Network Features and Sequential Residential Patterns

• In Event: 50605 - Networks, Inequality, and Social Integration

Abstract

Based on the mechanism of homophily of network formation, research has demonstrated the importance of interethnic ties as indicators of ethnic boundary crossing and blurring, and the ambivalent effects of coethnic networks on socioeconomic mobility. However, how both interethnic and coethnic network features are associated with integration based on the spatial mechanism for social networks—especially the spatial-temporal exposure to neighborhood contexts—remains unclear. Using a novel dataset on 1405 Chinese immigrants’ retrospective residential histories that capture sequential neighborhood exposure patterns and detailed network measures in a global immigrant destination in Japan, this study examines how both interethnic and coethnic network features are associated with economic and sociocultural integration in the host society, and how sequential exposures to spatial contexts relate to differences in inter- and coethnic networks. The findings reveal social network differences in size and occupational diversity through the position generator instrument. Results show that socioeconomic mobility is positively associated with both inter- and coethnic network characteristics. Sequential exposure to ethnic and non-ethnic residential contexts is associated with the size and diversity of coethnic and interethnic networks. Notably, immigrants who move from non-ethnic majority contexts to ethnic contexts maintain smaller but highly diverse networks, which provide greater access to resources. These findings highlight how immigrant network characteristics are associated with the mechanisms of homophily, spatial, and, importantly, temporal exposure to social contexts. This paper offers a refined understanding of immigrant network integration as a dynamic process embedded in spatial-temporal contexts.

Author

• Hao Liang, Cornell University