Who Are My Friends: Determinants of the Friendship Network of African Immigrants in China

• In Event: 30625 - New Frontiers in International Migration

Abstract

This study investigates the determinants of transnational friendship formation among African immigrants in Guangzhou, China. Departing from individual-level analyses, the research adopts a country-level network approach to examine how bilateral ties, spanning geography, human mobility, culture, history, and economy, shape immigrant social networks. Constructing a directed country-level friendship network from respondents’ nominations of five best friends, the study employs quadratic assignment procedure regression analyses to assess the influence of nine independent networks representing five relational dimensions. Results reveal that geographical contiguity, migration inflows, shared language, and regional trade agreements significantly predict friendship ties, while historical colonial dependency inhibits connections. Heterogeneous analyses highlight gender and religious disparities: male networks prioritize geography and economics, whereas female networks emphasize cultural affinity; Christian immigrants rely on language and history, while Muslim networks emphasize geography. Additionally, friendship strength exhibits a layered structure: core ties driven by cultural factors like language and peripheral ties shaped by migration and economic interdependencies. These findings underscore the interplay of macro-level country characteristics and micro-level identity dynamics in structuring immigrant social integration, offering insights into how transnational contexts foster or constrain cross-national bonds.

Authors

• Jiahao Zhang, University at Albany

• Zai Liang, State University of New York at Albany