Social Construction of Community and Immigration Networks in Rural Areas: Towards a Dynamic View of Their Importance to Balkan Immigrants

Abstract

AbstractIn this study we firstly introduce a source of social capital formation that has not yet been pointed out by the theory of social capital. We do this by historically assessing the social structures in South European rural areas, with a particular focus on the ones prevailing in the Greek countryside. This is the historically embedded sense of community for people living in agricultural communities. Secondly, we introduce immigrants' social networks into the countryside's particular social environment in order to juxtapose their importance for the immigrants' integration. Our conclusion, articulated in four prepositions, is that, the interaction of immigrants with the communal structures and with the characteristics of the social capital, which is based on the sense of community, creates under appropriate conditions a favourable environment for the immigrants' socioeconomic integration.