Co-ethnic Networks Research Articles

When homeland remains a distant dream: language attitudes and heritage language maintenance among Rohingya refugees in Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT This study investigates the sociolinguistic situation of Myanmarese (Burmese), Rohingya-speaking refugees in Saudi Arabia, specifically on the participants’ attitudes regarding their mother tongue and the country’s official language, Arabic. The paper draws on data from a questionnaire and focus group discussions with 65 Saudi-born Rohingya refugees. The respondents generally held positive attitudes toward both Rohingya and Arabic. Positive opinions of Arabic seem to fulfill a variety of social and religious needs, including integrating into Saudi society, where Arabic opens the door to educational and economic success; and gaining access to the Qur’an and to the teachings of Islam, since they are co-religionists with the members of their host society. On the other hand, positive views of Rohingya both shape and are shaped by a number of social factors, including its use in the home and ethnic community domains, as well as its relatedness to identity. The Rohingyas have successfully created their own co-ethnic and co-linguistic networks, daily activities, and patterns of living in the low-income neighborhoods where they reside. The elements that appear to operate in favor of Rohingya and its maintenance are demography, ethnic community connectedness, and shared understanding in terms of origin, native language, history, statelessness, and destiny.

The trade facilitation impact of the Chinese diaspora

AbstractUsing an enhanced data set on the population share of overseas Chinese in 1970 and 1990, this paper analyses the impact of the Chinese diaspora on facilitating China's bilateral trade during the period 1973–2013. Our findings suggest substantial trade creation effects resulting from the presence of ethnic Chinese in the trade partner population. Diaspora impacts on Chinese bilateral imports are in general higher than those found for exports. Coethnic networks play a larger role as long as the partner country does not have an RTA with China in place. Among export sectors, effects found were strongest for food, as well as for machinery and transport equipment. In regard to imports, coethnic networks matter mostly for raw materials, machinery and transport equipment, and chemicals.

Immigrant Inventors and Diversity in the Age of Mass Migration

A possible unintended but damaging consequence of anti-immigrant rhetoric, and the policies it inspires, is that they may put high-skilled immigrants off more than low-skilled ones at times when countries and businesses intensify their competition for global talent. We investigate this argument following the location choices of thousands of immigrant inventors across US counties during the Age of Mass Migration. To do so we combine a unique USPTO historical patent dataset with Census data and exploit exogenous variation in both immigration flows and diversity induced by former settlements, WWI and the 1920s Immigration Acts. We find that co-ethnic networks play an important role in attracting immigrant inventors. However, we also find that immigrant diversity acts as an additional significant pull factor. This is mainly due to externalities that foster immigrant inventors' innovativeness. These findings are relevant for today's advanced economies that have become major receivers of migrant flows and, in a long-term perspective, have started thinking about immigration in terms of not only level but also composition.

Immigrant Inventors and Diversity in the Age of Mass Migration

A possible unintended but damaging consequence of anti-immigrant rhetoric, and the policies it inspires, is that they may put high-skilled immigrants off more than low-skilled ones at times when countries and businesses intensify their competition for global talent. We investigate this argument following the location choices of thousands of immigrant inventors across US counties during the Age of Mass Migration. To do so we combine a unique USPTO historical patent dataset with Census data and exploit exogenous variation in both immigration flows and diversity induced by former settlements, WWI and the 1920s Immigration Acts. We find that co-ethnic networks play an important role in attracting immigrant inventors. However, we also find that immigrant diversity acts as an additional significant pull factor. This is mainly due to externalities that foster immigrant inventors’ innovativeness. These findings are relevant for todays advanced economies that have become major receivers of migrant flows and, in a long-term perspective, have started thinking about immigration in terms of not only level but also composition.

The dual contingencies of ethnoraciality: Status-context disparities in health information sources among sexual minorities

Researchers often explore health (care) beliefs as a function of individual characteristics; yet, few consider the role of context in shaping both beliefs and the behaviors that are informed by them. As a sociopolitical construct, ethnoraciality provides a concerning source of bias in studies of health (care) beliefs because it inhabits both individual and contextual forms. This study examines whether the ethnoracial context of the residential area where sexual minorities live is associated with a particular health (care) belief – sources of trustworthy health information – and considers how ethnoracial group membership status differentiates these ecological associations drawing on mediation and moderation models. Using data from the 2010 Social Justice Sexuality Project, our analysis shows that sexual minorities who live with high concentrations of Latinos and Whites are less likely to rely exclusively on medical professionals for trustworthy health information than those who live with high concentrations of Blacks. Moreover, exclusive reliance on medical professionals for health information among Black and Latino sexual minorities is stronger in co-ethnic communities (predominately Black and Latino areas, respectively). The analysis also documents status and contextual differentials and status-context contingencies of reliance on the Internet, social networks, and multiple agents (“triangulation”) as sources of health information. Findings suggest that place-based co-ethnic networks may facilitate disease prevention among Black and Latino sexual minorities by improving the quality of their relationships with sick role gatekeepers and breaking down the silos of the medical complex. The study concludes by considering the value of a place-based approach to alleviating health disparities among sexual minorities vis-à-vis the health care system.

The incompatibility of local economic prosperity and migrants\u2019 social integration: evidence from the Netherlands

This paper investigates the effects of the conditions of local labour markets on the social networks of immigrants, with an emphasis on co-ethnic contact and contact with people native to the locality. This study focuses on the case of immigrants in the Netherlands. For this case, I derived and empirically tested a job and residential search model. I found that a high job arrival rate and large wage differences between the ethnic labour market and the host labour market both correlate with immigrants developing stronger co-ethnic networks and weaker native networks as well as with immigrants choosing to live in more ethnically concentrated areas. These findings suggest that local economic prosperity does not necessarily beget social integration: in this case study, immigrants spontaneously assimilated less into the host society during a good economic period.

In Search of Opportunity and Community: The Secondary Migration of Refugees in the United States

Each year the United States resettles thousands of refugees in pre-determined locations across the country. However, refugees are free to relocate upon arrival. Although this secondary migration can fundamentally alter outcomes for both refugees and the communities that host them, policymakers lack systematic data on this phenomenon. Using novel administrative data covering all adult refugees resettled between 2000 and 2014 (N≈447,000), we provide a comprehensive analysis of secondary migration patterns. A high proportion of refugees leave their initial resettlement site and migrate to a different state, although rates vary widely by origin, family ties, and arrival state. Importantly, secondary migration is driven primarily by the presence of co-ethnic networks and labor market considerations. We find no evidence that patterns of secondary migration are driven by state partisanship and the generosity of welfare benefits.

From the Periphery to the Centre: Start-up and Growth Strategies for Minority Diaspora Entrepreneurs

Not all diasporans face the same opportunities and challenges in the entrepreneurial process. Some are forced to the periphery in terms of proximity to essential business resources and networks considered important for overcoming liabilities of foreignness, size and newness. The paper, therefore asks: how do diaspora entrepreneurs from the periphery and non-mainstream markets emerge, survive and grow? The question is addressed through the lens of social network theory and a case study of Golden Krust Caribbean Bakery and Grill (GK), the largest Caribbean eatery in the USA and its CEO and founder the Jamaican-born Lowell Hawthorne. The article underscores the role of family, co-ethnic networks as well as the cultural knowledge and resources from the country of origin in helping entrepreneurs from the periphery to start, grow and mainstream their enterprises.

The role of family social capital in immigrants' entrepreneurial opportunity creation processes

Copyright © 2019 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Not all diasporans face the same opportunities and challenges in the entrepreneurial process. Some are forced to the periphery in terms of proximity to essential business resources and networks considered important for overcoming liabilities of foreignness, size and newness. The paper, therefore asks: how do diaspora entrepreneurs from the periphery and non-mainstream markets emerge, survive and grow? The question is addressed through the lens of social network theory and a case study of Golden Krust Caribbean Bakery and Grill (GK), the largest Caribbean eatery in the USA and its CEO and founder the Jamaican-born Lowell Hawthorne. The article underscores the role of family, co-ethnic networks as well as the cultural knowledge and resources from the country of origin in helping entrepreneurs from the periphery to start, grow and mainstream their enterprises.

From the periphery to the centre: start-up and growth strategies for minority diaspora entrepreneurs

Not all diasporans face the same opportunities and challenges in the entrepreneurial process. Some are forced to the periphery in terms of proximity to essential business resources and networks considered important for overcoming liabilities of foreignness, size and newness. The paper, therefore asks: how do diaspora entrepreneurs from the periphery and non-mainstream markets emerge, survive and grow? The question is addressed through the lens of social network theory and a case study of Golden Krust Caribbean Bakery and Grill (GK), the largest Caribbean eatery in the USA and its CEO and founder the Jamaican-born Lowell Hawthorne. The article underscores the role of family, co-ethnic networks as well as the cultural knowledge and resources from the country of origin in helping entrepreneurs from the periphery to start, grow and mainstream their enterprises.

Realities of the American dream: Vocational experiences and intersecting invisibility of low-income Chinese immigrant laborers

Historically, aspirations for greater economic opportunities have been a core motivation of many immigrants. However, most low-income Chinese immigrant laborers in the U.S. endure harsh working conditions on the margin of the economy and society. The current study explores qualitatively the vocational lives of low-income Chinese immigrant laborers and the implications of their intersecting invisibility. Participants reported immigrating to the U.S. to better their children's lives as opposed to their own vocational or economic opportunities and experiencing similar or more strenuous working conditions in the U.S. than in China. They predominantly relied on co-ethnic networks to secure employment, but only a narrow range of employment options were available to them and many required arduous manual labor and long working hours. Consequently, participants emotionally detached from their work, viewing it solely as means of survival as opposed to a source of fulfillment or upward mobility. Finally, their intersectional invisibility also provided some advantages, such as protection against race-based workplace discrimination.

Occupational diversity and locational dynamics of Chinese owned enterprises in Kolkata

Locational perspective plays an important role in nurturing and shaping ethnic economies. Be it Little Italy, Little Portugal or Chinatown; ethnic economic ventures fabricate the neighbourhood spaces by creating sincere impression on existing urban landscapes. The Chinese enclaves in Kolkata are a unique case to study because of the existence of a pair of Chinese lived spaces in different portions of the city with their distinctive characters. The old Chinese lived space/enclave was established at the heart of the city bearing cosmopolitan notion of shared community domains while the newer one has been constructed at the city’s periphery with restricted, fortified Hakka entrepreneurial activities. The chain of successive migration by Cantonese, Hakka and Hubeinese Chinese helped the community to build a strong co-ethnic network of occupations. Later, the changing socio-economic and political circumstances made these clustered enterprises spread across the city. The present paper deals with aspects of sectoral specialisation and spatial dynamics of ethnic Chinese economic spaces of Kolkata by applying both qualitative and quantitative methods.

Co-ethnic-based resources: An investigation of the role of home country cultural contexts

This research investigates the way ethnic migrant entrepreneurs (EMEs) utilize co-ethnic-based (CEB) resources in their entrepreneurial activities. According to some views, migrants are considered as disadvantaged individuals given their restricted opportunities in the labor market and in the business arena. Thus, migrants turn to other alternatives to obtain resources for their survival in the host country and these resources are often obtained through co-ethnic networks and linkages across borders. Based on Bourdieu’s (1986) Forms of Capital model and employing a qualitative approach, EMEs from three migrant communities in Malaysia (specifically, the Indonesian, Pakistani and Korean communities) were chosen as samples in this study, and their situations compared. This study’s findings indicate a moderating role of home country cultural contexts in influencing the way community resources are utilized in the host country. This study provides a theoretical contribution through further understanding of co-ethnic resources using the Forms of Capital model. A practical implication of this paper lies in the indication of migrants’ usage of alternative routes for resources through co-ethnic networks.

Lancashire's ‘War’ with Australia: Rethinking Anglo-Australian Trade and the Cultural Economy of Empire, 1934–36

ABSTRACTFollowing the recent cultural turn in economic history, this article resurrects a neglected imperial trade war between Lancashire and Australia to explore the nature of the cultural economy of the British Empire in the interwar period. New work has emphasised the importance of Britishness as the basis for co-ethnic networks that helped underwrite imperial expansion through the nineteenth century. However, this welcome new focus on culture’s significance for economics has, curiously, tended to obscure its dynamic interaction with the economy. Economic activity did not simply benefit from culture, as concepts like co-ethnicity suggest, but also helped to produce that culture. As result, the meanings of Britishness mobilised by trade were never stable, even in the heart of empire itself. This article focuses on a boycott of Australian produce started by grocers in Lancashire cotton towns in 1934, in response to new Australian tariffs on imported cotton goods. Tracing the cultural meanings constructed from the very first planting of cotton in Australia, through to the boycott and its aftermath, exemplifies the dynamic and contingent nature of Britishness generated through trade.

‘Ethnic capital’ and ‘flexible citizenship’ in unfavourable legal contexts: stepwise migration of the Korean Chinese within and beyond northeast Asia

ABSTRACTThis article examines how migrants mobilise ethnicity for migration purposes by drawing on the migration trajectories of ethnic Korean migrants from northeast China (Korean Chinese) – through various steppingstone countries, including South Korea – to the U.S. I focus on how regulatory authorities, various intermediaries, and aspiring migrants interact over the valorisation, conversion, and legitimisation of what I call ‘ethnic capital’. Drawing on ethnographic field research in China, South Korea, and the U.S., I show how multiple manifestations of ethnic capital – coethnic networks, Korean proficiency, perceived phenotypical affinities, kinship relations with South Korean citizens, and derivatively, South Korean citizenship/passports (obtained legally or illegally) – facilitate Korean Chinese stepwise migration. I also examine how the differential endowment of migration-facilitating capital (including ethnic capital) produces fine-grained material and symbolic stratification in the sending community and identify the distinctive moral economy that informs Korean Chinese navigation of global mobility regimes. By illuminating the strategies of capital-constrained migrants facing policy contexts markedly different from the much-studied European cases, this article highlights the contested process through which ethnicity is turned into migration-facilitating capital, expands our inquiry on the ‘flexible citizenship’ practices beyond the jet-setting managerial class, and deepens our comparative understanding of ethnic affinity migration and external citizenship.

Globalising Swedish countrysides? A relational approach to rural immigrant restaurateurs with refugee backgrounds

ABSTRACTThe main purpose of the article is to connect rural immigrants’ business ventures and development in Sweden to relational perspectives on their proximate and distant family and co-ethnic networks at structural and individual levels. Accordingly, the authors employ a relational approach and draw on in-depth interviews. In the context of urban–rural relationships’ meanings for the restaurateurs’ business benefits and constraints, they address two questions: (1) What does embeddedness in proximate and distant family and co-ethnic networks mean for the interviewed restaurateurs and for their businesses? and (2) How do previous and anticipated transitions in the restaurateurs’ families influence their business decisions and migration trajectories? The results suggest that the interviewees employed transnational dimensions in their social embeddedness and that they maintained material and emotional relationships with their countries of origin. This relational approach thus contributes to a better understanding of what the studied businesses mean for the entrepreneurs and the selected localities. The restaurateurs contribute to a globalisation of Swedish countrysides, but their socio-economic potential for countering rural depopulation in Sweden is not fully realised. Additionally, the study illuminates how individuals influence, and are influenced by, place-to-place mobilities on a daily basis and during their life course.

Dynamic Effects of Co-Ethnic Networks on Immigrants' Economic Success

This paper investigates how the size of co-ethnic networks at the time of arrival affect the economic success of immigrants in Germany. Applying panel analysis with a large set of fixed effects and controls, we isolate the association between initial network size and long-run immigrant outcomes. We also look at those who were assigned to an initial location independently of their choice allows a causal interpretation of our estimates. We find that immigrants initially located in places with larger co-ethnic networks are more likely to be employed at first, but have a lower probability of investing in human capital.

From Work to Welfare: Institutional Arrangements Shaping Turkish Marriage Migrants’ Gendered Trajectories into a New Society

Using a mixed methods approach, this article examines gendered patterns of employment and of unemployment benefit uptake among Turkish marriage migrants in Denmark. The results show that men use co-ethnic networks to access entry positions. Subsequent eligibility for unemployment benefits enable these men to search for better jobs. Women enter employment more slowly and tell of such entry being related to entering the unemployment insurance system, enabling them to periodically conform to gendered expectations as homemakers. Pakistani marriage migrants display similar patterns, indicating the centrality of this institutional arrangement in low-skilled marriage migrants’ active adaptation to a new society.

In-Group and Out-Group Networks, Informal Social Activities, and Electoral Participation Among Immigrants in South Korea

With increasing global migration, immigrant incorporation and assimilation have become a growing concern. Prior research has mostly focused on economic adaptation of immigrants in North American and European context. This study shifts the focus to political incorporation of foreign-born spouses and other naturalized citizens living in South Korea, a topic that has received very little attention. Its primary goal is to examine the relationship between bridging and bonding social capital, measured in terms of interpersonal networks and informal social activities, and formal political participation, i.e., voting. Data come from the National Survey of Multicultural Families (2012), the largest and most up-to-date government-funded research project on Korea’s burgeoning immigrant population. Using multilevel analysis, this study shows that ties to inter-ethnic contacts (native Koreans) and greater involvement in informal social life are associated with higher odds of voting among immigrants. Greater embeddedness in in-group or co-ethnic networks, on the other hand, is associated with lower odds of voting participation. Moreover, net of individual-level network and background factors, living in a community with a higher level of social activities, is related to greater electoral participation.

Community context matters: Acculturation and underemployment of Russian-speaking refugees

The study investigated underemployment among a sample of Russian-speaking refugee adults in the U.S. resettled in two communities that differ in ethnic density. Community context, acculturation, and their interaction related to underemployment. Descriptively, residents of the dense ethnic community had higher Russian and lower American acculturation, greater social integration into co-ethnic networks, lower perceived support from American friends, were more likely to have fellow Russians help them find a job, and less likely to find the job independently. Predictively, living in the dense community and lower levels of American acculturation positively associated with underemployment, while Russian acculturation was unrelated to underemployment. In addition, significant interactions suggested that American acculturation was beneficial for reducing underemployment in the dispersed community but was associated with increased underemployment in the dense community, while greater Russian acculturation was associated with increased underemployment in the dispersed community only. The present study demonstrated context specificity in the relationship between acculturation and underemployment and reaffirmed the value of an ecological approach to conceptualizing acculturative experiences and their relationships to adaptation outcomes.