Maritsa V. Poros

The role of migrant networks in linking local labour markets: the case of Asian Indian migration to New York and London

Social networks have long been identified as crucial to migration flows and the economic behaviour of immigrants. Much of the literature on international migration and economic sociology specifically focuses on the role of interpersonal ties in influencing migration and economic action, such as finding employment. Using the case of Gujarati Indian migration to New York and London, the life histories of these immigrants illustrate that specific configurations of network ties result in different migration flows and occupational outcomes. These configurations include organizational, composite, and interpersonal ties that link local labour markets transnationally and channel immigrants to particular destinations and into particular occupations. The findings clarify the role and meaning of networks as they affect different types of migration and the occupational outcomes of migrants. The prominence of these network mechanisms also challenges the role of human capital in producing distinct outcomes for immigrants.

Modern migrations : Gujarati Indian networks in New York and London

Although globalization seems like a recent phenomenon linked to migration, some groups have used social networks to migrate great distances for centuries. To gain new insights into migration today, Modern Migrations takes a closer look at the historical presence of globalization and how it has organized migration and social networks. With a focus on the lives of Gujarati Indians in New York and London, this book explains migration patterns through different kinds of social networks and relations. Gujarati migration flows span four continents, across several centuries. Maritsa Poros reveals the inner workings of their social networks and how these networks relate to migration flows. Championing a relational view, she examines which kinds of ties result in dead-end jobs, and which, conversely, lead to economic mobility. In the process, she speaks to central debates in the field about the economic and cultural roots of migrations causes and its surprising consequences.

Key concepts in migration

Introduction Migration Acculturation Alien/Foreigner Assimilation Borders Brain Drain/Gain/Circulation Chain Migration Circular Migration Citizenship Cumulative Causation Denizens Deportation Diaspora Displacement and Internally Displaced Persons Ethnic Enclaves and Ethnic Economies Ethnicity and Ethnic Minorities Family Migration and Reunification Forced Migration Gendered Migration Guestworkers Human Trafficking and Smuggling Integration Internal/Domestic Migration Labour Migration Migrant Networks Migration Stocks and Flows Multiculturalism Refugees and Asylum Seekers Regional Integration and Migration Remittances Restrictionism vs. Open Borders Return Migration Second Generation Selectivity Social Capital Social Cohesion Transnationalism Undocumented (Illegal) Migration

A Social Networks Approach to Migrant Mobilization in Southern Europe

Migration is challenging the meaning of residency and citizenship in Southern Europe today. Migrants are contesting the ethnic model of citizenship in Spain, Italy, and Greece by becoming increasingly engaged in social movements to make existence and program claims on the state for residency and citizenship rights. As such, migration processes interfere with the way that migrant social movements can be enacted and sustained and with the potential for successful claim making. The selectivity of migration flows, the migrant networks at origin and destination countries, and the patterns of flows between the home and host countries can affect the stability and continuity of sustained networks of actors involved in social movements and in claim making on the state. This article focuses on the theoretical issues involved in migration flows, network change, and state responses to claim making to explore the potential for sustained changes in the meaning of citizenship in southern Europe.

NETWORKS OF INCLUSION AND EXCLUSION IN THE ECONOMIC CONCENTRATIONS OF ASIAN INDIAN IMMIGRANTS IN NEW YORK AND LONDON

The role of social networks is central to the phenomenon of employment and ownership in ethnic businesses, ethnic enclaves, and more generally ethnic economies. Social capital within migrant or co-ethnic social networks is generally viewed as an aid to niche employment, in other words as processes of network inclusion. This article examines both processes of inclusion and exclusion in the social networks of Asian Indian migrants in and outside of ethnic economies. Evidence from the life histories of these migrants in New York and London allows us to see the role of social networks in producing cooperation and conflict within modes of economic inclusion and exclusion.