9. Does Social Capital Pay Off More Within or Between Ethnic Groups? Analysing Job Searches in Five Toronto Ethnic Groups

Abstract

In a multicultural society such as Canada, it is important to study the extent to which members of immigrant or minority groups perpetuate their disadvantaged status or overcome barriers to having access to unevenly distributed economic opportunities (Porter 1965; Portes and Zhou 1992; Lian and Matthews 1998; Pendakur and Pendakur 1998). This is especially significant in perceiving the long-term consequences of immigration. Job search is one of the strategic sites to explore social processes through which immigrants and minority members attain equality. In job searches, economic inequality along racial/ethnic lines can be produced, reproduced, or overcome using social contacts. This is because particular social contacts within and outside of ethnic communities can expose job seekers to varying structural opportunities. In this chapter, we look at the job search experiences of three generations of five Toronto ethnic groups: English, German, Jewish, Ukrainian, and Italian-Canadian. We address two questions about the social networks of immigrant and minority group members. 1. What factors influenced the use of intra-ethnic and inter-ethnic ties in their job searches? 2. Which ethnic groups attained higher incomes when their members use job contacts within or outside of their own ethnicity? Overall, we show that different types of social contacts exposed minority job-seekers to varying opportunities, and that the existing ethnic stratification in the labor market significantly conditioned the cost and the benefit of the inter-ethnic and intra-ethnic ties. Members of lowstatus ethnic groups tended to achieve higher income when they had ties outside of their own ethnic group. By contrast, members of high-status groups tended to do better when they had ties within their own group. Both gender and generation of immigration played complex roles in the nexus of ethnicity and network heterogeneity. These results suggest that the social processes of job searches both sustained and overcame inequality along racial/ethnic lines through which the often vertical structure of the Canadian mosaic has been sustained and altered.

Alternative Job Search Strategies in Remote Rural and Peri‐urban Labour Markets: The Role of Social Networks

“…Individuals with access to diverse networks are more likely to locate a resource-rich contact person with greater potential to positively impact on job search outcomes. Network diversity and the heterogeneity of contacts is therefore important to job search success and labour market participation, and can be crucial to the integration of potentially excluded groups, such as ethnic minorities (Ooka and Wellman 2005), young people (Holzer 1988) and women returners (Chapple 2002). Furthermore, Levesque and White (2001) have argued that the range and diversity of social network resources available to long-term unemployed people can be the deining factor determining successful transitions to work (with a broad range of weak, but high value, social network resources 'validating' the human capital of job seekers by providing access to references and providing good quality vacancy information).…”

Strong or weak ties? British and Indian expatriate scientists finding jobs in Boston

“…Although there is a fairly extensive literature on how gender, race and class affect individuals obtaining jobs (Pratt and Hanson 1994;Hanson 2000;Chapple 2002;McDowell 2005;Squires and Kubrin 2005;Gray et al 2007;McDowell 2007), there has been less analysis of migrants (Bagchi 2001;Bashi 2007;Ooka and Wellman 2003;Poros 2001). Furthermore, there is an extensive literature on expatriates (Beaverstock 2002(Beaverstock , 2004(Beaverstock , 2005Saxenian 2002Saxenian , 2006Baláž and Williams 2004;Williams and Baláž 2005;Walsh 2006;Williams 2006;Scott 2006Scott , 2007Larner 2007;Chacko 2007), but little has been written about how highly skilled migrants find jobs.…”

Effects of Foreign Education on Immigrant Earnings

“…Thus, the "quality" of social networks determines the jobs with different earning potential. Findings by Ooka and Wellman (2006) in their Toronto-based study echo this argument about social network quality. They show that the social networks of ethnic groups with greater resources are more likely to lead to desirable jobs.…”