Neighbourhood ties and employment: a test of different hypotheses across neighbourhoods

Abstract

This study examines to which extent neighbourhood ties relate to employment status for the less-well educated inhabitants of 71 neighbourhoods in the Dutch city of Rotterdam. Previous research has produced different expectations as to whether having contact with neighbours is either positively or negatively related to being employed and how this relation differs across neighbourhoods. Two waves from the Neighbourhood Profile survey (N ¼ 8507) were used, which included measures of the contact frequency with neighbours and their willingness to help. We find that for the less-well educated neighbourhood ties have a modest negative relation to employment. Moreover, this relation does not vary across neighbourhoods with different socioeconomic statuses, with the exception of part-time working men. Our research implies that neighbourhood ties in mixed neighbourhoods do not positively relate to employment for the less-well educated, thereby questioning policy assumptions about 'social mix'. Contributions to the field of neighbourhood studies are made by employing measures of the social networks mechanism and taking into account the conditionality of effects across neighbourhoods.

Neighbourhood effects on educational attainment. What matters more: Exposure to poverty or exposure to affluence?

“…One approach for measuring the affluence of a spatial context is using income [45]. Using categorical measures, or grouping neighbourhood inhabitants by their income level, often fits the research design better than using average income.…”

Neighbourhood histories and educational attainment: The role of accumulation, duration, timing and sequencing of exposure to poverty

“…Furthermore, with a larger percentage of higher educated people in the neighbourhood there is also a bigger chance that a child makes acquaintance with such people, whether they are parents of their classmates, local entrepreneurs or volunteers. Because of these interlinkages, the average socio-economic status (SES) of a neighbourhood often acts as a proxy for its more specific characteristics (Custers, 2019).…”

Vplyv sociálnych sietí pri vzniku migračnej sociálnej siete (v segregovanom/marginalizovanom prostredí)

“…2014;Rusnáková, Rochovská, 2016). Ak jednotlivec žije v sociálne vylúčenej a priestorovo segregovanej komunite, môže dôjsť k zníženiu jeho príležitostí na mobilitu, za pomoci ľudí, ktorí disponujú potrebnými informáciami a podpornými adaptačnými mechanizmami (Mustered, Andersson, 2005;Ellis a kol., 2007;Galster, 2007;Joseph, 2007, Bolt, Kempen, 2013Custers, 2019). Na prvý pohľad sa javí, že sociálne siete pri tvorbe migračných vzorcov a celých migračných sietí sú etnicky neutrálne a sú jednoduchým riešením chudoby a segregácie.…”

“…Sú garantované a overené skúsenosťou členov komunity alebo skupiny. Tento mechanizmus vysvetľuje aj to, že zamestnaní migranti majú tendenciu odporúčať svojim zamestnávateľom členov vlastnej skupiny, komunity (Mustered, Andersson, 2005;Ellis a kol., 2007;Galster, 2007;Joseph, 2007;Bolt, Kempen, 2013;Custers, 2019)…”