Social Networks and Transnational Social Fields: A Review of Quantitative and Mixed-Methods Approaches

Abstract

Scholars of transnationalism have argued that migrants create transnational social fields or spaces that connect their place of origin to destination areas. Despite the centrality that social networks have in the definition of these concepts, quantitative and mixed-methods social network research is rare in research on transnationalism. This situation, however, has changed over the last decade, and the transnational social networks of migrants have been studied with multiple methodologies. So far, this literature has not been systematically evaluated. With the aim of taking stock of this research, we classify the literature into four types of approaches (individual, household, dyad/small set, and community) and review their distinct contributions regarding the functioning of immigrants’ transnational networks, as well as the relative strengths and limitations of each approach. On the basis of our analysis, we discuss pathways for future investigation.

Do Networks Help People To Manage Poverty? Perspectives from the Field

“…Moreover, an international perspective can help poverty researchers to examine the limits of adopting national policy-based assumptions, categories, and classifications and presuming these to be universal (Wacquant 2002). This kind of reflexivity has benefitted migration scholars, who have questioned, among other things, the naturalization of differences between migrants and citizens and of national borders (Dahinden 2016; Nowicka and Cieslik 2013; Wimmer and Glick Schiller 2002; Lubbers, Verdery, and Molina 2020). An international perspective should be equally important to poverty researchers.…”

Structure in personal networks: Constructing and comparing typologies

“…The relatively higher frequencies of factional structures in the MBC data result from the highly transnational social lives of certain immigrant populations in Europe (Vacca et al, 2018;Lubbers et al, 2018). The personal networks in these data include native-born Spaniards and Italians, coethnic immigrants living in the same or different countries as the ego, and a substantial number of transnational contacts in sending communities.…”

Precarious Employment and Stress: The Biomedical Embodiment of Social Factors. PRESSED Project Study Protocol

“…Finally, in this project we are interested in deepening into the role of social support networks in the relationship between precarious employment and health, particularly stress and well-being. Informal social networks (i.e., interactions between individuals and the resulting relational structures) are a source of economic, material, emotional, and informative support (89)(90)(91) and are particularly important among people and households who are in a position of greater vulnerability (68,92). There is a long tradition of studies that demonstrate the relationship between support networks and health, highlighting the protective role of relational resources and support (93).…”