Socially Included or Excluded? The Role of Social Capital among Filipino Labour Migrants

Abstract

This article focuses on how social capital is mobilisable and usable for Filipino labour migrants in their efforts to become part of the Finnish labour market. Drawing on the argument of Anthias that not all kinds of resources enable social capital, this article also reveals the dominant role of the minority church as a provider of support simultaneously confining its members' inclusion to the destination society. The article demonstrates how mobilisation of social capital is possible only in certain socioeconomic context, for example, when social ties transfer usable resources for the actors, such as information and access to a new job, whereas in other cases, the social ties chiefly provide non-mobilisable resources, such as emotional support and solidarity. However, these resources can be of advantage for strengthening the ethnic identity of migrants.

What Makes Resources Capital? The Labour Market Integration of Highly Skilled Japanese in Finland

“…Portes (1998: 8) offers a more nuanced definition of social capital as the 'ability to secure benefits through membership in networks and other social structures.' The viewpoint of Portes prompts a reconsideration of the concept of capital as just resources gained through social connections (Anthias 2007;Saksela-Bergholm 2020) and such reconsideration is equally required when considering the concept and discourse of cultural capital.…”

“…Finally, this article was not able to discuss social resources and capital within the context of the occupational achievement of HSMs. As previous research underscored the role of social networks and ties in facilitating migrants' job search and the labour market inclusion in Finland (see Alho 2020;Saksela-Bergholm 2020), it requires further attention to the process in which these social resources become capital. What is it makes social resources capital?…”

“…Capital is widely accepted as an integral instrument for highly skilled migrants' (HSMs') successful occupational attainment in a host country and, more broadly, the labour market integration (Csedö 2008;Ryan, Erel & D'Angelo 2015;Saksela-Bergholm 2020). Although scholars increasingly investigate how HSMs create cultural and social capital to access the host country's labour market, they tend to treat the notion of capital and that of resources interchangeably.…”

“…By doing so, this article contributes to the ongoing discussion concerning the role of capital in facilitating and/or constraining the labour market integration of HSMs (Erel & Ryan 2019;Nohl et al 2014). Furthermore, it offers an extensive view through the empirical data on the topic of HSMs and integration in Finland (Alho 2020;Kilinç 2021;Koskela 2019;Saksela-Bergholm 2020;Wahlbeck 2018).…”