Virtual enclaves: the influence of alumni email lists on the workspaces of transnational software engineers

Abstract

At the turn of the twentieth century, ethnic enclaves helped immigrants to find jobs and to adjust to their surroundings. In the twenty‐first century, transnational professionals also have other spaces of support: the ‘virtual’ enclaves made possible by new communication tools. Based on interviews with high‐tech professionals over the course of an industry boom and downturn, in this article I trace the institutions that affected structures of online help with work. For some engineers from India and Taiwan, alumni ties, maintained by email lists, were important; these transnational workers had an allegiance to their ‘batch’ (university cohort) that the US‐born workers lacked. Their far‐flung, multi‐tiered alumni lists combined the benefits of strong and weak ties: deep commitments and unique information. This study makes a contribution to theorization of immigrant adjustment, social capital and work technologies.

British and Indian Scientists Moving to the United States

“…Chacko (2007) finds that large numbers of Indian graduates from the same universities have immigrated to the United States to pursue further educational and professional opportunities because they have heard positive stories of working in the United States from their predecessors. Montgomery (2008) extends this point showing that students at IIT universities in India strategize about what U.S. universities to apply to. As her respondent Krishna states, We meet and discuss which schools are the most likely to accept certain individuals, and then we are careful not to flood any particular school with applications.…”

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

“…A number of scholars argue that the debate should move beyond the dichotomy of strong ties versus weak ties (Elliot, 2001;Ooka and Wellman 2003;Montgomery 2008). Instead, there should be greater attention to the complexity of social networks.…”

Labour market experiences of skilled British migrants in Vancouver

“…In addition, despite a wave of research on highly skilled migrants from developing countries (Saxenian, 2006;Montgomery, 2008), there has been relatively little in the way of research on highly skilled migrants from developed countries (Meyer, 2001;Harvey, 2011a). This is significant because it is not clear whether highly skilled migrants from developed countries also face difficulties within the host country labour market.…”