TY - JOUR
T1 - A liability of embeddedness? Ethnic social capital, job search, and earnings penalty among female immigrants
AU - Kim, Harris Hyun soo
N1 - Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by a government grant from the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2015-2015S1A3A2046566).
Funding Information:
Data for this study come from National Survey of Multicultural Families (NSMF) 2009, a large-scale research project funded by the Korean government (Ministry of Gender Equality and Family). This was the largest and the very first survey of its kind on the general immigrant population in Korea. The purpose of NSMF (2009) was to gather information concerning the processes of adaptation among Korea’s ‘‘multicultural’’ families (i.e. foreign-born spouses married to native Korean men), with the ultimate goal of using the information to develop and implement better domestic policies to facilitate their incorporation into mainstream society. The questionnaire contains various kinds of items related to physical and mental well-being, economic participation, social relations, general life satisfaction, and experiences of discrimination and cultural assimilation, among others. Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs (KIHASA), a government think tank affiliated with the umbrella organization National Research Council for Economics, Humanities, and Social Sciences, carried out the survey. The population frame for this study consists of all foreign-born spouses living in Korea at the time, approximately 131,000 individuals who were legally registered or documented as immigrants. Data collection was designed to interview the entire population. The response rate was 55.9%, resulting in the data size of 73,669. Weights have been provided by NSMF (2009) for each case to account for the probability of selection based on multiple individual and residential characteristics.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016, © The Author(s) 2016.
PY - 2018/6/1
Y1 - 2018/6/1
N2 - Evidence concerning the relationship between ethnic social networks and labor market outcomes is mixed. Some studies indicate that immigrants with more social capital benefit in terms of formal-sector employment, higher occupational status, and greater earnings. Others argue that embeddedness in and reliance on ethnic networks can hamper economic incorporation in the host society. Using multilevel analysis of population-level data, this study examines the association between using a personal contact in the job search and monthly earnings among immigrant women (foreign-born spouses) in Korea. Findings show that, at the individual level, the use of personal contact, both weak and strong ties, is related to lower income. At the contextual level, residing in a community characterized by denser informal interaction among immigrant members is also associated with lower income. Finally, the negative relationship between informal job search and earnings is stronger in a community with more aggregate ethnic social capital.
AB - Evidence concerning the relationship between ethnic social networks and labor market outcomes is mixed. Some studies indicate that immigrants with more social capital benefit in terms of formal-sector employment, higher occupational status, and greater earnings. Others argue that embeddedness in and reliance on ethnic networks can hamper economic incorporation in the host society. Using multilevel analysis of population-level data, this study examines the association between using a personal contact in the job search and monthly earnings among immigrant women (foreign-born spouses) in Korea. Findings show that, at the individual level, the use of personal contact, both weak and strong ties, is related to lower income. At the contextual level, residing in a community characterized by denser informal interaction among immigrant members is also associated with lower income. Finally, the negative relationship between informal job search and earnings is stronger in a community with more aggregate ethnic social capital.
KW - Ethnic social capital
KW - immigrant adaptation
KW - informal job search
KW - strong tie
KW - weak tie
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85046715040&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1468796816684146
DO - 10.1177/1468796816684146
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85046715040
SN - 1468-7968
VL - 18
SP - 385
EP - 411
JO - Ethnicities
JF - Ethnicities
IS - 3
ER -