Of bonding and bridging: Ethnic social capital and contingent employment among immigrant women in Korea

This paper examines the relationship between ethnic social capital and contingent employment or temporary work among immigrant women in Korea. It focuses on two types of social capital: bonding and bridging. The former is conceptualized in terms of co-ethnic ties, whereas the latter is measured as interethnic connections (ties with native-born population). Using multilevel analysis, the current research examines the extent to which such networks, measured at individual and community levels, are associated with the probability of contingent employment for a nationally representative sample of foreign-born wives in South Korea. At the individual level, the size of interethnic networks is found to be significantly related to lower odds of contingent employment. Bonding social capital, on the other hand, is not a significant factor. A cross-level interaction effect is also observed: the relationship between bridging social capital and temporary work status is weaker in a regional community characterized by a higher degree of ethnicity-based discrimination.