Doctoral Dissertation Research: Social Capital in Employment Referral Networks

Duke University, Durham NC

Investigators

Abstract

This project investigates employment referrals for a population currently undergoing displacement and movement, looking at effects of group solidarity, reputation, and competition. Understanding how individuals integrate into a new community is an important issue with global implications. Newcomers, like many others, tend to rely on their social networks to find jobs upon arrival to a new destination, which is crucial to their integration. Finding and holding a job can be important for individual self-worth and well-being, beyond helping to contribute financially to the household. The dynamics of the social networks of newcomers and their labor markets can shed more light on how newcomers adapt to new environments. Findings are relevant to decision making concerning employment for newcomers, with implications for non-newcomers as well. The research questions are addressed through data collected from a survey and through a vignette experiment. The survey is administered to current and earlier newcomers in two communities that have experienced population movement. The sampling approach, called Network Sampling with Memory, allows an efficient, representative sample from the target population and generates a map of the social network connecting its members. The vignette experiment provides evidence of the causal relationship between group solidarity and job referral processes. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.