Gender &Social Capital Among US Dominicans &Mexicans

Princeton University, Princeton NJ

Investigators

Abstract

Though there is an established literature regarding the overall importance of social capital in affecting immigrant outcomes, most work has disregarded the importance of gender in moderating the effects of social capital. The objective of this research project is to examine how gender interacts with social capital to affect migration and economic outcomes for migrants in the U.S. The research questions to be considered include: 1) How do social networks affect the likelihood of migration, and how does this differ by gender?. 2) How do social networks affect employment outcomes in the U.S., and how does this differ by gender? 3) How does working in an ethnic economy affect employment outcomes in the U.S., and how does this differ by gender? For all three questions, potential explanatory mechanisms will also be examined. The analyses will be based upon samples of Mexicans and Dominicans obtained through the Mexican Migration Project and Latin American Migration Project databases. Logistic regression, OLS regression, and event history analysis, as well as fixed effects techniques, will be used to elicit results.