Immigrant Performance in the Labour Market: Bonding and Bridging Social Capital

191 Pages·2012·1.311 MB·English

by  Bram Lancee

IMISCOE
To what extent can diff erent forms of social capital help immigrants make headway L RESEARCH
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on the labour market? An answer to this pressing question begins here. Taking the
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Netherlands and Germany as case studies, the book identifi es two forms of social
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capital that may work to increase employment, income and occupational status and, I
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conversely, decrease unemployment. New insights into the concepts of bonding and m Immigrant Performance
bridging arise through quantitative research methods, using longitudinal and cross- ig
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sectional data. Referring to a dense network with ‘thick’ trust, bonding is measured an
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as family ties, co-ethnic ties and trust in the family. Bridging is seen in terms of inter- P
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ethnic ties, thus implying a crosscutting network with ‘thin’ trust. Immigrant r
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Performance in the Labour Market reveals that although bonding allows immigrants r
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to get by, bridging enables them to get ahead. a
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i Bonding and Bridging
Bram Lancee is Humboldt Research Fellow at the Social Science Research Center n

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Berlin (wzb) and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Amsterdam. h
e Social Capital

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“Th e concept of social capital is of increasing importance in contemporary migration research. In this book, Lancee u
r
provides an excellent analysis of the role of social networks in the labour market integration of ethnic minorities.
M  
A valuable contribution to the theoretical and methodological debate.”
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Anthony Heath, University of Oxford, UK rk
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“Th is outstanding study provides a comprehensive theoretical account on social resources for immigrants’ labour market
success, testing it with up-to-date research methods and comparative data. Essential reading for everyone interested in
ethnic and migration studies.”
Irena Kogan, University of Mannheim, Germany
“Th is book can serve as reference for any heuristic application of the analytical tools it thoughtfully utilises. I congratulate
Lancee’s eff orts to optimise survey representativeness, contend with diffi culties arising from cross-sectional data and fi nd
plausible methodological solutions.”
Venelin Boshnakov, University of National and World Economy, Sofi a, Bulgaria
     
.. AMSTERDAM UNIVERSIT Y PRESS
Immigrant Performance in the Labour Market
IMISCOE
International Migration, Integration and Social Cohesion inEurope
The IMISCOE Research Network unites researchers from, at present, 28 institutes
specialising in studies of international migration, integration and social cohesion in
Europe. What began in 2004 as a Network of Excellence sponsored by the Sixth
Framework Programme oftheEuropeanCommission hasbecome,asof April2009, an
independentself-fundingendeavour.Fromthestart,IMISCOEhaspromotedintegrated,
multidisciplinary and globally comparative research led by scholars from various
branches of the economic and social sciences, the humanities and law. The Network
furthers existing studies and pioneers new scholarship on migration and migrant
integration. Encouraging innovative lines of inquiry key to European policymaking and
governanceisalsoapriority.
The IMISCOE-Amsterdam University Press Series makes the Network’s findings and
results available to researchers, policymakers and practitioners, the media and other
interested stakeholders. High-quality manuscripts authored by Network members and
cooperating partners areevaluated byexternal peerreviewsandtheIMISCOE Editorial
Committee.TheCommitteecomprisesthefollowingmembers:
TizianaCaponio,DepartmentofPoliticalStudies,UniversityofTurin/Forumfor
InternationalandEuropeanResearchonImmigration(FIERI),Turin,Italy
MichaelCollyer,SussexCentreforMigrationResearch(SCMR),UniversityofSussex,
UnitedKingdom
RositaFibbi,SwissForumforMigrationandPopulationStudies(SFM),Universityof
Neuchâtel/InstituteofSocialSciences,UniversityofLausanne,Switzerland
AgataGórny,CentreofMigrationResearch(CMR)/FacultyofEconomicSciences,
UniversityofWarsaw,Poland
AlbertKraler,InternationalCentreforMigrationPolicyDevelopment(ICMPD),Vienna,
Austria
LeoLucassen,InstituteofHistory,LeidenUniversity,TheNetherlands
JorgeMalheiros,CentreofGeographicalStudies(CEG),UniversityofLisbon,Portugal
MarcoMartiniello,NationalFundforScientificResearch(FNRS),Brussels/Centerfor
EthnicandMigrationStudies(CEDEM),UniversityofLiège,Belgium
PatrickSimon,NationalDemographicInstitute(INED),Paris,France
MiriSong,SchoolofSocialPolicyandSociology,UniversityofKent,UnitedKingdom
MoreinformationandhowtojointheNetworkcanbefoundatwww.imiscoe.org.
Immigrant Performance in the
Labour Market
Bonding and Bridging Social Capital
Bram Lancee
IMISCOE Research
Cover illustration: No Title(from the series DigitalMapping)2011, oil and
spray-paint on canvas, 60 x 30 cm
Artist: Aquil Copier (1973) lives and works inAmsterdam.
www.aquilcopier.nl
Cover design:Studio Jande Boer BNO, Amsterdam
Layout: The DocWorkers, Almere
ISBN 978 90 89643575
e-ISBN 978 90 48514953 (pdf)
e-ISBN 978 90 48516612 (ePub)
NUR 741 /763
©Bram Lancee /Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2012
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved
above,nopart ofthisbookmay bereproduced,storedinorintroduced into
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written
permission ofboth thecopyrightownerandthe author of thebook.
Table of contents
List offiguresand tables 7
Acknowledgements 11
1 Introduction and research questions 13
Research questions 15
Structureof thebook 16
2 Social capital theory 17
Introduction 17
Collective versus individual-levelsocialcapital 20
Bonding socialcapital 24
Bridgingsocial capital 27
Conclusion 30
3 Immigrants in GermanyandtheNetherlands 33
Introduction 33
Migration history andbackground of theethnic groups 34
Immigration regime and integrationpolicy 43
The labour market 48
Social capitalin Germany and theNetherlands 52
Immigrants’socialcapital inGermany and the Netherlands 52
Differences and similarities inthe macro-context 54
4 Immigrants’socialcapital and labour market outcomes 57
Introduction 57
Labourmarketoutcomes 58
Hypotheses referring tobridging 62
Hypotheses referring tobonding 67
Human capital 72
Social capitaland labour market outcomes for men andwomen 74
5 The case of theNetherlands 77
Introduction 77
Results 82
Conclusion 99
6 IMMIGRANTPERFORMANCEINTHELABOURMARKET
6 The case of Germany 103
Introduction 103
Data and measurement 103
Results 111
Conclusion 133
7 Interethnic and intra-ethnic friendships and unemployment
duration for Turkishimmigrantsand native Germans 137
Introduction 137
Hypotheses 138
Data and measurement 143
Results 146
Conclusion 151
8 Conclusions on immigrants’ bonding and bridging social
capital 155
Overview 156
Findings 159
Open questions 163
Appendix: The measurement ofsocialcapitalusing cumulativescaling 165
References 171
List of figures and tables
Figures
Figure 2.1 Differentelements of individual social capital
Figure 2.2 Two partially overlapping socialnetworks
Figure 2.3 The elements of immigrants’bonding and bridgingsocial
capital
Figure 3.1 People with a migration background inGermany
Figure 4.1 The dependent variable: Labour market outcomes
Figure 4.2 Bonding and bridging inresource-rich and resource-poor
groups
Figure 5.1 Items that measurebonding socialcapital inthe SPVA
Figure 5.2 Items that measurebridgingsocialcapital in theSPVA
Figure 5.3 The returnsof bondingandbridgingsocialcapitalin the
Netherlands
Figure 6.1 Items inthe GSOEP differentiating interethnicand intra-
ethnic ties
Figure 6.2 Items that measurebonding and bridging social capital inthe
GSOEP
Figure 7.1 Kaplan-Meier survivalestimates for the transition from
unemployment toemploymentfor first-generationTurks and
native Germans
Tables
Table 3.1 Largestethnic groups intheNetherlands as of1 January
2007, by country of birth
Table 3.2 Most commonnationalitiesin theNetherlands asof
1 January2007
Table 3.3 Most commonnationalitiesin Germany asof
31 December 2007
Table 3.4 People with a migration background inGermany, by current
or former nationality(if currentnationality isGerman)
Table 3.5 MIPEX scores for Germany and the Netherlandsas %of
best practice in 2007
8 IMMIGRANTPERFORMANCEINTHELABOURMARKET
Table 3.6 Employment rate in theNetherlands for population aged
15-65, by ethnic group (in %)
Table 3.7 Employment rate in Germany for population aged 25-65, by
migrationbackgroundand gender (in %)
Table 3.8 Employment rate and relative employment ofnative-born
and foreign-born population aged 15-64 in Germany and the
Netherlands
Table 3.9 Unemploymentrate andrelativeemploymentof native-born
and foreign-born inGermany and the Netherlands
Table 3.10 Labourmarketaccess MIPEX scores for Germany and the
Netherlands in2007
Table 5.1 Descriptivestatistics sampleemployment
Table 5.2 Descriptivestatistics sampleincome
Table 5.3 Mean social capital inthe Netherlands,by ethnic group
Table 5.4 Logisticregression predicting employment likelihoodamong
men, oddsratios
Table 5.5 Logisticregression predicting employment likelihoodamong
women, odds ratios
Table 5.6 Descriptivestatistics sampleemployment (SPVApanel 1998,
2002)
Table 5.7 Logisticregression predicting employment likelihood(SPVA
panel 1998,2002),odds ratios
Table 5.8 Logisticregression predicting theemploymentlikelihood in
2002 for unemployed population aged <50 in 1998,odds
ratios
Table 5.9 OLS regression predicting ISEI scores among men,
standardised coefficients
Table 5.10 OLS regression predicting ISEI scores among women,
standardised coefficients
Table 5.11 Descriptivestatistics sampleincomeand occupational status
(SPVApanel 1998,2002)
Table 5.12 OLS regression predicting ISEI scores (SPVApanel 1998,
2002), for those aged25-45, standardised coefficients
Table 5.13 OLS regression predicting income (ln) among men,
standardised coefficients
Table 5.14 OLS regression predicting income (ln) among women,
standardised coefficients
Table 5.15 OLS regression predicting income (ln) (SPVApanel 1998,
2002), standardised coefficients
Table 6.1 Descriptivestatistics sampleemployment
Table 6.2 Descriptivestatistics sampleincome
Table 6.3 Mean bondingand bridgingsocialcapitalin Germany, by
ethnic group
Table 6.4 Descriptivestatistics, by survey year and federal state
LISTOFFIGURESANDTABLES 9
Table 6.5 Panel regression predicting thelikelihood ofemployment
among men, random-effectsand fixed-effects models, odds
ratios
Table 6.6 Panel regression predicting employmentlikelihood among
women, random-effectsand fixed-effects models, oddsratios
Table 6.7 Panel regression predicting ISEI scores among men, random-
effectsand fixed-effectsmodels, standardised coefficients
Table 6.8 Panel regression predicting ISEI scores among men,
excludingimmigrants from category ‘Other’, random-effects
and fixed-effects models, standardised coefficients
Table 6.9 Panel regression predicting ISEI-scores among women,
random-effects and fixed-effects models,standardised
coefficients
Table 6.10 Panel regression predicting income (ln) among men,
random-effects and fixed-effects models,standardised
coefficients
Table 6.11 Panel regression predicting income (ln) among women,
random-effects and fixed-effects models,standardised
coefficients
Table 7.1 Descriptivestatistics sampleevent history analysis, by ethnic
group
Table 7.2 Average number ofinterethnicand intra-ethnic friendships,
by level of education and ethnic group
Table 7.3 Cox regression predicting theeffect ofinterethnic and intra-
ethnic friendships on thetransition to employment, hazard
ratios
Table 7.4 Cox regression predicting theeffect offriendshipswith
Germans for high and low educated on thetransition to
employment, hazard ratios
Table A.1 Items measuring structuralbonding socialcapital
Table A.2 Items measuring cognitive bondingsocialcapital
Table A.3 Items measuring structuralbridgingsocialcapital
Table A.4 Items measuring cognitive bridging socialcapital
Table A.5 Items languageproficiency
Table A.6 Scale bondingsocialcapital: The strength offamily ties
Table A.7 Scale coefficientsfor visitingand receiving visits from
native Germans