The Impact of Immigrants' Social Networks on Labor Market Outcomes: Does the Quality of the Nodes Matter?

Pham, Thao P; Pham, Thao P

During the history of the U.S, immigrants have always been an important portion of the population, attributing for more than half of the growth in the labor force. Despite enormous research efforts learning about the economic integration of this group to host countries, the current body of literature still suffers from certain gaps. Particularly, most studies neglect the attributes of each individual, or the quality of the node, in immigrants' networks and its impact on their assimilation. Additionally, current studies center only one or two specific ethnic groups, primarily are Asian and Hispanic, catching doubts on the generalizability of the findings.

This research paper, therefore, attempts at investigating how the attributes of the individuals that each immigrant is connected to can affect his/her performance in the labor market. Specifically, employing OLS regression and individual-level data from the longitudinal New Immigrant Survey, cohort of 2003, this study aims at examining 1) the impacts of having relatives who are employers in the same workplace on immigrants’ employment, earnings, and productivity, and 2) how such impacts, if any, vary across different groups of immigrants.

The findings are expected to contribute to the scholarship in several ways: 1) they further uncover the role of social networks in the economic assimilation of a crucial group of the population, 2) for using a nationally representative data, the findings yield more sweeping generalizations of such relationship, 3) they provoke relevant policies that can help enhance diversity and inclusion values—the foremost concerns given the current political context.

Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Panel Paper: The Impact of Immigrants' Social Networks on Labor Market Outcomes: Does the Quality of the Nodes Matter?

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