Leading migration researcher Louise Ryan’s topical and intersectional book provides rich insights into migrants’ social networks. It draws on more than 200 interviews with migrants who followed various transnational routes in every decade since the 1940s, in order to build valuable longitudinal perspectives and comparisons. With a particular focus on London, it charts how social networks are formed and sustained, how trust is developed and how social support is accessed, and explores the key opportunities and obstacles that migrants encounter. This is a seminal fusion of migration studies and social network analysis that casts new light on both subjects, essential for those interested in immigration, ethnicity, diversity and inequalities.
Louise Ryan is Senior Professor of Sociology and Director of the Global Diversities and Inequalities Research Centre at London Metropolitan University.
1. Introduction: Embarking on a Book about Networks2. Conceptualising Migrant Networks: Advancing the Field of Qualitative Social Network Analysis3. Researching Migration and Networks: Empirical and Methodological Innovations4. Social Networks and Stories of Arrival5. Employment, Deskilling and Reskilling: Revisiting Strong and Weak Ties 6. Evolving Networks in Place over Time: A Life Course Lens7. Transnational Ties: Narrating Relationality, Resources and Dynamics over Time8. Conclusion: Thoughts and Future Directions
"The book is an important contribution to the study of migration and of social networks." FQS