NSF Minority Postdoctoral Research Fellowship: Measuring Transnational Social Ties among Senegambian Immigrants in Spain
This National Science Foundation Minority Postdoctoral Fellowship will broaden understanding of the relationship between immigrant integration in receiving countries and transnationalism using Senegalese and Gambian immigrants in Spain as a case study. This project will develop a model based on personal network analysis to measure transnationalism and to evaluate how integration affects transnationalism. Two major shortcomings of current models are that they measure participation in a limited number of behaviors and do not assess the cross-border social ties immigrants maintain. A personal network approach to transnationalism, however, takes into account the behaviors immigrants engage in and the content and structure of the cross-border ties they maintain. In addition, because personal networks comprise of the people with whom an individual interacts, personal network analysis concurrently measures immigrant integration and thus provides a multidimensional understanding of transnationalism.
The first stage of the project involves collecting and analyzing personal network data. The software Egonet will be used to elicit a list of a respondent?s network members. The respondent is asked to provide information about each member and the type of relationship they share. The second stage of the project includes generating a transnational score based on the portion of members in the country of origin and the country of settlement and on the strength of the ties. The transnational score will be correlated with each of three common hypotheses given for variation in transnationalism that relate to integration: length of residence in the receiving country, economic incorporation, and experiences with racism. Stepwise multiple regression will be used to ascertain the degree to which the hypotheses explain variation in the participation of Senegalese and Gambian immigrants in transnationalism. The correlation and regression analyses also allow for comparison with other models for measuring transnationalism.
The fellow will conduct her training and research at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania under the sponsorship of Dr. Keith Hampton, an authority on personal and whole network analysis. Under the mentorship of Dr. Hampton, the fellow will gain expert knowledge on the design, collection and analysis of personal and whole network data and on social network metrics. Dr. Hampton?s expertise on the influence of new information and communication technologies will broaden the fellow?s research to incorporate the use of new media and mobile communication technologies in the maintenance of transnational ties. The additional sponsorship of José Luis Molina, an expert on social network analysis at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, will provide the fellow with institutional support for conducting fieldwork in Spain. Dr. Molina?s research on acculturation among various immigrant groups in Catalonia will be instrumental in carrying out the project.
The postdoctoral training objectives also include professional development leading to a tenure track position at a research university. The Annenberg School offers an advantageous environment for the fellow to augment her methodological skills, to receive advisement from faculty with shared disciplinary perspectives, and to engage with colleagues across disciplines, specifically in the Centre for Global Communication Studies. Beyond the intellectual merit of the project, the broader impact of a more precise understanding of the relationship between integration and transnationalism takes on imperative for Muslim immigrant populations, such as Senegalese and Gambians, in Western Europe. Growing Islamic fundamentalism has prompted a reconsideration of the social integration. As immigration policies adopt assimilationist approaches to integration, the social ties immigrants maintain with their countries of origin become suspect
This project analyzes the personal networks of West African immigrants from Senegal and Gambia in Catalonia, Spain to understand the relationship between their socioeconomic integration in Spain and their engagement in transnational activities, or cross-border practices that link them to their countries of origin. Findings reveal that Senegalese and Gambian men and women suffer from high rates of unemployment due to the economic crisis in Spain, which began in 2008. Senegalese and Gambian men have been particularly affected by the collapse of the construction industry. Construction jobs are avenues for economic mobility among West African immigrant men who are escaping the low-wages and seasonality of agricultural work. The collapse of the housing market has also adversely affected homeownership among Senegalese and Gambian immigrants as growing numbers face eviction. The domestic and caretaking work, in which Senegalese and Gambian women are engaged, has also been affected by the economic crisis although to a much lesser degree than construction jobs. The transnational activities of Senegalese and Gambian immigrants have transformed with the economic crisis. As a result of less financial resources, migrants are sending less money home, delaying projects such as home construction and canceling trips to Africa or making fewer trips. Some migrants have cut off personal ties to relatives and friends whom they can no longer afford to support. At the same time, Senegalese and Gambian immigrants have drawn on their transnational social ties to survive the economic crisis in Spain. Unemployed men are sending their wives and young children to Africa where maintaining them is cheaper than in Spain. In addition, some immigrants are finding economic opportunities in transnational activities such as transporting used cars from Spain to be sold in Senegal and Gambia. The findings of this project show that socioeconomic integration in receiving countries partly determines the transnational activities of immigrants. Beyond the intellectual merit of the project, the broader impact of understanding of the relationship between integration and transnationalism can inform immigration policy. The boarder impacts of this project also include the promotion of cultural diversity in higher education through professional development. The project has provided me, the principle investigator, with training in social networks analysis. From the training that I received under Keith Hampton’s supervision, I was able to collaborate with the anthropologist José Luis Molina at the Autónoma Universitat de Barcelona on a personal network study, Profiles of Ethnic Entrepreneurship in Spain, that measured social capital among immigrant entrepreneurs and their reliance on transnational ties to secure financial assistance and other types of resources for their businesses. Through this collaboration, I was able to refine the knowledge that I acquired under Hampton’s direction. With the expert knowledge gained, I was able to facilitate a social network analysis workshop at the Universitat de Vic in Spain and teach an upper undergraduate introductory course on social network analysis at the University of Denver, where I am currently a faculty in the Department of Anthropology.
