Reasons for gaininglosing contacts among migrants in Barcelona

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Reasons for gaining-losing contacts among
migrants in Barcelona

• José Luis Molina, Javier Ávila, Juergen Lerner,
  Miranda Lubbers. ECRP. Paris, 2008

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Remember

• Migrants in Catalonia (Barcelona,Vic,Girona).
• We had about 300 personal networks (2004-2005)
• Cluster analysis ? Sample of 90 individuals for
  the second wave
• We have 56 structured interviews so far (1,5 - 2
  years later on average) ...

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Focus in Argentineans

• 22 people from Argentina were interviewed one
  year later for the same researcher than one year
  before (Javier, 20 and Laura, 2).
• About 30 hours recorded (from 40 to 120 minutes).
• We developed a method for enabling comparisons
  between the 2 waves.

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Method (2nd interview)

• Interviewer print a hardcopy of the personal
  network (1st wave).
• Ask informant for the active contacts
  (free-recall 45 alters, 2n wave).
• Compare the two lists and add the variable
  (repet, Yes/No) for each alter of the 2n wave.
• Continue the data gathering with EgoNet
  (attributes of alters, mutual relationships).
• Perform the interview (what changed and why in
  the meantime at various levels, people, groups,
  structure, composition, self-identification ).

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Qualitative analysis

• The interviews were heard reproducing the same
  visualizations that informants commented plus
  this information

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Clustered Graphs for personal networks
(2007). "Comparing Networks by their Group
Structure with an application to acculturation
networks", XXVII Sunbelt07 Corfu, Greece May
16, Juergen Lerner Ulrik Brandes pdf
(2008). "Visual Statistics for Collections of
Clustered Graphs", proceedings of the 2008 IEEE
Pacific Visualization Symposium, March 5-7,
Kyoto, Japan. Brandes, Ulrik, Jürgen Lerner,
Miranda J. Lubbers, Chris McCarty José Luis
Molina.
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Argentinians in Spain

• Analyzing 250 personal networks of immigrants in
  Spain (Morroco, Dominican Republic, Senegal,
  Gambia, Argentina ) we found that that years of
  residence were associated positively with
• Percentage of alters living in Spain (r .33)
• Percentage of alters who are originally from
  Spain (r .36)
• In the case of Argentineans this process is
  faster that with other communities (that
  sometimes need a second generation ).

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Different collectives
Slides 27-46 from Juergen-Ulrik presentation
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Ideal model of change
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Trends and people life's

• From the interviews of the second wave we have
  identified
• Changes that follow the general trend (we call
  those changes Evolution)
• Changes that follow the opposite direction (we
  call those changes Involution)
• Changes that show Stability (in structure and
  composition nor necessarily with the same alters).

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Sources of change in our data

• Following Leik and Chalkley (1997) we can
  identified 4 general sources of change in the
  data
• Unreliability
• Inherent instability
• Systemic change
• External change

Specially at the beginning of the migration
process psychological crisis, change of
residence of a key contact
Most reasons for change are included here
transitivy, change of covariates (residence), get
married, divorce, getting a new job
Some interesting reasons death, loss of a
cellular phone
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So

• The reasons provided by informants for explaining
  the changes observed in their networks can be
  classified in this way ( small impact or few
  cases, medium, high)

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Reasons for change

• Error-Involution
• 1 case/22. The informant understood in the first
  wave that he was asked only for people living in
  Spain.
• In some cases informants reported some errors in
  ties and the limitation of 45 as a problem.

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Reasons for change

• Instability - Involution
• Psychological crisis during the 1st interview.
  Now the relationships with family are restored.

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Reasons for change

• Endogenous - Involution
• Traveling Argentina during the last months.
• Marrying an Argentinean couple.
• Political family (in Argentina or Spain).
• Friends.
• Own family.
• Working in a familiar business.
• Nephews raising up .
• Amateur futbol club.
• Illness of a close-relative and the social
  support mobilized in Argentina.

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Reasons for change

• Endogenous - Involution
• Visits of friends relatives.
• Traveling SouthAmerica.

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Reasons for change

• Endogenous - Evolution
• Getting a job.
• Change of residence.
• Marrying a Catalan/Spanish couple.
• Political family.
• Friends.
• Own family.
• Music festivals Disco.
• Sharing a flat.
• Children playing sports or musical activities
  (parents meetings).
• Studying a Master.
• English or Catalan classes.

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Reasons for change

• Endogenous- Stability
• Friends of friends
• Birthday parties, literary meetings, visits at
  home
• Alters meet in a burying ceremony and develop an
  independent relationship.
• Stable marriage.

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Reasons for change

• External Evolution
• Get VISA.
• Death of relatives.

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Conclusions (i)

• People change. This path of change is faster in
  ecological transitions.
• People interviewed explain easily in most of
  cases the reasons for change.
• There is not a single reason for a type of change
  but a combination of different sources of change
  being endogenous processes the most important.

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Conclusions (ii)

• Selection processes are important (cutting
  relationships with other Argentineans or with
  some people) but specially
• frequency of contact, getting a job (both through
  strong and weak ties) and place of residence have
  important effects in the structure and
  composition of their personal networks.
• Along with this, transitivity (friends of
  friends), lifecycle (get married, having
  children) and traveling are also important.

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Getting ahead

• Now, it is necessary complete the second wave,
  analyze the interviews and test that impressions
  with our data.
• Next time with SIENA, I promise!

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• Thanks!