Immigrant children and their parents: Is there an intergenerational interdependence of integration into social networks?

Abstract The paper investigates the integration of immigrant children and their parents in different dimensions of social networks – referred to as multiplexity in social network terminology. These dimensions are children's friendships, their attendance at birthday parties, and contact among their parents. By attending birthday parties, children's friendships are publicly reinforced and membership in a social circle is signified. During these events, communication and social exchange drive the process of social integration at the micro-level, and ethnic boundaries can be shifted or blurred. It will be shown that a variety of homophily effects can be found in all three network dimensions. In addition, ethnic segregation in parents’ networks has an impact on children's participation in these events and, thereby, on children's integration in social networks. However, the causal effect in the other way around – children's birthday party attendance on contact among their parents – is even stronger. A new approach is the non-recursive analysis of how ties in one network dimension effect ties in another dimension. Analyses are based on 76 social networks of 1266 children in school classes in the city state of Bremen, Germany.

[1]  M. Gangl.  Causal Inference in Sociological Research , 2010 .

[2]  Pravin K. Trivedi,et al.  Microeconometrics Using Stata , 2009 .

[3]  K. Boehnke,et al.  Parent‐Child Value Similarity: The Role of Zeitgeist , 2007 .

[4]  S. Haug.  Interethnische Freundschaftsbeziehungen und soziale Integration , 2003 .

[5]  Andreas Wimmer,et al.  The Making and Unmaking of Ethnic Boundaries: A Multilevel Process Theory1 , 2008, American Journal of Sociology.

[6]  G. Āllport.  The Nature of Prejudice , 1954 .

[7]  John R. Hipp,et al.  Nonrecursive Models: Endogeneity, Reciprocal Relationships, and Feedback Loops , 2011 .

[8]  W. Rogers.  Regression standard errors in clustered samples , 1994 .

[9]  R. Alba,et al.  Remaking the American Mainstream: Assimilation and Contemporary Immigration , 2003 .

[10]  Tom A. B. Snijders,et al.  Introduction to stochastic actor-based models for network dynamics , 2010, Soc. Networks.

[11]  J. Coleman.  Foundations of Social Theory , 1990 .

[12]  Tom A. B. Snijders,et al.  Exponential Random Graph Models for Social Networks , 2013 .

[13]  J. S. Long,et al.  Regression Models for Categorical and Limited Dependent Variables , 1997 .

[14]  Garry Robins,et al.  An introduction to exponential random graph (p*) models for social networks , 2007, Soc. Networks.

[15]  B. Entwisle,et al.  Residential Segregation and Interracial Friendship in Schools1 , 2006, American Journal of Sociology.

[16]  Dianne A. Van Hemert,et al.  Ethnic boundaries and personal choice. Assessing the influence of individual inclinations to choose intra-ethnic relationships on pupils' networks , 2004, Soc. Networks.

[17]  A. Flache,et al.  Parental acceptance of children's intimate ethnic outgroup relations: The role of culture, status, and family reputation. , 2012 .

[18]  Marijtje A. J. Van Duijn,et al.  Ethnic segregation in context: Social discrimination among native Dutch pupils and their ethnic minority classmates , 2009, Soc. Networks.

[19]  Jeffrey M. Wooldridge,et al.  Solutions Manual and Supplementary Materials for Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data , 2003 .

[20]  Harold G. Grasmick,et al.  Testing the Core Empirical Implications of Gottfredson and Hirschi's General Theory of Crime , 1993 .

[21]  Min Zhou.  Segmented Assimilation: Issues, Controversies, and Recent Research on the New Second Generation 1 , 1997, The International migration review.

[22]  G. C. Homans,et al.  Social Behavior as Exchange , 1958, American Journal of Sociology.

[23]  W. Meeus,et al.  Connectedness with parents and behavioural autonomy among Dutch and Moroccan adolescents , 2006 .

[24]  Rauf Ceylan.  Ethnische Kolonien : Entstehung, Funktion und Wandel am Beispiel türkischer Moscheen und Cafés , 2006 .

[25]  A. Clarke.  Consuming children and making mothers: birthday parties, gifts and the pursuit of sameness , 2007 .

[26]  Peng Wang,et al.  Recent developments in exponential random graph (p*) models for social networks , 2007, Soc. Networks.

[27]  Garry Robins,et al.  Exponential Random Graph Models for Social Networks: Formation of Social Network Structure , 2012 .

[28]  Michael Windzio.  Integration of Immigrant Children into Inter- ethnic Friendship Networks: The Role of ‘Intergenerational Openness’ , 2012 .

[29]  A. Portes,et al.  Immigrant America: A Portrait , 1991 .

[30]  Peng Wang,et al.  MPNet Program for the Simulation and Estimation of (p*) Exponential Random Graph Models for , 2014 .

[31]  Mary E. Campbell,et al.  Beyond Black and White: The Present and Future of Multiracial Friendship Segregation , 2003, American Sociological Review.

[32]  P. Bourdieu.  Forms of Capital , 2002 .

[33]  M. Kalmijn,et al.  Destination‐Language Proficiency in Cross‐National Perspective: A Study of Immigrant Groups in Nine Western Countries1 , 2005, American Journal of Sociology.

[34]  W. C. Carter,et al.  Placing Friendship in Context: Foci of activity as changing contexts for friendship , 1999 .

[35]  Joshua D. Angrist,et al.  Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion , 2008 .

[36]  Kyunghwa Kwak,et al.  Adolescents and Their Parents: A Review of Intergenerational Family Relations for Immigrant and Non-Immigrant Families , 2003, Human Development.

[37]  P. Blau.  Exchange and Power in Social Life , 1964 .

[38]  S. Feld.  The Focused Organization of Social Ties , 1981, American Journal of Sociology.

[39]  Peng Wang,et al.  Exponential Random Graph Models for Social Networks: Exponential Random Graph Model Extensions: Models for Multiple Networks and Bipartite Networks , 2012 .

[40]  M. McPherson,et al.  Birds of a Feather: Homophily in Social Networks , 2001 .

[41]  Marijana Hameršak.  Childhood in Europe , 2002 .

[42]  Melanie Killen,et al.  Children and Social Exclusion: Morality, Prejudice, and Group Identity , 2011 .