Reasons for gaining-losing contacts among migrants in Barcelona

1. Reasons for gaining-losing contacts among migrants in Barcelona José Luis Molina, Javier Ávila, Juergen Lerner, Miranda Lubbers. ECRP. Paris, 2008

2. 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) ...

3. 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 30hours recorded (from 40 to 120 minutes). • We developed a method for enabling comparisons between the 2 waves.

4. 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 …).

6. Qualitative analysis • The interviews were heard reproducing the same visualizations that informants commented … plus this information …

7. Clustered Graphs for personal networks (2007). "Comparing Networks by their Group Structure with an application to acculturation networks", XXVII Sunbelt’07 Corfu, Greece May 1–6, 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.

8. 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 …).

9. Different collectives … Slides 27-46 from Juergen-Ulrik presentation

10. Ideal model of change …

11. 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).

12. 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 …

13. 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):

14. 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.

15. Reasons for change … • Instability - Involution • Psychological crisis during the 1st interview. Now the relationships with family are restored.

16. 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.

17. Reasons for change … • Endogenous - Involution • Visits of friends –relatives*. • Traveling SouthAmerica.

18. 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*.

19. 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.

20. Reasons for change … • External – Evolution • Get VISA. • Death of relatives.

21. 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.

22. 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.

23. 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!

24. Thanks!