We compare the job search experiences of five Toronto ethnic groups: English, German, Jewish, Ukrainian, and Italian-Canadian: We study the kinds of job contacts that members of different ethnic groups have used and the income they earned in these jobs. Our key questions are: (1) To what extent do members of each group use ties within their own ethnicity or outside of it to search for jobs? (2) Which ethnic groups attain higher incomes when their members use job contacts within or outside of their own ethnicity? We find that members of low-status ethnic groups tend to achieve higher income when they have ties outside of their own ethnic group. By contrast, members of high-status groups tend to do better when they have ties within their own group. Both gender and generation of immigration play complex roles in the nexus of ethnicity and network heterogeneity.

We have learned in the past twenty-five years that social networks are important and often successful means of searching for jobs. They provide "network capital," an important form of social capital, that link people interpersonally to job opportunities. But what kinds of network ties pay off for whom? Analysts have paid special attention in recent years to the job searches of ethnic minorities, but their research has concentrated on the experiences of only one ethnic minority. At best, analysts have compared a single ethnic minority to the mainstream of society or its dominant ethnic group.

There is a pressing need for comparative analyses of minority experiences. As a city composed of recent immigrants from many lands, Toronto is an excellent place to compare the job search experiences of immigrant groups. Moreover, our data allow us to study the kinds of job contacts that members of different ethnic groups have used and the income they earned in these jobs.

In this chapter, we analyze the members of five different ethnic groups in Toronto: English, German, Jewish, Ukrainian, and Italian-Canadian:

(a) To what extent do members of each group use ties within their own ethnicity or outside of it to search for jobs?

(b) Which ethnic groups attain higher incomes when their members use job contacts within or outside of their own ethnicity?

Building on Previous Research

One stream of research in social network analysis has investigated what characteristics of ties and networks help people to obtain information and find jobs. Mark Granovetter first showed that weak ties are important for obtaining professional-level jobs (1973, 1974/1994,1982). He argued that because weak ties are more apt than strong ties to connect people to different social circles, they are more apt to provide new information (about jobs). Yet other scholars have argued that when information is scarce and valued, strong or high-status ties are prime sources of information and jobs (Campbell, Marsden and Hurlbert 1986; Lin and Dumin 1986). For example, it is close kin and good friends who give poor Chileans information about scarce jobs (Espinoza 1999). Although researchers have subsequently argued that it is the heterogeneous social and relational characteristics of network members (e.g., Stoloff, Glanville and Bienenstock 1999) and not the strength of their ties that connect people to new information, most discussions have continued to focus on the strength of ties rather than the benefits of heterogeneous networks (Wellman and Frank 2000).

Another stream of research in ethnic relations has investigated how networks help ethnic group members obtain resources and become socially incorporated in their new host society. Researchers have shown social networks to substantially determine the destination of migration (Boyd 1989, Koser 1997; Bauer and Zimmermann 1997), provide social capital for entrepreneurship (Light and Bonacich 1988; Zimmer and Aldrich 1987; Portes 1995, Sanders and Nee 1996; Cobas and DeOllos 1989), provide occupational niches for employment (Bailey and Waldinger 1991; Hondagnew-Sotelo 1994), and share resources that provide access to job opportunities in their new land (Anderson 1974; Fernandez 1995). Such research has focused on the benefits of densely-knit, tightly-bounded ethnic networks that are supported by solidarity and mutual trust (Wellman and Leighton 1979; Wellman 1988; Light and Bonacich 1988). Yet this celebration of ethnic solidarity has overlooked the possible importance of having and using ethnically heterogeneous ties to obtain good jobs.

Research into job searches by ethnic minorities has concentrated on comparing the different amounts of social capital that members of ethnic groups can mobilize from within their own groups (Granovetter 1994; Light and Bonacich 1988 ). Few studies have focused on comparing the benefits of using ties within one’s own group with ties to members of other ethnic groups (intra-ethnic vs. inter-ethnic ties; see the discussion in Calzavara 1982). First, researchers have generally assumed that low-status, recently-immigrated minorities have only one option: to rely on members of their own ethnic group even when this can be disadvantageous (Sanders and Nee,1996). For example, because the networks of early Portuguese immigrants and job contacts were exclusively composed of other Portuguese Canadians, they received help only from these low-status people (Anderson 1974). Second, researchers have also assumed that when inter-ethnic ties are available, they are always a better means for low-status immigrants to obtain the good jobs that exist only in mainstream milieus. Looking for jobs outside of the intra-ethnic economy niche has been considered to be the "only" path for the social mobility for ethnic minorities (Wiley 1967) because intra-ethnic ties are assumed to lead to lower-status jobs in ethnic niches (Calzavara 1982, 1983).

These two assumptions should be reconsidered. Many people use both intra-ethnic and inter-ethnic contacts for job searches. One study found that immigrants who work longer in ethnically mixed milieus develop more inter-ethnic ties and are less likely to rely on intra-ethnic networks for job referral (Nee, Sanders and Staurs 1994) Similarly, female West Indian immigrants to Toronto whose networks consisted of other West Indians depended on their co-ethnic network members for job searches and other information. They obtained such jobs as domestic house cleaners for each other. By contrast, some West Indian women made and used inter-ethnic friends to move out of domestic work (Turritin 1976).

Intra-ethnic ties do not always trap workers in poor jobs. To be sure, using intra-ethnic contacts for job referral is more likely to lead to jobs in the ethnic economy or ethnically-dominated occupations (Bailey and Waldinger 1991). However, working in an ethnic economy does not necessarily lead to disadvantageous, low-paying jobs. It can provide good returns on human capital and open up opportunities to be self-employed (Wilson and Portes 1980; Portes and Jensen 1989; Reitz 1991; Zhou and Logan 1992; Cobas, Aickin, and Jardine 1993; Zhou 1997). The advantages (or disadvantages) of working in an ethnic economy or ethnic niches depend on the resources that particular ethnic groups can mobilize through their co-ethnic networks.

To study these issues, we analyze the extent to which ethnic groups in Toronto use intra-ethnic and inter-ethnic ties. We ask which is more beneficial: social capital mobilized through intra-ethnic or inter-ethnic ties? Our key research questions are:

1. Which members of which ethnic groups are more likely to use inter-ethnic ties?

2. Does embeddeness in ethnic friendship networks structure the use of intra-ethnic and inter-ethnic ties?

3. Which kinds of people have the ethnically heterogeneous friendship networks that can provide the basis for inter-ethnic job search contacts?

4. Do inter-ethnic ties tend to provide more beneficial social capital for attaining higher income jobs?

5. In ethnically segmented labor markets, are inter-ethnic ties beneficial for members of all ethnic groups, or are their advantages conditioned by the status of the job-seekers’ and job contacts’ ethnic groups.

We address these questions by examining the job search experiences of five Toronto ethnic groups: English, German, Jewish, Ukrainian and Italian. The distinction between searching within and outside of one’s own ethnic group is not trivial because ethnic groups are unequally dispersed throughout the occupational structure in Toronto (and indeed, in Canada as a whole). Some ethnic groups are concentrated in occupations with high rewards and others are in occupations with lower rewards (Porter 1965, Richmond and Verma1978). The Toronto-area labor market is ethnically segmented. Members of the five ethnic groups we study here have been over-represented in certain jobs (according to prior analyses of the data used here, Reitz, et al. 1981). When these data were collected in 1978-1979, 63% of the men and 40% of the women worked in ethnically segregated jobs (see Table 1.1). In this ethnically segmented labor market, information concerning job openings is not equally accessible to all groups. Ethnic segmentation means that the resources that people can find within ethnically homogeneous networks can be limited. Thus, they may have extensive social capital within their ethnic group, but this may not be effective social capital for getting access to resources beyond it (Gans 1962; Espinoza 1999).

Note: Table 1.1 is reconstructed from the data on ethnic occupational concentration analyzed by Reitz, et. al., 1981 and Reitz, 1990:166-167.

Hypotheses

Because people use their social networks as resources, the ethnic composition of their networks affects opportunities to use intra-ethnic and inter-ethnic ties. We hypothesize that having ethnically heterogeneous friendship networks decreases the use of people from one’s own ethnic group for job searches (see also Calzavara,1982).

Hypothesis 1.1: The more heterogeneous their networks, the more likely that people use inter-ethnic ties to find jobs.

If being in ethnically-heterogeneous networks facilitates the use of inter-ethnic ties and access to social capital located beyond ethnic boundaries, it is important to understand what kinds of people are likely to become members of such heterogeneous networks. To whom is social capital beyond ethnic boundaries available? We test the effects of generation, education, gender, and age on the ethnic heterogeneity of networks. Research into social incorporation has suggested that ethnic minorities become incorporated over generations into the mainstream society and that the inter-ethnic composition of networks increases as part of this process (Isajiw 1990; Portes and Rumbaut 1996; Rose, Carasco and Charboneau 1999; Waldinger and Perlmann 1999).

Hypothesis 1.2: The ethnic heterogeneity of networks becomes higher over generations.

"Canadian resarch on educational attainment has focused mainly on ethnicity rather than [on] immigration status," Hagan, Dinovitzer and Parker note in their study of the achievement of Toronto-area immigrants (1999: 2). Yet the second and third generation often acquire human and social capital resources that afford them better opportunity and ability to form network ties with other ethnic groups, should they choose to do so (see also Zhou 1997; Rumberger and Larson 1998). In particular, we expect education to be positively associated with ethnic network heterogeneity because it provides social resources and opportunities to meet people from various ethnic groups. Better-educated people are more likely to form ties outside of their own ethnic group (Portes and Bach 1985; Fong and Isajiw 1999). Moreover, better-educated people of all kinds are more likely to have heterogeneous networks (Campbell et. al. 1986).

Hypothesis 1.3: The higher the level of education, the more likely it is that people will have ethnically heterogeneous networks.

Previous research on friendship networks has suggested that gender and age do not affect ethnic composition of friendship networks (Portes and Bach 1985; Fong and Isajiw 1999). Therefore, men and women or people of different ages should not differ in the extent of their inter-ethnic ties.

Hypothesis 1.4: Men and women do not differ in the ethnic heterogeneity of networks.

In a segmented labor market such as Toronto, people may only be able to mobilize limited resources from within their own ethnic group. Using inter-ethnic contacts may enable job searchers to gain access to the more diverse opportunities that lead to higher paying jobs. Overall, we may expect to find:

Hypothesis 2.1: Inter-ethnic ties help people gain access to higher income jobs.

The impact of inter-ethnic ties on income may not always be beneficial; it may differ depending on the position that ethnic groups occupy in the social hierarchy. For example, if densely-connected ethnic networks are predominantly in lower status, they may curtail social mobility. Only ethnic members who are able to reach beyond their intra-ethnic social circles will be able to locate employment opportunities. However, if job seekers belong to ethnic groups that have good job information, they do not have to move beyond their intra-ethnic networks to obtain good information.

The benefits of inter-ethnic ties are conditioned by the status of job-seekers’ ethnic groups in ethnically segmented markets. Using inter-ethnic ties can be a beneficial resource for people whose ethnic groups are concentrated in lower-paying jobs because it increases their options in the search for better information and for opportunities to act on such information. On the other hand, for people whose ethnic groups are concentrated in good jobs, intra-ethnic ties can be a more beneficial resource than inter-ethnic ties.

Hypothesis 2.2a: For the members of low-status ethnic groups, inter-ethnic ties are better than intra-ethnic ties for attaining higher income jobs.

Hypothesis 2.2b: For the members of high-status ethnic groups, intra-ethnic ties are better than inter-ethnic ties for attaining higher income jobs.

In all ethnic groups in North America, women tend to encounter more difficulty than men in obtaining good jobs. Two phenomena are at work. Women have more difficulty in getting jobs, and more difficulty in advancing their work status once they have a job. Previous research has suggested that women profit from having ties to one or men (Calzavara 1982; Stoloff, Glanville and Bienenstock 1999). By extension, heterogeneous ties may help women more than men of the same ethnic group.

In addition to the ethnicity of job-seekers, the ethnicity of job contacts may affect the benefit of inter-ethnic ties. The use of inter-ethnic ties may be advantageous only when members of low-status groups can use members of high-status ethnic groups.

Hypothesis 2.4: Inter-ethnic ties to job contacts in higher-status ethnic groups are more rewarding than ties to contacts in lower-status groups.

These data were collected 1978-1979 in the "Ethnic Pluralism in an Urban Setting Research Project" (Breton et. al. 1981). The overall sample contains 2,338 residents between the ages of 18 and 65, who belong to one of ten ethnic groups in Toronto. Because one of the aims of this analysis is to examine the impact of generation of immigration, we included in this study only the five ethnic groups about whom we have generation information: English, German, Italian, Jewish, and Ukrainian.

We examine here all surveyed members of these ethnic groups who used personal contacts for their job search, a total of 581 (see Table 1.2). However, when testing the strength of inter-ethnic ties on income attainment, however, we include only full-time workers to better compare differences in the income levels of ethnic groups (N=469). Such job contact networks have a significant implication for the niche formation and job allocation of these five ethnic groups in Toronto: More members of each ethnic group use personal contacts in getting a job than use other methods such as direct application, newspaper want ads, private employment agencies, the government-operated Canada Manpower agency, or union referrals. Jews have the highest rate of using personal contacts (54%) and Ukrainians the lowest (40%).

Ethnicity of the Contact Used for Getting a Job: Respondents were asked about the person who provided help in the job search, the question being, "Was this person also <same ethnic group>?" If respondents answered "yes," the tie was coded as intra-ethnic. If they answered "no," the tie was coded as inter-ethnic.

Generation: First generation immigrants are coded "1" the second generation as "2",and "3" for third generation.

Education: Years of education completed by the respondents, divided into (1) people who completed less than 14 years of education; (2) those who completed more than 14 years of education.

Gender: Male = 1, female = 2.

Age: In years. Only people between the ages of 18 and 65 and working in the labor market were included. For loglinear analysis, age was divided into categories spanning 15 years.

Ethnic Heterogeneity of Friendship Networks: Preliminary research related analyzed the ethnic heterogeneity of the job seekers’ friendship networks. Coding of the ethnic heterogeneity of networks was based on the question that asks the ethnicity of the respondent’s three closest network members. If none or one of the network members is from the same ethnic group, the network is coded as heterogeneous. If two or three of the network members are from the same ethnic group, the friendship network is coded as homogenous.

Income: Annual job income of the respondent in 1978 (before taxes), expressed as the mean of a closed-ended range (see Calzavara 1982 for details).

Ethnicity of the Contact Used for Getting a Job: Respondents were asked about the person who provided help in the job search, the question being, "Was this person also <same ethnic group>?" If the respondent answered "yes," coded as an intra-ethnic tie. If answered "no," coded as an inter-ethnic tie: and further information about the network member’s ethnicity was gathered. Western and Northern European ethnic groups were coded as having relatively high social status. Other ethnic groups were coded as having relatively low social status: Southern and Eastern Europeans, Asians and Blacks.

Torontonians make use of both intra-ethnic and inter-ethnic ties for job referral. Their use of inter-ethnic ties in job seeking is related to:

(1) The ethnic heterogeneity of the friendship network and the ethnicity of the job contact.

(2) The generation, education, and ethnic heterogeneity of the friendship network.

(3) The age, generation, and ethnicity of the job contact.

Friendship Network Heterogeneity and Inter-Ethnic Ties: Job seekers who have ethnically heterogeneous networks are more likely to use inter-ethnic contacts, confirming Hypothesis 1.1 (Table 2.1). Almost 60% of the people who have heterogeneous networks (at least two of their closest friends are to another ethnic group) have job contacts with people of other ethnic groups. By contrast, only 15% of the people whose networks are homogeneous have job contacts with members of other ethnic groups. For those with heterogeneous networks, the odds of using an inter-ethnic job contact are 1:1.35. For those with homogeneous networks it is significantly lower, 1:0.18. These results suggest that people who are in ethnically heterogeneous networks are more apt to access the diverse opportunities outside of their own ethnic group.

Table 2.1

x² = 89.22 (significance < .001) Missing Cases = 125

Generation, Education and Ethnic Composition of Networks: The ethnic heterogeneity of friendship networks increases over generation of immigration, confirming Hypothesis 1.2. The third generation has more heterogeneous ties than the second generation, which, in turn, has more heterogeneous ties than the first generation. The longer people have resided in Canada, the greater the availability of heterogeneous social capital.

Education affects the ethnic composition of friendship networks differently in each generation (Table 2.2). For the first generation, immigrants from another country, education is positively related to being in heterogeneous friendship networks. About half (48%) of first generation immigrants with post-secondary education are in heterogeneous networks as compared to 26% of those with less education, confirming Hypothesis 1.3. Those who lack post-secondary education more often lack communication skills in English and are more likely to live in ethnically homogenous neighborhoods (Kalbach 1991; Portes 1998). Such contexts tend to produce ethnically homogeneous networks (Breton 1964). By contrast, post-secondary education can be the first generation’s path to interaction with the host society.

Table 2.2

Post-secondary education has an opposite effect for the second generation. Although half (52%) of people with high school level education or less have heterogeneous friendship networks, only (35%) of people with post-secondary education have such networks. And for the third generation, education does not have any significant effect. For example, a majority of those with less than high school education (64%) or with post-secondary education (59%) have heterogeneous friendship networks.

Generation, Age, and Ethnic Composition of Networks: Members of the third generation are the grandchildren of immigrants. By this time, most people have developed ethnically heterogeneous networks regardless of their educational levels (Table 2.2). This generation is the only generation where age – not education – is associated with the use of inter-ethnic ties (Table 2.3). Having lived more years in Canada, older members of the third generation are more likely than younger members to have accumulated useful job-related inter-ethnic ties and use them for job referral.

Table 2.3

Percentage Using Inter-ethnic Ties by Generation and Age

Each succeeding generation is more likely to be in heterogeneous networks. With the second, and especially the third, generations, only a minority are exclusively involved with members of their own ethnic groups. At the outset, the better educated members of the first generation are more apt to have network members outside of their ethnic boundaries. But as the generations develop and opportunities for inter-ethnic relationships become more widespread, it may be a subset of better educated people who are more apt to have ethnically homogeneous networks as they choose to make professional or business careers in niches within the ethnic community (see Portes and Jensen 1989). For the better educated in later generations, having some knowledge of one’s ethnic language and enjoying ethnic topics with friends may be an expression of symbolic ethnicity and reflection of cultural capital (Alba 1990).

Both men and women who use inter-ethnic ties attain higher income when they use inter-ethnic job contacts. Women who use inter-ethnic ties for job searches have a 10% higher income ($11,179) than women who use intra-ethnic ties ($10,194; see Table 3.1). By contrast, men who use inter-ethnic contacts only have a 2% higher mean income ($17,278) than men who use intra-ethnic ties ($16,955), a difference of $323. Women are more concentrated in lower paying jobs. In particular, because of the double burden of paid work and domestic work, more women in lower-status ethnic groups work in low-paying jobs (Boyd 1984). Those in lower-status groups who use intra-ethnic contacts are more likely to get low-paying jobs because their contacts (usually of the same gender) are likely to be in low-paying jobs. Hence ethnically homogeneous networks are less advantageous for women than for men. Those women who use inter-ethnic ties are more likely than men to go beyond the lowest income jobs which their co-ethnics hold. However, Hypothesis 2.1 is not confirmed: We do not find any relationship between using inter-ethnic ties and income level when we analyze the sample as a whole. This is because inter-ethnic ties are not necessarily beneficial for the members of all ethnic groups.

Table 3.1

Note: Only people using personal contacts were included in the sample

Ethnicity and Gender of Job Seekers: When we take into account the socioeconomic status of ethnic groups, we find important relationships between having intra-ethnic and inter-ethnic ties and the average income attained of each ethnic group. Inter-ethnic ties are beneficial for job-seekers of low status ethnic groups, confirming Hypothesis 2.2a (Table 3.2). For example, even though the majority (83%) of Italian men and women rely on intra-ethnic ties, inter-ethnic ties provide them with higher paying jobs: Italian men obtain a 15% higher income and Italian women obtain a 22% higher income. About 40% of Ukranians use inter-ethnic ties for job referral, and these ties tend to lead to higher-paying jobs. For Ukrainian men, the use of inter-ethnic ties is associated with a 45% higher income although there is no significant increase for Ukranian women.

Table 3.2

Ethnicity of Contact and Mean Income of Males and Females by Ethnic Groups

Note: "% Difference" describes the relative increase (decrease) in income for using inter-ethnic ties, as compared with using intra-ethnic ties

By contrast, intra-ethnic ties -- not inter-ethnic ties -- are beneficial for job seekers in high status ethnic groups, confirming Hypothesis 2.2b (Table 3.2). Because both English and German Canadians tend to have higher income jobs, intra-ethnic ties provide better income opportunities for them. For example, 85% of the English who use personal contacts use intra-ethnic ties. English men who use intra-ethnic ties have significantly higher incomes (mean =$20,510) than those who use inter-ethnic ties ($14,125). For English women, the use of intra-ethnic ties ($11,038) is somewhat better than the use of inter-ethnic ties ($10,929). A similar situation exists for German men and women (see also Reitz 1991). Thus the higher the position of the ethnic group in which the job seeker belongs, the more beneficial are intra-ethnic ties.

The situation for Jewish men is anomalous, but understandable considering the discrimination and segregation that Jews have experienced in Toronto (Porter 1965; Kelner 1969, 1970; Newman 1975-1981; Reitz 1991). Although Jews have high status, Jewish men have 20% higher incomes when they use inter-ethnic ties. We believe this is because such ties help Jewish men to cross (weakening) barriers of segregation.

There is equivocal evidence that ethnically-heterogeneous networks are more beneficial for women than for men (Hypothesis 2.3). Supporting the hypothesis, inter-ethnic ties are associated with a 10% higher income for women but only a 2% higher increase for men (Table 3.1). More detailed analysis shows that this greater advantage for women is limited to just the Jewish and Italian ethnic groups, where women's advantages for using inter-ethnic ties rather than intra-ethnic ties is 71% and 22% respectively (Table 3.2). There is no appreciable difference for English, German or Ukranian women.

Ethnicity of Job Contacts: We have shown that intra-ethnic contacts are good for job-seekers who are members of high-status ethnic groups while inter-ethnic contacts are good for members of low-status ethnic groups. How is the status of job contacts related to income attainment? Consistent with Hypothesis 2.4, people who have job contacts with members of higher-status ethnic groups (northern and western European) generally have higher incomes than those whose contacts are with members of lower-status groups (see Table 3.3). For example, Ukrainian men who received help from the members of high status ethnic groups have attained a mean income of $17,786, as compared to a mean income of $10,500 for those who received help from lower status inter-ethnic contacts. In general, using inter-ethnic ties with members of high-status groups is more closely associated with higher incomes than is using inter-ethnic ties with members of low-status groups. However, the intra-ethnic ties of the highest status ethnic group (English men) with English job contacts are significantly more beneficial ($20,510) than their contacts with other higher-status ethnic groups ($17,000) and much more beneficial ($17,000) than their contacts with low-status ethnic groups ($5,500).

A. Members of all five ethnic groups make use of both intra-ethnic and inter-ethnic ties. However, the composition of their friendship networks significantly affects the type of ties they use. More than 80% of those job seekers whose friendship networks are ethnically homogenous use ties within their own ethnic group. By contrast, almost 60% of those job seekers whose networks are ethnically heterogeneous use ties outside of their own ethnic group.

1. In general, the more recent the generation of immigration, the more likely people are to be in ethnically homogeneous networks and not have access to the social capital of other, often higher-status, ethnic groups.

2. Higher educational attainment among first generation immigrants is associated with more ethnically heterogeneous friendship networks. Therefore, more highly educated immigrant groups have more access to social capital in the host society.

3. Later generations are more likely to be in heterogeneous friendship networks and are more likely to use inter-ethnic ties for job searches. They are more apt to have access to social capital outside of their own ethnic group.

4. By contrast to the situation among the first generation, it is the more highly-educated members of the second and third generation who are more apt to be in ethnically homogeneous networks. Such people appear to have found occupational and social niches within their ethnic groups (Merton 1957).

5. Older members of the third generation, who have had the most opportunity over the years to forge inter-ethnic ties, are more apt than younger members of their generation to have inter-ethnic ties.

C. Ethnicity and gender are related to income:

6. When members of low-status ethnic groups use inter-ethnic ties in job searches, they tend to obtain higher mean incomes.

7. Female members of low-status ethnic groups tend to have higher mean incomes when they use inter-ethnic ties. Most likely, this is because other women in their ethnic group (their probable intra-ethnic ties) tend to have low incomes.

8. Members of two high-status groups, English and German Canadians, obtain higher incomes when they use ties within their own ethnic group.

9. Although Jewish Canadians have high occupational levels, they obtain higher incomes using inter-ethnic ties with high-status job contacts.

Using inter-ethnic ties in an ethnically segmented labor market like Toronto can help people to gain access to diverse resources beyond their homogeneous networks. However, the benefit of inter-ethnic ties is conditioned by the resources that each ethnic group can provide. Access to social capital beyond an ethnic group’s boundary benefits members of those ethnic groups who are concentrated in lower paying jobs. It also helps members of low-status ethnic groups to gain access to higher income jobs. It helps high-status, but somewhat segregated, Jews, to gain access to even higher-income jobs. But for the members of mainstream, high-status ethnic groups, such as the English and Germans, using intra-ethnic ties is associated with higher income.

The advantage of using inter-ethnic ties is conditional on the positions of the ethnic groups to which job seekers and job contacts belong. Not all inter-ethnic ties are necessarily beneficial even for the group members of the ethnic group that are more likely to be concentrated in the occupation with lower resources. If the contact is with ethnic groups of higher economic status such as western and northern Europeans, the use of inter-ethnic ties is more rewarding than are ties with members of lower-status groups such as southern and eastern Europeans.

Job contacts are "network capital" (Wellman and Frank 2000), a form of social capital (Borgatti 1998). Access to network capital through heterogeneous networks can significantly affect the life chances of members of low-status ethnic groups: the job-seekers themselves, their households and their succeeding generations. Getting a high-status, well-paying job provides a way to transform social capital into financial capital (earnings), human capital (skills acquisition) and further social capital (contacts to people and organizations formed on the job).

Heterogeneous networks also provide social capital in ways that transcend both ethnicity and job searches by linking ethnic groups and the mainstream society. Inter-ethnic ties between people are also ties between different ethnic groups. Thus Ferrand, Mounier and Degenne (1999) have shown how interpersonal networks both link and isolate French occupational groups. For example, French executives tend to be linked with other executives, professionals, and sales workers, but rarely with clerks and blue-collar workers. These links between groups provide the structural basis for the informal and formal connectivity that is the "social capital" basis of an integrated society (Putnam 2000).

Lessons Learned

1. We need to compare the effects of the strength of inter-ethnic ties versus intra-ethnic ties in different urban contexts. Toronto, one of the supremely multiethnic cities in the world, may not represent the dynamics of personal networks in other milieus. The resources that members of each ethnic group can mobilize surely varies by labor market. Making inter-city comparisons would help clarify how different social contexts can make inter-ethnic ties advantageous or disadvantageous.

2. Our analysis is based on data collected in 1978-1979. Although Toronto has continued as a multiethnic city, there have been changes in the city's position in the world economy, the local labor market, and the composition of the immigration stream. Moreover, the situation of each of the ethnic groups studied has changed considerably in the past two decades. Reitz and associates recently showed (1999) that immigrant groups from northern Europe are doing better than immigrants from southern European or non-white immigrant groups. This implies that an ethnic hierarchy continues to exist in Toronto’s labor market, in which those of northern European origin control better resources. However, it would be desirable to collect information reflecting labor market segmentation across ethnic lines today and examine the outcome of job search in and out of ethnic social networks.

3. Limitations of our data forced us to make the simplifying assertion that a tie to a member of a high (or low) status ethnic group indicates a tie to a high (or low) status individual. Although group context can be important, it would be desirable to know more about the socioeconomic status of the particular people in a job searcher’s network.

4. We need to analyze how visible minority members use intra-ethnic and inter-ethnic ties in their job searches. Our analysis only looks at the benefit of inter-ethnic ties among immigrants or later generations of white, European origin. Yet the proportion of immigrants from Asia, Africa, and Latin America to North America has been increasing significantly over the past thirty years.The effects of inter-ethnic ties may differentially affect these newly-immigrated, visible-minority groups. Moreover, one such group, Chinese immigrants from Hong Kong, tend to arrive with atypically high wealth, education and job status (Salaff, Fong and Wong 1999). It is essential to compare the resources that visible minorities can mobilize within and outside of their ethnic groups.

5. As people change their networks, the resources they can mobilize from networks also change. We need to do longitudinal analysis to examine the changing dynamics of networks as resources and how these networks structure the incorporation of various groups into the larger structure of society.

References

Alba, Richard D. 1990. Ethnic Identity: The Transformation of White America. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Anderson, Grace M. 1974. Networks of Contact: The Portuguese and Toronto. Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfrid Laurier University.

Bauer, Thomas and Klaus F. Zimmermann. 1997. "Network Migration of Ethnic Germans." International Migration Review 31:143-149.

Bailey, Thomas and Roger Waldinger. 1991. "Primary, Secondary, and Enclave Labor Markets: A Training Systems Approach." American Journal of Sociology 56: 432-445.

Becker, Gary S. 1992. "Human Capital and the Economy." Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 136:85-92.

Borgatti, Stephen P., Candace Jones, and Martin G Everett. 1998. "Network Measures of Social Capital." Connections 21: 27-36.

Boyd, Monica. 1984. "At a Disadvantage: The Occupational Attainments of Foreign Born Women in Canada." International Migration Review 18:1091-1119.

Boyd, Monica. 1989. "Family and Personal Networks in International Migration: Recent Developments and New Agendas." International Migration Review 23: 638-670.

Breton, Raymond 1964 "Institutional Completeness of Ethnic Communities and the Personal Relations of Immigrants." American Journal of Sociology 70:193-205.

Breton, Raymond, Wsevolod W. Isajiw, Warren E. Kalbach, and Jeffrey G. Reitz. 1981. "Ethnic Pluralism in an Urban Setting: Conceptual and Technical Overview of Research Project." Research Paper No. 121. Toronto: Centre for Urban and Community Studies, University of Toronto.

Breton, Raymond, Wsevolod W. Isajiw, Warren E. Kalbach, and Jeffrey G. Reitz. 1991. Ethnic Identity and Equality: Varieties of Experiences in a Canadian City. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Calzavara, Liviana M. 1982. "Social Networks and Access to Job Opportunities." Doctoral Dissertation, Department of Sociology, University of Toronto.

Calzavara, Liviana M. 1983. "Social Networks and Access to Jobs: A Study of Five Ethnic Groups in Toronto." Research Paper No. 145. Toronto: Centre for Urban and Community Studies, University of Toronto.

Campbell, Karen E., Peter V. Marsden, and Jeanne S. Hurlbert. 1986. "Social Resources and Socioeconomic Status." Social Networks 8: 97-117.

Cobas, Jose A. and Ione DeOllos. 1989. "Family Ties, Co-Ethnic Bonds, and Ethnic Entrepreneurship." Sociological Perspectives 32: 403-411.

Cobas, Jose A., Mikel Aickin, and Douglas S. Jardine. 1993. "Industrial Segmentation, the Ethnic Economy, and Job Mobility: The Case of Cuban Exiles in Florida." Quality and Quantity 27: 249-270.

Espinoza, Vicente. 1999. "Social Networks Among the Urban Poor: Inequality and Integration in a Latin American City." Pp. 147-184 in Networks in the Global Village: Life in Contemporary Communities, edited by Barry Wellman. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Fong, Eric and Wsevolod W. Isajiw. 1999. " Determinants of Friendship Choices in Multiethnic Society." Sociological Forum: forthcoming.

Ferrand, Alexis, Lise Mounier, and Alain Degenne. 1999. "The Diversity of Personal Networks in France: Social Stratification and Relational Structures." Pp. 185-224 in Networks in the Global Village: Life in Contemporary Communities, edited by Barry Wellman. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Fernandez-Kelly, M. Patricia. 1995. "Social and Cultural Capital in the Urban Ghetto: Implications for the Economic Sociology of Immigration." Pp. 213-247 in The Economic Sociology of Immigration: Essays on Networks, Ethnicity and Entrepreneurship, edited by Alejandro Portes. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Gans, Herbert J. 1962. The Urban Villagers: Group and Class in the Life of Italian-Americans. New York: Free Press.

Granovetter, Mark S. 1973. "The Strength of Weak Ties." American Journal of Sociology 78: 105-130.

Granovetter, Mark S. 1974/1994. Getting a Job: A Study of Contacts and Careers. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Granovetter, Mark S. 1982. "Who Gets Ahead? The Determinants of Economic Success in America." Theory and Society 11: 257-262.

Hagan, John, Ronit Dinovitzer and Patricia Parker. 1999. "Choice and Circumstance: Social Capital and Planful Competence in the Attainments of the `One-and-a-Half’ Generation." Virtual Library Working Paper, Joint Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement - Toronto, July. Website: http://ceris.metropolis.net/vl/education/hagan1.html

Hondagnew-Sotelo, Pierrette 1994. "Regulating the Unregulated?: Domestic Workers and Social Networks." Social Problems 41:50-63.

Isajiw, Wsevolod W. 1990. "Ethnic Identity Retention." Pp. 34-91 in Ethnic Identity and Equality: Varieties of Experiences in a Canadian City, edited by Breton, Raymond, Wsevolod W. Isajiw, Warren E. Kalbach, and Jeffrey G. Reitz. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Kalbach, Warren E. 1990 "Ethnic Residential Segregation and Its Significance for the Individual in an Urban Setting."Pp. 34-91 in Ethnic Identity and Equality: Varieties of Experiences in a Canadian City, edited by Breton, Raymond, Wsevolod W. Isajiw, Warren E. Kalbach, and Jeffrey G. Reitz. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Kelner, Merrijoy. 1969. "The Elite Structure of Toronto: Ethnic Composition and Patterns of Recruitment." Doctoral thesis, Department of Sociology, University of Toronto.

Kelner, Merrijoy. 1970. "Ethnic Penetration into Toronto's Elite Structure." Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology 7: 128-137.

Koser, Khalid. 1997. "Social Networks and the Asylum Cycle: The Case of Iranians in the Netherlands." International Migration Review 31: 591-611.

Light, Ivan and Edna Bonacich. 1988. Immigrant Entrepreneurs: Koreans in Los Angeles, 1965-1982. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Lin, Nan and Mary Dumin. 1986. "Access to Occupations Through Social Ties." Social Networks 8:365-385.

Merton, Robert K. 1957. "Patterns of Influence: Cosmopolitans and Locals." Pp. 387-420 in Robert K. Merton, Social Theory and Social Structure., Glencoe, IL: Free Press.

Model, Suzanne. 1992. "The Ethnic Economy: Cubans and Chinese Reconsidered." Sociological Quarterly 33: 63-82.

Nee, Victor, Jimmy M. Sanders, and Scot Sernau. 1994. "Job Transitions in an Immigrant Metropolis: Ethnic Boundaries And The Mixed Economy." American Sociological Review 59: 849-872.

Newman, Peter C. 1975-1981. The Canadian Establishment. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart.

Porter, John. 1965 The Vertical Mosaic. Toronto: University of Toronto Press

Portes, Alejandro ed. 1995. Economic Sociology of Immigrants: Essays on Networks, Ethnicity, and Entrepreneurship. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Portes, Alejandro. 1998. "Social Capital: Its Origins and Applications in Modern Sociology." Annual Review of Sociology 24: 1-24.

Portes, Alejandro and Robert L. Bach. 1985. Latin Journey : Cuban and Mexican Immigrants in the United States. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Portes, Alejandro and Leif Jensen. 1989. "The Enclave and the Entrants: Patterns of Ethnic Enterprise in Miami before and after Mariel." American Sociological Review 54: 929-949.

Portes, Alejandro and Ruben Rumbaut. 1996. Immigrant America. 2d ed. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Putnam, Robert. 2000. Bowling Alone. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Reitz, Jeffrey G., Liviana M Calzavara, and Donna Dasko. 1981. "Ethnic Inequality and Segregation in Jobs." Research Paper No. 123. Toronto: Centre for Urban and Community Studies, University of Toronto.

Reitz, Jeffrey G. 1990. "Ethnic Concentrations in Labour Markets and Their Implications for Ethnic Inequality." Pp. 135-195 in Ethnic Identity and Equality: Varieties of Experiences in a Canadian City, edited by Breton, Raymond, Wsevolod W. Isajiw, Warren E. Kalbach, and Jeffrey G. Reitz. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Reitz, Jeffrey G. and Sherrilyn M. Sklar. 1997. "Culture, Race, and the Economic Assimilation of Immigrants." Sociological Forum 12: 233-277.

Reitz, Jeffrey G., Joachim R. Frick, Tony Calabrese, and Gert C. Wagner. 1999 "The institutional framework of ethnic employment disadvantage: a comparison of Germany and Canada." Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 25:397-443.

Richmond, Anthony H. and R. P. Verma, 1978. "Income Inequality in Canada: Ethnic and Generational Aspects." Canadian Studies in Population 5: 25-36.

Rose, Damaris, Pia Carrasco and Johanne Charboneau. 1999. "The Role of `Weak Ties’ in the Settlement Experiences of Immigrant Women with Young Children: The Case of Central Americans in Montréal." Working Paper, Joint Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement-Toronto, June. Website: http://ceris.metropolis.net/vl/community/rose1.html

Rumberger, Russell and Katherine Larson. 1998. "Towards Explaining Differences in Educational Achievement among Mexican American Language-Minority Students." Sociology of Education 71: 69-93.

Salaff, Janet W., Eric Fong, and Siu-lun Wong, 1999. "Using Social Networks to Exit Hong Kong." Pp. 229-330 in Networks in the Global Village: Life in Contemporary Communities, edited by Barry Wellman. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Sanders, Jimmy and Victor Nee. 1996. "Immigrant Self-Employment: The Family as Social Capital and the Value of Human Capital." American Sociological Review 61: 231-249.

Stoloff, Jennifer A., Jennifer L. Glanville, and Elisa Jayne Bienenstock. 1999 "Women’s Participation in the Labor Force: The Role of Social Network." Social Networks 21:91-108.

Turrittin, Jane. S. 1976. "Networks and Mobility: the Case of West Indian Domestics from Montserrat." Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology 13:305-320.

Waldinger, Roger. 1993. "The Ethnic Enclave Debate Revisited." International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 17: 444-452.

Waldinger, Roger. 1994. "The Making of an Immigrant Niche." International Migration Review 28: 3-30.

Waldinger, Roger and Joel Perlmann. 1999. "Second Generations." Pp. 240-57 in Sociology for the Twenty-First Century, edited by Janet Abu-Lughod. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Wellman, Barry 1988. "The Community Question Re-Evaluated." Comparative Urban and Community Research 1: 81-107.

Wellman, Barry and Kenneth Frank. 2000. "Network Capital in a Multi-Level World: Getting Support in Personal Communities." Forthcoming in Social Capital, edited by Nan Lin, Ronald Burt and Karen Cook. Chicago: Aldine-DeGruyter

Wellman, Barry and Barry Leighton. 1979. "Networks, Neighborhoods, and Communities: Approaches to the Study of the Community Question." Urban Affairs Quarterly 14: 363-390.

Wellman, Barry and Scot Wortley. 1990. "Different Strokes from Different Folks: Community Ties and Social Support." American Journal of Sociology 96:558-588.

Wiley, Norbert. 1967. "The Ethnic Mobility Trap and Stratification Theory." Social Problems 15:147-159.

Wilson, Kenneth L. and Alejandro Portes. 1980. "Immigrant Enclaves: Analysis of the Labor Market Experiences of Cubans in Miami." American Journal of Sociology 86:305-319.

Zhou, Min. 1997. "Growing Up American." Annual Review of Sociology 23: 63-95.

Zhou, Min and John Logan. 1989. "Return on Human Capital in Ethnic Enclaves: New York City's Chinatown. American Sociological Review 54:809-820.

Zimmer, Catherine and Howard E. Aldrich, 1987. "Resource Mobilization Through Ethnic Networks:Kinship and Friendship Ties of Shopkeepers in England." Sociological Perspectives 30: 422-455.

1. We thank Raymond Breton, Wsevolod W. Isajiw and Jefferey Reitz, the principal investigators of the original study, for providing the data sets that we analyze here and Liviana Mostacci Calzavara for advice about analyzing these data.
2. The proportion of people who are working in different occupations changes over time. As our analysis is based on data conducted in 1979, we use labor market information from the late 1970's and the early 1980's.
3. We discuss high/low status ethnic groups here - and not individuals - because we are interested in the milieus in which job seekers are located.
4. The sample includes people who used formal referrals, such as an employment agency, Canada Manpower, unions and newspapers. It also includes those who applied directly to the employer but who also received initial help from personal contacts. Students and self-employed people are excluded because they were not asked about job referral. Part-time workers (N=78), and unemployed, retired, disabled, and house wives (N=34) were excluded from analysis to aid comparison of incomes.
   
5. The question asks: "Think of your three closest friends who are not relatives. Of these three friends how many are from the same ethnic group?" The question regarding the ethnicity of the contacts used for finding jobs has a large number of missing answers, leading to a reduced sample size of 455. The first reason for this is a problem in interviewing. Some people who were approached with job offers by their prospective employers were not asked to give information about their employers' ethnicities (Calzavara 1982:61). The second reason is some people did not want to answer the question even if they know their job contacts' ethnicity because ethnicity can be a sensitive and personal issue. Third, in a multicultural society such as Canada, it is often difficult for people to know the ethnic background of their network members.
6. For the same reason that was discussed in the previous note, a large number of missing variables regarding the ethnicity of the contact decreased the sample size to 331.
7. Although cross tabulation cannot control the effect of all other variables in the model, to aid clarity, we present simple cross-classifications. The final loglinear model found one two-way and two three-way relationships among the variables at the .01 significance level.
8. As expected, there was no significant impact of gender and age on the maintenance of ethnic friendship networks (Hypothesis 1.4 and 1.5 are confirmed.)
9. Results from the Table 3.2 should be treated with caution due to the small cell sizes.
10. The only exception is German males. Using inter-ethnic ties from lower-status ethnic groups was more rewarding for them. However, this anomalous result is affected by one outlying case where a person attained a very high income after using a Hungarian contact
    

		Updated February 09, 2004