Ties That Bind: Gender, Social Capital, and Economic Outcomes among Mexican Immigrants in the U.S.

Gretchen Livingston, University of Pennsylvania

With few exceptions, most sociologists have found that social capital is a beneficial tool in the process of immigrant adaptation. I argue, however, that much of the past work has been built upon erroneous assumptions and samples unrepresentative of female migrants. Therefore, the generalizability of these past results reporting highly beneficial wage effects of social capital are questionable. In particular, I argue that social capital may actually perpetuate traditional gender roles, and thus gender-based wage stratification within ethnic communities. By using Mexican Migration Project data, I am able to triangulate the past qualitative research regarding the relationship of gender, social ties, and economic outcomes, and provide one of the only quantitative analyses of the topic, which examines gender differences in the presence, composition, utilization, and economic returns to social ties, and explores possible mechanisms through which these gender differences may be operating.