As the Transforming Society article from earlier this week showed, migration remains a deeply contentious issue, especially in post-Brexit Britain. Migrants often occupy contradictory positions both as much-needed workers and also vilified threats to national security and Britain’s cultural identity. The voices of migrants themselves are rarely heard. How do migrants navigate these hostile environments? Who can they rely on to do so?
We often say that migrants rely on networks – for their migration journeys, and to cross borders, find jobs and accommodation, and navigate their way in a new society. However, the term ‘networks’ can be vague and covers a multitude of relationships. Networks can include close family and friends, as well as more distant relatives, neighbours, classmates, work colleagues and employers. That these diverse social ties exist is interesting in itself, but what is actually going on within these relationships? What resources are shared? Is the relationship positive and supportive or negative and exploitative? Is the tie strong or weak? Do these links endure or fizzle out over time? Do migrants tend to form relationships with others who share their ethnic, religious or migrant background?
I have been researching migration for over 20 years and have worked with migrants from many European countries, including Ireland, Poland and France, as well as those from the Middle East, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. My research has focused on London – a city defined by generations of migrants. Because I am curious about change over time, I have interviewed refugees, migrant workers, students and family migrants from the post-war era right up to the present day. Listening to their stories, I am keen to understand how they mobilise resources, through varied social relationships, to navigate hostile environments.
Maryam, originally from Somalia, arrived in London via a Kenyan refugee camp in the 1990s. Despite being highly educated, she faced deskilling, rejection and social isolation in the UK: “When people don’t know where you come from or what you had back home, they don’t respect you. I used to have everything, but you can lose everything.” In order to establish a new life in London, Maryam had to rebuild her social contacts from scratch: “People have different skills and I think I am blessed, you know; my friends call me ‘social capital’. I make friends with people very easily. I chat to everyone.” Maryam became active in women’s groups and forged links with others to challenge racism on a North London housing estate, later winning an award for her community work. Her story powerfully demonstrates how migrants may mobilise resources through social networks to help overcome social barriers.
While recognising the real challenges that migrants face, it is important to avoid simplistic images of them as victims of circumstances. Instead, it is more interesting to consider how they have actively sought to overcome social obstacles. While local neighbourhoods may be hostile, as they were for Maryam, it is also possible that social ties with neighbours can help forge a sense of belonging.
Martyna, a Polish woman in her 30s, is the mother of two sons who attend a school in South London. Through involvement at the school, Martyna made friends with her British neighbours. These new connections created a sense of belonging in the local community as Martyna and her family were invited to socialise and even attend a wedding with their new friends. In the lead-up to the 2016 Brexit referendum, Martyna felt rejected, stigmatised and vilified during anti-migrant public debates. However, on the morning after the referendum results, her British neighbours and friends called to say that they did not support Brexit and they hoped she would continue to feel welcome.
Of course, that is not to suggest that networks are necessarily always sources of positive support. Social ties can also involve abusive and exploitative relationships. Barry, now 92, left Ireland in the late 1940s to work in Britain’s post-war reconstruction. He recounted the role of subcontractors in the building trade who made large profits while paying their workers – mostly Irishmen – at a reduced rate. While co-ethnic networks may be a source of jobs, they can lead to ethnic clustering in exploitative employment.
Migrants may be let down or misled by people they trusted. Rukhsana, a marriage migrant from the Middle East, experienced domestic violence at the hands of her husband and his family, but she was able to escape that abuse with the help of a migrant association. She later volunteered for that organisation and set up a support group for other women. Her story shows the impact of different social ties, both formal and informal, and the need to look beyond ‘networks’ as a vague grouping to explore relationships and resources.
In attempting to go beyond the narrow picture of migrants as helpless victims or dangerous villains, we must listen to the diversity of their experiences. In telling their stories, migrants often demonstrate agency in navigating hostile environments. However, rather than being individual endeavours, relationality with others is a key aspect of these stories. Instead of seeing migrant networks as a whole entity, my work explores particular social ties. I seek to understand where, how and with whom migrants forge connections. By exploring the nature of these relationships and the resources flowing within them, I reveal how specific social ties may enable migrants to navigate, challenge and even overcome hostility.
Louise Ryan is Senior Professor of Sociology and Director of the Global Diversities and Inequalities Research Centre at London Metropolitan University.
Social Networks and Migration by Louise Ryan is available on the Bristol University Press website. Order here for £80.00.
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