Kinship Networks among Immigrants

Through a comparative framework that includes state policies of reception, the local labor market, the organization of the receiving community, and the migration history of the group in question, this paper analyses the effects of the receiving context on kinship-based networks among recent immigrants to California. Based on 80 intensive interviews among Salvadoreans, Vietnamese and Mexicans immigrants, this article seeks to explain the sustainability of kinship networks as well as their breakdown, which occurs at the place of destination. The article highlights the fruitfulness of comparing network outcomes across immigrant groups that face different contexts of reception.