Does Social Capital Always Affect Immigrant Employment? Analyzing the Mediating Effect of United States’ Cultural Context on the Relationship Between Social Capital and Immigrant Employment
Abstract
The paper investigates if culture mediates the relation between immigrants’ social capital and the likelihood of employment in a host country. It applies Social Capital Theory to predict potential effects of culture and then, conducts statistical tests on data for two distinct periods in United States history. Results are consistent with prior findings that social capital enhances the likelihood of employment for immigrants. In general, culture did not affect the efficacy of social capital on increasing the likelihood of immigrant employment, though there was an effect of culture on the quantity of bridging capital and immigrants’ trust in members of the host country. In particular, non-white immigrants had fewer bridging ties and lower levels of Trust in 2018, when the culture was significantly less hospitable to new immigrants on a number of factors.