Navigating Networks of Support

This chapter focuses on the ways temporalities of migration can be observed through the aging immigrants' relations with their communities. It talks about older immigrants who remained in the United States and those who returned to Taiwan and developed strategies to organize their social relationships. It also elaborates how aging immigrants often grappled with belonging in the community when engaged in social networks. The chapter cites two groups of immigrants that adopted different approaches to their cross-border networks, wherein one group knew their place within their social relationships in the United States while returnees in Taiwan tried to reacclimate to communities they had once left. It compares how the processes through which the two groups of immigrants maintained relationships transcended national borders and motivated them to rethink membership in transnational communities.

Self-employment of Syrian refugees: unveiling social networks and human capital of food stall owners in Rio de Janeiro

Integration of immigrants in their host societies is a key-issue on the refugee crisis throughout the world. Self-employment appears as means of survival representing the so-called necessity-driven entrepreneurship, which is rather common among immigrant survival strategies. Syrians in Brazil are the fourth largest nationality to seek refuge in the country. Therefore, the present paper aims at analyzing how ethnic and local networks of support are configured and influence the creation of new businesses, such as food stalls and restaurants. For that purpose, an exploratory study through in-depth interviews was conducted with Syrians in Rio de Janeiro, generating reflections on the institutional picture as well as the hosting conditions of the country. Key-findings include contingency factors showing evidences that social capital is more a function of brokerage across structural holes than closure within a network articulation, the family network importance as well as the establishment of a local support network. Keywords: immigration, refugee, Syrians, Brazil, self-employment.

Developing Age-Friendly Programs in Greater Manchester, UK: Understanding the Role of Social Infrastructure

This paper considers the critical role of social infrastructure in building age-friendly communities. Drawing on two neighbourhood projects, the paper explores the benefits which different types of social connections bring for older people and the types of spaces in which these connections are produced. It provides support for the importance of ‘natural neighbourhood networks’(Gardner, 2011) by demonstrating how everyday encounters help promote informal networks of support. Following Klinenberg’s (2018) analysis of the importance of social infrastructure, the paper argues that the decline of local high streets, closure of libraries, and cuts to the maintenance of green spaces, reduce opportunities for face-to-face social interactions. The paper presents findings from two studies illustrating the importance of social infrastructure in supporting new forms of community action amongst older people. The paper concludes that that the value of social interactions that occur in everyday mundane spaces needs greater emphasis in public policy.

‘Everybody needs friends’: Emotions, social networks and digital media in the friendships of international students

The importance of kin relations and neighbourhoods has received considerable attention in research on transnational migration. Further, research in transnational families and digital media highlights the strategies for maintaining family relationships By contrast, research on friendship is currently limited and, more so, the centrality of the emotional aspects of friendships as intimacy as well as networks of support has received less attention, particularly from a culturally comparative perspective. Drawing on qualitative research in Melbourne ( n = 59) and Singapore ( n = 61), this article examines the ways in which international students invest in developing friendships with other international students based on shared circumstances in the cities in which they are living and studying. The article contributes to fields of literature in transnational migration and cross-cultural perspectives towards friendship and argues that the kinds of friendship forged by the experiences of international students are significant for capturing an aspect of the diversity of migrant relationships.

Children of Revolutionaries under Stress: The Case of the Bordeaux Girondins

This article is part of a study of the families of French revolutionaries. Many leading politicians had young children and often suffered disproportionately from family disruption, internal exile, imprisonment or death in the years 1793–95. This sample focuses on families of ten Girondin deputés to the Convention, most of whom were executed during the Terror. Based in the commercial port of Bordeaux, several of these families were linked by marriage or friendship. It considers their survival strategies, networks of support, and the trajectories of certain children. The (controversial) reputation of the Girondins was later defended by some of their descendants resulting in Bordeaux's Monument to them, dating from 1901.

Transnational Networks of Support

United by a culture of solidarity and political protest, the working-class community revealed in the periodical España Libre was favored by various networks of support. These included networks associated with the Second Spanish Republican government and politicians in exile; labor unions both within and outside the United States; educators, including Spanish academics and the Modern Schools; as well as Spanish-language and radical publishers operating in Europe and South America. Through the alternative press and fundraising events, exiles met other migrant, ethnic, and radical individuals and maintained a sense of trust and community so necessary to avoid the isolation of exile. On the contrary, ethnic and radical networks strengthened the Confederadas in its commitment to generating its own non-institutionalized and transnational modes of collective organization.