Reaching in: Meaning-making, receiving context and inequalities in refugees’ support networks

What types of social contacts and support networks do recent migrants build when arriving in their host countries? The literature on social capital stresses the distinction between bonding ties (to people from the same ethnic group) and bridging ties (to people from other groups) and discusses their respective effects on migrants. However, recent critics of these approaches suggest a closer examination of bonding and bridging ties as well as what meaning they have and how they manage the flow of resources. Following this lead, I suggest a dynamic and contextualised approach to social capital that rests upon a detailed understanding of the meaning-making within supportive ties. Empirically, the article investigates bridging ties that ‘reach in’ from recently arrived refugees to more established residents in Germany. I distinguish reaching-in links from reaching-in ties and argue that both interweave in complex ways with institutions and discourses in the host country. Furthermore, the analysis suggests network-related inequalities within the group of refugees. In particular, refugees’ ego-networks vary considerably with respect to possibilities to produce and convert social capital into other forms of capital, such as cultural capital.