Inequality in social capital between migrants and natives in the Netherlands

This study compares the networks and social capital of native Dutch inhabitants with that of migrants in the Netherlands. We discuss the research literature, come up with new predictions and provide empirical analyses. Our data stem from three different surveys. For the comparison of personal networks we used the Amenities and Services Utilization Survey (AVO, 1999, n = 13 122 of which about 9 percent belong to an ethnic minority). For the comparison of social capital we combined two other sets of data: the Survey of the Social Networks of the Dutch (SSND, 2000, n = 1 007, of which 7 percent belong to an ethnic minority) and a survey among residents of two disadvantaged neighborhoods in The Hague (n = 406, of which 70 percent belong to an ethnic minority, i. e., Moroccan, Turkish, Surinam, or Antillean). The first data allow for a comparison of core discussion networks (s. e. g. Marsden 1987, 1988), while the latter two allow to compare social capital delineated through the position generator (Lin/Dumin 1986). We found that personal networks are remarkably homogeneous with regard to ethnicity, but that the degree to which people associate with their own group differs between immigrant groups. Our results also indicate that meeting places in the Netherlands are segregated according to ethnicity. Finally, social capital of immigrants is drastically lower than that of migrants.