Social support networks and loneliness of Polish migrants in the Netherlands

Abstract

While the concept of transnationalism has gained widespread popularity among scholars as a way to describe immigrants’ long-term maintenance of cross-border ties, few studies have empirically addressed how social networks that connect migrants to each other and to nonmigrants in communities of origin are also associated with migrants’ well-being. We examined the extent to which social support networks of Polish migrants in the Netherlands serve as precursors of loneliness. Using information on confidant networks (The Families of Poles in the Netherlands, N = 1131) and latent class analysis, five networks types are identified based on the received emotional support provided by kin and non-kin residing in the Netherlands and abroad. Migrants with small, homogeneous and kin-based (restricted) networks are more likely to be lonely compared to migrants with other four network types. Addressing the relationship between transnational activities and migrants’ social networks, results suggest the host language proficiency is the most important predictor of large, heterogeneous, non-kin based networks in migrants. This study finds support that some transnational activates taking place in the host country are related to social networks in ways that promote integration, contrary to the notion that transnationalism is unrelated to the process of immigrant adaptation and assimilation.