Applying Social Network Analysis to the Study of Refugees

Abstract

Social network analysis (SNA) has recently become a key approach for migration scholars to understand how immigrants socialize and build personal connections in new environments, while maintaining ties to their former homes. Yet, the application of SNA approaches to refugee studies have been largely underdeveloped within political science. When refugees enter into new communities with preexisting social ties, which characteristics of these communities determine their prospects for integration? How can social network analysis offer valuable tools to understand the structures of refugee social networks in their communities of resettlement? This thesis builds an argument for greater exploration of SNA methods in the study of refugees by engaging with the academic literature on migration to illustrate how previous SNA research has largely focused on the networks of highly skilled migrants, failing to capture refugee social networks. A simulated agent-based model of refugee integration and suggestions for methodological innovations in the study of refugee social networks offer novel contributions to a scholarly effort to understand how community factors and policy choices enhance or inhibit refugee integration in host communities.