Development of a Culturally Specific Career Exploration Group for Urban Chinese Immigrant Youth

A rapid increase in the number of Chinese immigrants and the specific challenges faced by low‐income Chinese immigrant youth attending urban schools warrant culturally sensitive school‐based interventions and services. However, research and services are limited for this population because of cultural biases in traditional career theories and the “model minority” myth suggesting that Asian students are excelling. The authors developed and implemented a culturally specific career exploration group for low‐income Chinese immigrant youth to address their career concerns with respect to multiple social and cultural factors and to provide social support. Implications for future program development and research are provided.     

Women with disabilities making the transition back to work: Psychosocial barriers and interventions

The economic impact of disability on employment, earnings, and education appears to be more devastating for women than for men. Women with disabilities who are making the transition either back into the workforce or into the workforce for the first time often face barriers that are unique to this population. Many researchers have described women with disabilities as having a "double disadvantage" that results in social and psychological barriers to their transition back to work. The purpose of this article is to help vocational and career development programs better address the psychosocial needs of women with disabilities by (a) describing key psychosocial barriers faced by women with disabilities in their transition back to work and (b) providing career development strategies designed to ease this transition process for women with disabilities and enhance their employment outcomes.     

The Role of Social Networks in Immigrant Women’s Political Incorporation

This article examines how immigrant women’s social networks affect their propensity to vote and to participate in unconventional political activities, as well as their knowledge of politics and government services and programs. Our primary source of data is a telephone survey of women living in Canada’s two largest metropolitan areas. Our findings show that contrary to the social capital literature, bonding ties do not exert strong negative effects on political incorporation, while bridging ties are not as helpful as hypothesized. What is important for immigrant women are the resources that are embedded in their social networks.     

School‐to‐Work Transition of Career and Technical Education Graduates

This study analyzed the career development of career and technical education (CTE) high school graduates during their school‐to‐work transition, specifically their adaptability in the face of barriers. Forty graduates (22 men, 18 women) from working‐class backgrounds participated in baseline surveys at graduation and phenomenological interviews 1 year postgraduation. Primary themes were job loss altered career plans, whereas relevant jobs propelled career development; limited access to college constrained options, whereas college experience expanded options; graduates experienced the loss of education‐related support, and CTE served as a backup plan. Teachers and school counselors emphasized organizational barriers including limited staffing for upper level math courses and inconsistent workplace partnerships.     

Career Experiences of Women With Major Financial Barriers

The career experiences of women facing major financial barriers are unique and varied. To better understand and assist such women, the authors interviewed 10 women twice to explore their lived career experiences, using photographs in one interview as stimuli to increase participants' voice and triangulate data. Participants' responses were grouped into 20 themes across 4 domains: career as privilege, reasons for engaging in work, supports, and barriers. Women with major financial barriers appear to understand career as a privilege while experiencing significant obstacles to successfully obtaining work. Participants expressed resiliency and self‐motivation to transcend and mitigate these obstacles. This study indicates a need for increased focus on the career development and engagement of marginalized populations in career counseling theory, assessment, and practice while suggesting practical interventions.     

Predictors of Student and Career Decision‐Making Self‐Efficacy Among Nontraditional College Women

A study of 354 nontraditional college women found robust levels of confidence in their ability to manage the student role and pursue career‐related tasks. Findings indicated that perceived career barriers and social support accounted for variance in student and career decision‐making self‐efficacy for nontraditional college women with and without children. Social support added to the prediction of self‐efficacy over and above the contribution of perceived barriers. The discussion focuses on recommendations for career counseling interventions to facilitate educational and vocational success among nontraditional college women.     

Role Conflict and Career Advancement Among African American Women in Nontraditional Professions

To investigate differences in the career experiences of Black women in traditional and nontraditional professions, a sample of Black professional women in traditional (e.g., social work, teaching, counseling) and nontraditional (e.g., law, medicine, engineering) professions were mailed a questionnaire asking about career experiences, family life, and other personal characteristics. Marriage was reported to be more of a career barrier for nontraditionals than traditionals. Nontraditionals also reported more career-related marital discord than did traditionals. Nontraditionals were more likely to report barriers to career success such as racial and gender discrimination, limited opportunities to develop political clout, and colleagues' doubts about their competence. Nontraditionals also reported less peer support than did traditionals.     

Social Capital Investment and Immigrant Economic Trajectories: A Case Study of Punjabi American Taxi Drivers in New York City

Although the scholarship on social capital and immigrant economic incorporation has sufficiently documented how immigrants mobilize social capital in their search for employment which often leads to the formation of immigrant niches, how social capital is processed after immigrants acquire employment and its significance for the preservation of immigrant employment niches is less well explored. This paper addresses this gap in the literature with a case study of immigrant Punjabi taxi drivers in the New York metropolitan area. In particular, this study shows how a group of immigrant Punjabi taxi drivers mobilized social capital via embeddedness in co‐ethnic social networks and improved their working conditions – a process that must be considered in explanations of the Punjabi niche in the taxi industry for more than two decades. The study has implications for the relationship between social capital and the structure of the workplace or industry where immigrants are incorporated and its subsequent impact on immigrant economic trajectories. Further, this study contributes to the debate on the usefulness of ethnic communities for the adaptation of immigrant groups. Additionally, this research is relevant to the scholarship on the economic adaptation of South Asian (a subset of Asian Americans) immigrants, an understudied immigrant group in the United States.     

Identity Crisis and Integration: The Divergent Attitudes of Iranian Immigrant Men and Women towards Integration into Swedish Society

The main objective of this article is to show the divergent attitudes of Iranian immigrant men and women towards integration into Swedish society.
As several studies have shown, Iranian women have a better chance of adjusting to Western societies than Iranian men. This article discusses the notion that one of the important reasons for this is the determining role of professional position in the life of Iranian immigrants in Sweden.
As a result of the improvement in their work status and therefore an improvement in their social position, Iranian immigrant women now have greater possibilities than Iranian immigrant men to overcome the identity crisis which ordinarily makes ethnic groups and cultural minorities lose their sense of fitting into their new social reality.
This results, in its turn, in the women having a positive attitude towards the new society and increases the extent of their desire for integration into the new society.     

Cultural Influences on Immigrant Women's Labor Force Participation: The Arab‐American Case1

Research on the economic activity of immigrant women has flourished in recent years. The current study extends this literature to examine the labor force activity of Arab‐American women, a group whose labor market experiences provide an exception to hitherto accepted theoretical explanations. The employment rates of Arab immigrant women rank among the lowest of any immigrant group, while the rates of native‐born Arab‐American women resemble those of U.S.‐born white women. This study examines potential explanations for these differences using data from the U.S. Census and a national mail survey of Arab‐American women. Contrary to findings for other immigrant groups, differences among Arab‐American women cannot be explained by their human capital characteristics or family resources, but are almost entirely due to traditional cultural norms that prioritize women's family obligations over their economic activity, and to ethnic and religious social networks that encourage the maintenance of traditional gender roles. This study concludes by underscoring the need for additional research on the impact of culture on immigrant women's employment.     

THE SOCIAL CAPITAL RESOURCES OF GENDER AND CLASS GROUPS

ABSTRACT

Social capital resources affect careers. Yet, insufficient attention has been given to how access to social capital resources differs for social groups and, therefore, differentially affects careers. This study consists of in-depth interviews with 246 white interviewees from three parts of the U.S.: New Jersey, Tennessee, and Ohio. The interviews provide extensive details about how social capital resources affected the respondents' educational and employment endeavors. We found that men had greater access to social capital resources than women. Thus, career advantages accumulated for men, while career disadvantages accumulated for women. There were few class differences in access to social capital resources, but the middle/upper middle class had better career returns than the working class. Unlike many other studies of social capital resources and careers, our study examines the processes by which the resources were derived, how they were used, and how they affected careers. As such, we detail a primary mechanism of career disparities and, ultimately, socioeconomic inequalities.     

Resilience for gender inclusion: Developing a model for women in male-dominated occupations

What is resilience in the context of work environments where women face barriers as significant as career discrimination and harassment? In such a context, is resilience an individual responsibility? How can organizations contribute to and support employee resilience? And where is gender in this equation? This conceptual paper explores these questions using aviation, the skilled trades (i.e., carpentry, welding, plumbing) and the military as case studies to understand how gender inclusion could be better supported by resilient organizations. The barriers for women in male-dominated industries include social exclusion, marginalization, discrimination, harassment, and other forms of social closure. How these barriers can be overcome is not well understood. We argue that individual resilience plays a part in women thriving and developing enduring careers but can only occur in combination with support from gender inclusion strategies and organizational resilience. We have developed the Resilience for Gender Inclusion (RGI) model combining gender inclusion strategies with organizational resilience strategies. The RGI model demonstrates how employee and organizational resilience intersect and may lead to the transformative potential of inclusive cultures of diversity. This will improve employee wellbeing and self-efficacy and create a much needed sense of belonging and social inclusion for women in male-dominated occupations.     

The Impact of the Worker: How Social Capital and Human Capital Influence the Job Tenure of Formerly Undocumented Mexican Immigrants

Using the 1992 Legalized Population Survey, I focus on employment matching processes of formerly undocumented Mexican immigrant workers in the United States. As in earlier studies, I show that employment characteristics are related to the job tenures of immigrant workers. However, my contribution is that I specifically analyze how formerly undocumented Mexican immigrant workers' attributes and social networks influence their job tenures. In general, increases in human capital are associated with shorter job tenure, apparently in an effort to improve employment conditions, while the use of social capital is positively related with job tenure. It appears that acquiring employment is a social process, and those using personal networks find longer lasting jobs. Although prior studies have minimized the role of supply-side characteristics such as employees' skill level and social networks in influencing job tenure, my research confirms the significance of workers and the resources they bring to the labor market.     

Social and human capital in immigrant adaptation:: The case of Canadian business immigrants

Purpose: With the resurgence of immigration to North America in the past three decades, research on immigrant adaptation and the attendant issues of assimilation has burgeoned. A prevailing assumption of much of this research is that social capital is a vital resource enabling immigrants to find their economic and social niches in the host society. In a word, social capital is a key factor in the immigrant adaptation process. This assumption has been especially prominent in research focusing on one specific subset of immigrants: entrepreneurs. Social capital in the form of ethnic networks and family ties is assumed to function critically in the establishment and operation of immigrant-owned businesses. This paper argues that although the formation and expenditure of social capital may typify the experiences of many or even most immigrant entrepreneurs, some enter the host society with sufficient human and/or financial capital that enables them to forego the utilization of social capital in the adaptation process.Methods: To demonstrate, I draw upon in-depth interviews conducted with 70 immigrant entrepreneurs in the province of Ontario, Canada between 1993 and 1995. All interviewees entered Canada under the auspices of the Canadian Business Immigration Program, a federal program designed to attract immigrants with demonstrable business and managerial skills that presumably will lead to the establishment of a firm and thus to the subsequent creation of jobs and economic activity. A formal requirement of their entrance, then, is the possession of proven business skills, a critical form of human capital that facilitates successful economic adaptation in the host society.Forms of social capital are described and their applicability to the adaptation experiences of the interviewees is analyzed. What is found among these business immigrants is a minimal reliance on social capital in establishing and operating their firms. In securing investment capital, finding a work force, and acquiring information, ethnic and family ties, the most common forms of social capital for immigrants generally and for immigrant entrepreneurs in particular, do not play a major role. Solidarity with co-ethnics and the use of family labor, so common among conventional immigrant entrepreneurs, are not of significant import in the economic adaptation of these business immigrants. Moreover, ties to coethnics are only minimally significant in patterns of social adaptation as well.Results: It is concluded that immigrants entering the host society with pre-migration intentions of business ownership possess sufficient human capital that enables them to disregard the formation and utilization of social capital in their economic and social adaptation. In this they differ from immigrants who take a more conventional path to business ownership, that is, laboring in the mainstream work force following entrance into the host society and gradually accumulating resources that lead to entrepreneurship.For business immigrants with children, however, social capital does play a key role in the decision to immigrate. Business immigrants are prepared to abandon successful firms in the origin society in order to provide their children with a more promising socioeconomic environment, including above all what is viewed as superior opportunities for education. Hence, the social capital that inheres in close-knit family arrangements provides incentive for parents to accept losses in financial capital in order to increase their children’s human capital.Conclusion: The context of the receiving society may also be seen as a form of social capital for Canadian business immigrants. All declare that quality of life, rather than the lure of financial success, serves as their major incentive to immigrate to Canada. Moreover, the fact that they enter a society that officially proclaims its multicultural character offers them the opportunity to become Canadian but to retain their ethnicity. The source of social capital in this case, then, is not the ethnic community, but the broader society.     

CAREER DECISIONS AND EXPERIENCES OF SOCIAL WORK FACULTY: A GENDER COMPARISON

This study uses quantitative and qualitative findings from a mail and online questionnaire to examine the experiences and perspectives of 76 doctoral-degreed social work faculty about the factors that affected their career decisions. The authors discuss similarities and differences between women and men in job-related decision making. Respondent perceptions of gender-related barriers and organizational supports when working toward career goals are presented and implications for social work education programs are explored.     

Religious Communities,Immigration, and Social Cohesion in Rural Areas: Evidence from England*

Religious communities are important sources of bridging and bonding social capital that have varying implications for perceptions of social cohesion in rural areas. In particular, as well as cultivating cohesiveness more broadly, the bridging social capital associated within mainline religious communities may represent an especially important source of support for the social integration of new immigrant groups. Although the bonding social capital associated with evangelical communities is arguably less conducive to wider social cohesion, it may prompt outreach work by those communities, which can enhance immigrant integration. This article examines these assumptions by exploring the relationship between mainline and evangelical religious communities, immigration, and residents' perceptions of social cohesion in rural areas in England. I model the separate and combined effects of religious communities and economic in‐migration on social cohesion using multivariate statistical techniques. The analysis suggests that mainline Protestant communities enhance social cohesion in rural England, while evangelical communities do not. The social integration of immigrants appears to be more likely where mainline Protestant and Catholic communities are strong, but is unaffected by the strength of evangelical ones.     

Career Interventions for At-Risk Populations: Incorporating Social Cognitive Influences

This article discusses the career development and the career counseling needs of populations who have limited access to educational and occupational opportunities. The article reviews some of the limitations of current theories and interventions and offers recommendations for applying social cognitive career theory (SCCT; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994) to populations that are at risk for experiencing employment and career barriers. To illustrate one application of SCCT, a career intervention program for adult female offenders is presented.     

Building the Sustainable Community: Is Social Capital the Answer?

Over the past decade, environmental sustainability has emerged as a prominent theme in the community development literature. In fact, the concept has become a standard feature of most economic and social development plans. Most models of sustainable community development stress the importance of widespread participation in the decision-making process. Unfortunately, community studies document numerous barriers to broad involvement and the high level of activeness envisioned by proponents of sustainable community development. In searching for ways to overcome these barriers, scholars and policymakers have embraced the idea that we can enhance efforts to create more sustainable communities by increasing the local stock of social capital. We examine this line of reasoning in light of what we view as the most important conceptual issues surrounding the relationship between social capital and sustainable community development. We conclude that before social capital is endorsed as a central component of public policy, much work remains to be done in terms of developing a more precise definition of the concept, situating it within extant theories of community, constructing better measures of social capital, documenting the activities and networks most important in building social capital, and gaining a better understanding of the forms of social capital that are most important in developing sustainable communities.     

Asian Women,Job Training and the Social Organization of Immigrant Labor Markets

This paper examines the entry of Asian immigrant women into a gendered labor market via government-funded job training programs. The focus is on the intake processing of clients into an employment training program operated by a community based organization. The study reveals that women's family responsibilities and the cultural capital they bring function to screen them into or out of training programs and ultimately shape their location in the workforce. The study thus draws attention to how race, class, and gender enter into the organization of Asian immigrant women into the labor market. This investigation is based in institutional ethnography (Smith 1987), a research strategy which displays how activities in a particular setting are coordinated with more extended forms of social organization. The study shows that the overriding concern with successful placement in a job as mandated by government regulations is a critical factor in selecting the women for these programs.     

Through the Brick Wall,and the Glass Ceiling: Women in the Civil Service in Bangladesh

In Bangladesh the disparity between male and female representation in public administration is wide. Fewer women are employed in the civil service and they figure prominently in jobs set aside for them, while executive positions are generally occupied by men. Both systemic and subjective discrimination have created obstacles for women's access to public employment. They have to surmount enormous difficulties, first to gain entry into the civil service by thwarting social and cultural barriers and competing against well‐prepared and favoured male contestants, and then fight against a variety of odds to climb up the career ladder. Public personnel management is dominated by men whose perceptions and attitudes influence the development of personnel policies with a clear male bias. This has led to women's persistent discrimination in recruitment, placement, advancement, mobility and training. Women quotas are capriciously administered and subjective discrimination serves as a barrier in their career path. The promotion system is heavily inclined towards subjectivity and generally works against them. Most women come with high expectations and are committed to and always enthusiastic about their work and keen to advance their career, but circumstances work against them.