Agency in immigrant women – social capital

In the course of this study, it became obvious that many of the women are very active in shaping their own realities. Agency within the immigrant women was found in all stages concerning their social network and the forms of social capital this resulted in. In this paragraph, different aspects of agency and social capital will be discussed. This paragraph will first take a look at the concept of agency in immigrant women, to so connecting the agency to the social network and social capital (bridging, bonding, linking) the women possess. Lastly, the agentic power of immigrant women will be discussed.

5.2.1 The presence of agency

From the interviews and pictures provided by the women, it is clear that a great deal of agency is expressed in the formation of their social networks and the social capital that they gather. Just to illustrate this it is almost necessary to include a quote from one of the women, which perfectly sums up the attitude, the will, and effort within these women:

If one gets scared or shy, one cannot find what one wants. If one does not get scared or shy, one can find what one wants. You can find a job, or you can find.. And you can learn things.

Then you can know about everything. It is like this it happened for me. You understand? (..) I want to do something myself to find things. I do not get tired of that.”

73 The active stance and the effort put into providing themselves with new opportunities within the job and educational field are just as well used to provide themselves with social networks in the new society. One can however state that these efforts pay off very differently in the different networks and in the different social capitals. Why these efforts pay off differently is a question with possible many different answers, of which a few will be explored in the following paragraphs.

5.2.2 Bonding capital and the role of agency

Generally, the women describe to have a different kind of contact with compatriots than they would have with members of the majority population. The contact with these compatriots happens more often in settings that can be seen as informal such as picnics, house visits, or other leisure activities which provide the women with social support and a sense of relaxing and belonging connected to this social network. The elements of social support, relaxing, and belonging are typical characteristics to be found in bonding networks and these networks often are construed of groups of people with a relatively homogenous background (Putnam, 2000).

The national society seemed to play a strong role in providing women with social support in the form of substantial relationships. Although, most of the women also expressed being wary of the national community to more or lesser degrees. The most common response was to be mindful of not only being in contact with compatriots but to make an effort to get to know (primarily) people form the majority as well as other nationalities. In other words: not isolate themselves from the majority by being too much in contact with their compatriots. In the more extreme case contact with the national community was almost altogether avoided. This behaviour is in line with the concerns around bonding capital, which is that an abundance of bonding capital would lead to exclusion and isolation (Marshall & Stolle, 2004).

Another concern central to bonding capital is that an abundance of bonding relations would reduce immigrant’s chances to get useful information and positive impulses to develop themselves (Claridge, 2018). This claim is however not fully supported by what the women in this study bring forward. On the contrary, the women in this study express to gain much useful information from their national networks regarding for example helpful voluntary organisations and help with aspects around governmental institutions important to immigrants. Many of the women describe being quite dependent on their national community at their arrival in the new society or new city and to receive useful help in settling in. The national community functions in many ways as a steppingstone into different activities, groups, and associations. Although the national community is regarded as a helpful tool to get in contact with new opportunities, it

74 is still relevant to ask oneself in to how much of a degree the national community can provide advice and help that will truly propel others forward (as they are possibly in a similar situation) or is the advice helpful to get by but not necessarily to get ahead. The distinction between useful help to get by or useful help to get ahead is not explicitly mentioned by the women, neither is it always easy to analyse as the recipient of this help owns position, actions, and attitudes towards possibilities can result in different outcomes and possibly also the element of luck may play a factor; being somewhere at the right time meeting the right people.

During the interviews and in the content of the pictures it became clear that the women worked hard to establish and maintain bonding (and bridging) social networks, but with varied results considering the diversity in these networks. As shown before, bonding networks predominantly existed out of compatriots or other internationals. It is interesting to see this in the light of agency shown by the women. Bandura (2000) states that people are guided by their beliefs in their own capacities, also called for self–efficacy, and that their behaviour is regulated by forethought. Their actions are (consciously or subconsciously) analysed on an expected outcome, goals are set, and actions are taken to reach the desired outcome. Many of the women expressed the wish to include more Norwegians in their network and actively worked to make this a reality. This is evident in the number of voluntary organisations they visit, where they among others, have the possibility to socialize with Norwegians. Those that were employed or at school mentioned that they tried to get in contact with their Norwegian colleagues or classmates. One could argue that the women had expected to gain Norwegian contacts or maybe friends by the actions they had taken, the reality on the other hand showed that few had close Norwegian contacts in their bonding networks.

Continuing from Bandura’s (2000) understanding of agency, one could argue that the above-described developments could have a negative impact on the personal agency of the women in the long run. The negative impact can be described as following: imagine that the women had expected to be able to make Norwegian friends upon arrival and had taken actions which they suspected would lead to this desired result. However, after a while, these actions do not deliver the wished-for outcome. The women often described to have tried to come in closer contact with the majority, be it at work, school, or organisations, but often felt little reciprocity. Feelings of failing, especially when expected to meet the majority, might hamper the women’s feelings of self-efficacy, their trust in their own capabilities and therefore might in the longer-term not be able to express the same amount of agency as seen so far. As the women in this study were relatively new to the society or city, this might not be a trend that is set in motion, but one could

75 imagine that this would be the case if they in longer-term find themselves unable to form closer relations with the majority population. Especially when the expectation from both, but also from society, is that they will integrate themselves in Norwegian society, including integrating themselves with the Norwegian people.

A similar thought process might also explain the presence of compatriots and internationals in the women’s bonding networks. When for example interacting with persons or a social network that is familiar in social and cultural customs to the women’s own, the women may (subconsciously) judge their capacity of succeeding in a positive interaction higher than when they would interact with persons or a network of which these customs may be (perceived/suspected) different than their own. As one of the women mentioned that she feels uncomfortable inviting and accustoming Norwegians as she is unsure of how she should behave. On the other hand, when she talked about her interactions with compatriots or other internationals, she would mention feeling more at ease, relaxed, and understood by them. In this way personal agency, might make the women more prone to establishing networks with compatriots or other internationals.

5.2.3 Voluntary organisations and bridging capital

Elements of bridging social capital too can be recognized in the social network of immigrant women. Interesting in this study is that the bridging capital seems to be predominantly provided by the immigrant women’s contact with voluntary organisations as voluntary organisations seem to function as the main place to meet people from the majority population. By partaking in activities organised in voluntary organisations, the women are said to be more likely to establish connections that will provide them with bridging social capital; or in other words access to a more heterogenous group that can provide them with new impulses (Putnam, 2000).

Already since the works of de Tocqueville (1835/1962), (voluntary) organisations are perceived as ultimate places to enrich one’s social network and provide one with new possibilities. In some cases, this seems to be right, as friends are made across nationalities, but it does not seem to have the desired effect considering establishing a network that includes Norwegians. The difficulties the women express considering establishing successful bridging networks through voluntary organisations, are in line with the research of Van der Meer (2015) who criticizes the role or at least the relative importance of voluntary organisations in establishing bridging relationships. The level of bridging capital the women gained by attending voluntary organisations can be debated on how much bridging capacities the attended voluntary organisations have. Voluntary organisations can be both found to have bridging capabilities

76 (they can connect their attendees to new impulses) or to be characterized by more bonding elements (they can provide support to a rather homogenous group). Voluntary organisations that were mentioned by the women in this study seemed to fit into both categories. Most women frequented several voluntary organisations, which might indicate that the voluntary organisations collectively were able to cover their needs in terms of bonding and bridging capital. However, previous studies from Bjørkløf (2004) and Iversen (2004) on the impact of (red:) refugee-guides from voluntary organisations on the social integration of refugees concluded that the guides were able to help the refugees with how to socialize in the Norwegian culture but were unable to help refugees establish a (Norwegian) social network. Bjørkløf (2004) and Iversen (2004) and the stories of the women in this study show that voluntary organisations cannot always make true on their promise in connecting newcomers with the majority population, even if the women frequenting do have this expectation. One could argue that it is important for voluntary organisations to realise their potential to function as a glue between newcomers and the majority population but need to actively and consciously work to connect the two of them, just being there as a meeting platform does not seem to have satisfying results.

5.2.4 The returns – limited agentic power

As described above, the women expressed a good deal of personal agency in establishing their networks, both bonding, and bridging, but reached varied outcomes. To discuss this further it might be useful to broaden Bandura’s (2000) understanding of agency by including Campbell’s (2009) theories of agency and agentic power. Campbell stated that a difference must be made between having (personal) agency and being able to act as an agent. The distinction between these two can be clarified by comparing them to having the power to and the power over something. Relating to the social networks of the women this means that they have the power to, as in they can attend voluntary organisations or talk to their colleagues or make plans to meet up with Norwegians, but they do not necessarily have the power over, they cannot force Norwegians to be a part of their network. Even though the women might put a lot of effort into establishing a new social network including Norwegians, they do not have the power over establishing a network that includes members of the majority population. In social situations where two or more parties are involved, agency might be present, but it is more difficult to execute agentic power for individual persons.

One could argue that social and cultural structures present in modern Norwegian society limit the agentic power of immigrant women. As previously shown in the chapter introducing this

77 study, Norwegian social culture has been described as reserved and experienced as cold. The research of Internationals (2019) concluded that Norway is one of the hardest countries in the world to make friends after settling and additionally several studies and personal anecdotes have confirmed this matter. Social and cultural tendencies might make it therefore difficult for newcomers to exercise agentic power in establishing agentic power, as they are dependent on the second party to react to their advances.