The strength of civic ties: connecting civic engagement and professional attainment among educated immigrants in the United States

ABSTRACT

The complex relationship between professional success and civic engagement among educated immigrant professionals is little understood. This qualitative study examines the social processes linking professional attainment and civic involvement among immigrant professionals, with the purpose to deepen understanding of the mechanisms through which civic participation is tied to occupational pathways and advancement. We report on findings from interviews with 62 U.S. immigrants, all professionals and employed in various occupations to understand the dynamic processes through which civic involvement and professional achievement are mutually constitutive. Immigrant professionals are engaged civically; community engagement among this population is overwhelmingly tied to professional and vocational interests and skills. They participate in both formal and informal community-based organizations and groups, and many are transnational in scope.

KEYWORDS:

• Community engagement
• professional attainment
• civic ties
• immigrants
• professional workers

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Corporation for National and Community Service [grant number 203699].

Notes on contributors

Amy L. Best

Amy Best is Professor of Sociology at George Mason University and affiliate faculty in the Center for Social Science Research. She holds expertise in ethnography and interpretive approaches to social networks, institutional processes, and social practices. She earned her PhD from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University and is author of multiple books, most recent among them, Fast Food Kids: French Fries, Lunch Lines and Social Ties (NYU Press, 2017). She has examined the role of social networks in social science research’s impact in the public policy process, formation of trust networks in the expansion of local, sustainable food markets serving low-income communities, and youths’ participation in consumer markets.

Katie Kerstetter

Katie Kerstetter, PhD is a Research Affiliate with the Center for Social Science Research at George Mason University. Her research focuses on education and health and has been published in Sociological Inquiry, Sociological Spectrum, the Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition, and Research in the Sociology of Health Care. She holds a PhD in Sociology from George Mason University and a MA in Public Policy from the University of Maryland College Park.

John Dale

John Dale is Associate Professor of Sociology at George Mason University and affiliate with Center for Social Science Research. He earned his PhD in Sociology from the University of California, Davis and was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow in 2020. He is author of Free Burma: Transnational Legal Action and Corporate Accountability (University of Minnesota Press, 2011) and co-author of Political Sociology: Power and Participation in the Modern World (Oxford University Press, 2009; translated in Turkish in 2016, and Chinese in 2017). His areas of research and teaching include political sociology; social movements; human rights; science, knowledge, and technology; community and urban development; globalization, and transnational social formations.

Samantha Retrosi

Sam Retrosi is a doctoral candidate in the Sociology program at George Mason University.