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Limits of Social Capital for Refugee Integration: The Case of Gay Iranian Male Refugees' Integration in Canada
Author(s) -
Karimi Aryan
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
international migration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.681
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1468-2435
pISSN - 0020-7985
DOI - 10.1111/imig.12691
Subject(s) - refugee , social capital , social integration , sociology , political science , social reproduction , capital (architecture) , gender studies , economic growth , economics , social science , law , geography , archaeology
Abstract Each year thousands of refugees, including racialized LGBT refugees, are resettled in Canada. Currently, economic independence is the foremost policy goal in integrating Canada's refugees. This policy often relies on social capital as a non‐economic solution to integration. I draw on 35 multi‐sequential interviews with 19 gay Iranian men to connect the empirical and theoretical debates around refugee integration and argue that over‐reliance on refugees' deployment of social capital for integration has grave shortcomings for their senses of belonging. I suggest that examining racialized LGBT refugees' integration strategies best reveals communitarian social capital's flaws at the conjunction of sexuality, gender, race, and class. I draw on Bourdieu's writings on social capital to highlight internal group differences, social inequalities, and the vital convertibility between financial, social, and cultural capital in building transferrable resources for refugee integration. I conclude by urging policy‐oriented studies of social capital.