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Global Contexts, Social Capital, and Acculturative Stress: Experiences of Indian Immigrant Men in New York City

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Abstract

Immigrants depend on within-group social networks for social support during the acculturation process. Within-group social networks are linked to higher mutual concern and reciprocity, lower acculturative stress, and lower depression among immigrants Studies are limited, however, about immigrants’ social support in the contexts of global connectedness and transnational connectivity. Grounded in social capital approach and immigrant health framework, this qualitative, community-based study examined the social networks of immigrant men from India to New York City. Drawing upon the participants’ narratives, the author illustrates the ways that social capital influences social networking and acculturative stress in post-immigration sociocultural contexts along with its implications for community-based interventions.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by a grant to Gauri Bhattacharya from the Collaborative HIV Prevention Research in Minority Communities Program, Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, University of California, San Francisco (National Institutes of Mental Health Grant 5P50 MH42459). The author is grateful to the study participants for offering their experiences. The author would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.

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  1. Department of Social Work, College of Nursing and Health Professions, Arkansas State University-Jonesboro, P.O. Box 2460, Jonesboro, AR, 72467, USA

    Gauri Bhattacharya

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  1. Gauri Bhattacharya
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Correspondence to Gauri Bhattacharya.

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Bhattacharya, G. Global Contexts, Social Capital, and Acculturative Stress: Experiences of Indian Immigrant Men in New York City. J Immigrant Minority Health 13, 756–765 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-011-9444-y

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