The Geographical Distribution of the Personal Networks of People Living in Catalonia: a dual society

Resumen

Based on a survey concerning personal networks of a sample of 416 people living in Catalonia we address two questions: First, are there differences between native-born and foreign-born residents in terms of the geographical repartition of their personal networks? Second, regarding active contacts providing support, where do they live?

Our data show that on average 70% of the active contacts of native-born residents live in the same city whereas immigrants have more than 50% of their active contacts living in another city or country, regardless of the length of residence in Catalonia. Natives and immigrants also differ in the location of supportive network contacts, mostly non-locals in the latter case.

With regard to the social interactions among nationals and immigrants, our results bring us to characterize the Catalan society as a “dual society”, with a social divide between the two groups. We suggest that this situation can be applicable to most of the countries where a “sub-functional class” is working in a dual labour market