This is a research project funded by CISEPS-Bicocca and LdA, carried out in Milan in 2012. The aim of the project is to study the formation of migrant networks in the host society and their economic function. In particular, by taking a dyadic perspective we investigate how migrants form (weak and strong) links among them and the extent to which this network provides them with economic support along three different dimensions (accommodation, credit, job finding). For this purpose we designed and collected a tailored household survey on an ethnically-homogenous sample of male migrants originally from Sri Lanka and living in Milan. The sampling frame of the survey has been designed as to overcome the common problem of interviewing a 'hidden' segment of the population and to obtain a representative sample of (regular or irregular) immigrants in a host society. Ethnic variability in the study of migrants' network formation has been removed by focussing on one homogenous ethnic group. The Sinhalese are Sri Lanka's ethnic majority, one of the largest immigrant populations in Europe, particulary in Italy. The timing and rhythm of their migration make the Sinhalese community a particularly suitable group for the purpose of our analysis. The sample consists in about 100 male Sinhalese immigrants older than 18 years of age, such that the dyadic sample is larger than 5400 observations when the link is undirected, and equal to 10920 when the link is directed. The sample size has been deliberately kept small because of the design and scope of our study, which imposes a stringent trade off between quantity and quality of elicited network information. The main goal was to map as accurately as possible all the interpersonal links within the sampled population, avoiding response bias, inaccuracy and fatigue.

The survey contains detailed information on all interpersonal links and episodes of economic supports among sampled individuals, along with socio-economic background, time of immigration and city of origin in the native country. Hence, we examine the endogenous formation of dyadic interpersonal links as a function of proximity and incentive factors. This project contributes to the literature on both the economics of social networks and migration. As for the former, the migrant population constitutes an ideal setting where to study the factors determining the formation of new links, as immigrants are typically newcomers in a novel environment where the quality and quantity of information (about the local context and other individuals' characteristics) is particularly low, thereby affecting the economic value of interpersonal links. Moreover, we take for the first time, to our knowledge, in the literature on the economics of migration, a network-based dyadic approach to investigate how migrants form the links through which they provide and get economic support to other fellow migrants, and how the formation of these links actually shapes interpersonal exchanges. Such an analysis generates important insights regarding the opportunities of socio-economic integration of immigrants that are put forward by the formation of social networks.

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