Mixed Methods As a Complementary Approach to Social Network Analysis in Comparative Transnational Settings. Case Study of Migrant Groups in Spain.

Social network analysis (SNA) has been recently applied to assess migrants' assimilation and transnationality. Various research has been revealed that, sometimes, networks are insubstantial as all nominated nodes and bridges are part of the network graph except they are not part of the social grouping. This presentation looks beyond the metaphor of social networks as it reviews critical group size theory and complements social network analysis with mixed methods of network survey and ethnographic interpretation. It questions the structural approach and argues that interactions among alters may not be accurately recorded by this method. Empirical data collected from 55 migrant networks in Spain support main theoretical hypotheses.