Diversity on the urban margin: The influence of social networks on the transition to adulthood of disadvantaged immigrant youth

Abstract Young people are growing up in an increasingly diverse world. The recent debates over super-diversity or hyper-diversity in urban studies and geography correspond with the recognition in sociology and human development of a growing heterogeneity in the transition of young people to adulthood across western societies. While national systems of education, employment and welfare continue to stratify opportunities in particular ways, they also shape the relative importance of local contexts such as neighborhoods for providing access to important resources and supports. Greater diversity on the neighborhood level could potentially benefit disadvantaged and minority youth by providing access to more diverse social networks and relationships. The importance of these questions is amplified by persisting patterns of inequality and exclusion, despite the diversification in the fabric of cities and neighborhoods and the greater variability in life course trajectories. Drawing on a study of disadvantaged immigrant young men in Dortmund/Germany and Chicago/USA, who grew up in diverse neighborhoods, this paper explores the mechanisms through which they formed relationships that critically shaped their transitional experience.