Identity Social Networks — Formal, Informal, Professional and Community

There are many kinds of identity-based social networks and this chapter aims to give a flavour of the different kinds of identity networks that take multiple forms and attract different constituencies that in different ways work to shape the conditions of professional and low-paid workers in the health sector. Networks can be based on family, diasporic links, profession, organization or community. Identity social networks, might also be called equality networks, may be a social organization of excluded workers and/or migrant workers. Migrant identity networks in their different forms may bring together the three social spheres of the migrant experience and their interrelationship (or triadic relationship) which were introduced in Chapter 1. However, identity networks are also the product of the organization of disadvantaged groups who may, or may not, be migrants. Identity social networks are an important part of understanding health care workers’ experiences, particularly those who are from minority and/or migrant groups. Identity networks may be independent of management and labour unions but their organization is based around particular identities, implicitly or explicitly. In the health services in both the United Kingdom and the United States, there are many such organizations and rather like the British labour movement, they are characterized by incremental growth and therefore do not convey a neat, planned structure.