Social networks and labour market:The experience of Malayalee workers in Bangalore, India

The advance of globalisation has strengthened the role of social networks in almost all spheres of life. By strengthening the link between people or organizations, social networks play a critical role in the present-day labour markets; job-seekers’ access to social networks and contacts tends to have a positively impact on their job search and nature of recruitment. It becomes interesting to investigate the impact of these networks on the functioning of labour markets and its transition. The nature and effectiveness of informal contacts found varying in formal and informal sectors and therefore it may be expected that the role of social network varies according to the nature labour markets. Based on a case-study conducted among the Malayalee workers in Bangalore city, this paper tries to trace factors that define the structure and working of Malayalee social networks. The findings suggest that these factors are strong enough to keep informal contacts and the social networks are widespread in both sides of the labour markets- i.e. in employer’s recruiting and in workers’ job seeking.