Document Type : Research Article
Authors
1
Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran.
2
Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran
3
. Department of Anthropology and Cultural Studies, Institute for Cultural, Social and Civilizational Studies, Tehran, Iran
10.22059/jisr.2025.385574.1553
Abstract
As migration expands, one of the trends affecting education and international mobility is the increase in inequalities at the national and global levels. With the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2021 and the increase in ethnic, gender, and political and religious extremism, equal access to educational and career opportunities has been limited for a group. The presence of more than half a century of Afghan migrants in Iranian society, coupled with the recent movements of migrant students from Afghanistan, has made Iranian universities one of the important centers of student admission. The aim of this study is to examine the process of formation and the role of networks in the entry and adaptation of new migrant students to the country.
The method of the present article is qualitative social network analysis. The target population is 29 Afghan migrant students studying at Iranian universities, who were selected using purposive and snowball sampling.
The findings of the study showed that immigrant students, by being included in primary and secondary student networks, meet a large part of their needs and provide conditions for their adaptation and adaptation to the destination. Accordingly, the mechanisms for forming relationships in networks, especially among newly arrived students, are the preference for establishing interactions and connections with people similar to themselves (the principle of hemophilia). This similarity was more pronounced in terms of being a student, being Afghan, being of the same ethnicity, and being of the same religion than in other cases; while among second and third generation immigrants, there are broader networks with numerous strong and weak ties from the Afghan immigrant community as well as the Iranian community.
Although students apparently admit that ethnic prejudices do not play a role in the formation of their connections and interactions in existing networks, in reality, there are signs of invisible boundaries between them and the dominance of ethnic sediments in establishing interactions and connections. This view is more pronounced among newly arrived students from Afghanistan and less pronounced among second and third generation immigrants who grew up in Iran, and it manifests itself unconsciously in some interactions.
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