Socio-cultural Adaptability and Immigrant Career Progression: The Paradox of Embeddedness

In this study, we present arguments and evidence for a constraining influence of socio-cultural adaptability of immigrants on their careers. We draw on embeddedness theory to contend that the socio-cultural adaptability may reduce the rate of career growth for skilled migrants, as socio-culturally adaptive immigrants may become more embedded in the native social network, making them prone to compromising their economic gains for social gains. Using panel data and hazard rate modelling on career histories of 102 skilled Indian immigrants, we show that socio-cultural adaptability has a negative effect on the rate of immigrant career growth. Further, our analysis of interactions shows that actions, which promote embedded ties, strengthen the negative influence of socio-cultural adaptability, and actions that shift focus away from embeddedness weaken it