Bypassing the Social Distance: International Catholic Community, Friendship, and Homemaking among Expatriates in Brno

Abstract

We analyze the role of intimate social ties and community in the processes of homemaking and social integration of highly skilled migrants who are members of the local international Catholic community in Brno, Czech Republic. We use the concepts of bonding and bridging social capital developed by Michael W. Foley and Dean R. Hoge and follow their attention to the effects of the worship communities’ organizational culture on migrants’ integration. In the article, we show that the Catholic community mediates its members’ homemaking efficiently by providing them with rich bonding social capital, generated through close social ties in the community. However, it does not provide them with enough bridging social capital, and their social integration, thus, remains restricted to the company of international fellows. We compare it with the strategies of homemaking used by settling migrants who have integrated more successfully into the Czech social environment.