The social lives of blue-collar migrant workers: Evidence from Ethiopia
This policy brief on blue-collar female workers in urban southern Ethiopia finds that recently hired workers experience high levels of loneliness, while the size of their social networks remains similar regardless of how long they have lived in the city. However, network composition changes over time, with recent arrivals more likely to have colleagues from the same firm in their networks. Social ties serve multiple economic functions, but relationships providing financial assistance are distinct from those supporting job searches, navigating the city, or commuting. The findings suggest that workplace relationships may replace rather than expand existing social ties, meaning policies designed to reduce loneliness and strengthen worker social connections should be carefully designed to avoid unintended welfare effects.
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Grosset-Touba-Wu-Policy-Brief-August-2026.pdf
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- We study the social lives of blue-collar female workers in urban southern Ethiopia and how these vary with the time they spend in the city.
- Overall, recently hired workers report high rates of loneliness.
- The workers' social networks are similar in size, whether they recently arrived in the factory city from their rural villages or have already spent several years there. However, the composition of their social network varies; those who have recently arrived tend to have more network members who work in the same firm.
- The workers’ social ties serve multiple economic functions and are interrelated.
- The social connections that provide outgoing financial assistance stand out from those that provide all other functions (for example, job search assistance, help navigating the urban environment, commuting together, etc.).
These empirical patterns suggest that workers’ social lives evolve over time and build relationships at work. However, these additional links appear to replace previous links rather than add to them. Since a given social tie is used for different economic functions, the welfare implications of replacing a given tie with another are ambiguous. As such, while policies that aim to stimulate social interactions among workers can help reduce loneliness and improve workers' mental health, careful design is necessary to avoid negative consequences.