Culture, networks and social capital: Tamil and Somali immigrants in Norway

This article discusses the use of ‘social capital’ as a methodological approach to the situation of two different minority groups in Norway, the Sri Lankan-Tamil and the Somali. It argues that although there are important differences between the two groups with respect to social networks and, therefore, with respect to social capital, the current conceptualization of this term has weaknesses. In particular there is a need to incorporate the various forms of transnational connections and the different “cultural grammars” underlying the lives of people in exile into our explanatory models.