In this paper, we examine the role that social networks have played in the migration and settlement of Russian and other former Soviet immigrants to Costa Rica. This group of immigrants is of particular interest in that it is an example of migration from a former communist nation to a Third World country, not to the first world (Europe or the United States). Furthermore, a group of Soviet women who married Costa Rican men beginning in the late 1970s set this migration in motion. The objective of our research was to examine the structure and meaning of these immigrants' social networks, and the role that they play in the migration process and during settlement. The findings suggest there is a significant difference in the form and function of the social networks of those immigrants who arrived prior to 1991 (during the Soviet era), and those who came post-1991 and following the collapse of the Soviet Union. © 2005 IOM.

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migration determinant social network Central America settlement pattern Costa Rica immigrant population