As argued by Granovetter, it appears that weak social ties may be most beneficial in the times of a crisis because of the nature of social networks. Specifically, there is the argument that the stronger the relationship between two people, the greater the likelihood that their respective social networks (people they know, with varying degrees of strength) overlap significantly. This overlap may not necessarily be a positive thing in certain cases. For instance, in the even of a natural disaster or economic crisis when resources or employment are scarce, people with larger social networks (weaker ties) are more likely to have access to the aforementioned scarce resources and jobs because they simply know more people who know other, unique individuals with access or knowledge. In comparison to those individuals with smaller social networks (stronger ties), they would be better off in times of widespread distress. Conversely, one could inference that closer-knit networks are more beneficial when circumstances are “normal” or not dire. What effect would negative weak ties have on integrating the communities of immigrant groups? How would one go about exploring this empirically?