Social Exchange and Reciprocal Integration Between Migrants and Locals at Work

ABSTRACT

Workplaces are pivotal “contact zones” where migrants and locals negotiate access to jobs, resources, and recognition, yet HRM research has rarely examined how everyday encounters generate integrated relationships at work. This conceptual paper introduces reciprocal integration as a workplace‐anchored social exchange process: the emergent relational pattern through which repeated, voluntary, non‐contractual exchanges between migrants and locals reshape expectations of mutual obligation, recognition, and belonging over time. Drawing on contemporary social exchange theory and research on migration, diversity and power, we distinguish migrant–local exchange episodes from the emergent relationship patterns they generate and clarify how reciprocal integration relates to, yet differs from, acculturation, inclusion, and workplace social capital. We then develop a three‐stage process model—exchange initiation, exchange transaction and reciprocity, and exchange maintenance and relationship development—showing how asymmetric dependence, cultural orientations, social positions, and workplace contexts shape exchange trajectories. We illustrate the model with prior studies of migrants' work experiences and derive implications for recruitment and onboarding, work design and interdependence, performance management and promotion criteria, and the recognition of “integration work.” We conclude with directions for empirically testing the model.