Immigrants have been extensively studied, but the ways in which immigrants themselves make sense of their lifeworlds has not always been at the top of the agenda. Researchers are frequently interested in understanding the experiences of`the immigrant', as an objective analytical category, rather than the experiences of`an immigrant'. With this paper we do not claim to change that situation, but we do believe there are analytical tools available that would allow greater sensitivity to the lifeworlds of`an immigrant'. In particular, we need ways of understanding immigrant experiences when these deviate from statistical norms and when they fail to adhere to categories or theoretical expectations. The literature on transnationalism has helped enormously in this respect. Individual immigrant stories are now frequently used to highlight experiences which confound expectationsöregarding, for example, the nature of cultural assimilation and economic integration into host societies (for example, Mountz and Wright, 1996; for a review, see McHugh, 2000). It is now understood that immigrants do not simply start new lives as`the immigrant': instead, they frequently maintain strong linkages with their place of origin. These linkages are varied öeconomic, social, cultural, political, institutional, emotional öbut out of this complexity, research often tends to pick one or two of these strands without fully acknowledging that they merge seamlessly in lived experiences.In understanding the integration of these forms of transnationalism, we suggest that Pierre Boudieu's notion of habitus, as a framework for understanding the value assigned to economic, social, and cultural forms of capital, may prove useful. Although couched in economic terminologies of capital, exchange, accumulation, etc, Bourdieu's conceptual vocabulary is explicit in its attempt to go beyond economism and`rational choice' in order to understand the connections (and to transcend the arbitrary analytical distinctions) between economic, cultural, and social processes. At a still higher level of abstraction, Bourdieu's purpose is to transcend the divide between structure and agency by exploring a theory of`practice' in which actions are both constrained by,

Various theories speak towards the labour market segmentation of an immigrant workforce. Theoretical frameworks such as Dual Labour Market Theory or Hierarchy Theory provide some value in outlining why immigrants are often found in the least desirable forms of employment. However, most theories do not consider the phenomenon of immigrant transnationalism and how forces at multiple scales shape labour market trajectories. In this paper we argue that traditional theories primarly consider socioeconomic factors in destination countries, and focus on factors at the local or national scale of analysis. In contrast, the literature on transnationalism illustrates how socioeconomic processes that operate at the global scale also influence the employment trajectories of immigrants. The integration of transnationalism with traditional labour market theories therefore provides a more complete picture when trying to understand the segmentation of an immigrant workforce.

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At the time of his death on January 23, 2002, Pierre Bourdieu was considered by many to be the most influential intellectual in France. One of Bourdieu's key theoretical ideas was habitus, a central component in his theory of an economy of practices that recognized how social conditions shape, influence, and inhibit individuals and social structures in society. Habitus is a system of lasting, transposable dispositions that integrate past experiences and function as a matrix of perceptions, appreciations, and actions. These dispositions are shaped by social conditions (e.g., family background, employment, education) and are socially reproduced. Although they may be long‐lasting, these dispositions are not unchangeable, and can be eroded, modified, or even reversed through pedagogic effort, new experiences, education, or training.