Negotiating Employability: Migrant Capitals and Networking Strategies for Zimbabwean Highly Skilled Migrants in the UK

Abstract

In this paper we focus on highly skilled migration from Zimbabwe to the UK, exploring these migrants' social capital sources/structures and content. In doing so we pay attention to routes of migration and how they shape migrants' networking capabilities and patterns. We further take a Bourdieusian perspective and explore the intersection between social capital and cultural capital in the process of migrants' negotiation of employment opportunities, giving closer attention to how the distinctive habitus associated with being highly skilled migrants from Zimbabwe shape migrants' attitudes towards work. By exploring the interplay between external processes and internalised structures, we bring to the fore the multiple positioning of our participants, who we see not as simply depending on social networks, but as complex actors whose negotiation of employability in the UK is shaped by various factors including intersecting aspects of differentiation.

On becoming a skilled migrant: towards habitus transformation through higher education

“…This paper set out to explore the processes of social mobility adopted by a group of Zimbabweans who came to the UK without degrees and the resources that they were able to mobilise to transition into employable highly skilled migrants with UK degrees. This group contrasts with highly skilled migrants who come with Zimbabwean highly valued degree qualifications and work experiences who have been found to struggle to transition to the UK labour market following the devaluation of their institutionalised capital (Thondhlana, et al (2016). This makes this group an interesting population to study in order to better understand the evolvement of a Zimbabwean diaspora habitus.…”

Uneven professional paths: A study on highly qualified Chinese and Indian migrants in Germany

“…In the case of migrants from other countries, highly qualified spatial mobility does not always lead to social mobility. For example, social networks among Zimbabwean professionals residing in the UK were not found to promote social mobility (Thondhlana et al., 2016). Although professional resources may facilitate access to information about job opportunities before and after migration, non-professional capital can have a negative effect by reproducing cultural and class-related values, such as “privileging economic capital over occupational status” (Thondhlana et al., 2016: 590).…”

“…For example, social networks among Zimbabwean professionals residing in the UK were not found to promote social mobility (Thondhlana et al., 2016). Although professional resources may facilitate access to information about job opportunities before and after migration, non-professional capital can have a negative effect by reproducing cultural and class-related values, such as “privileging economic capital over occupational status” (Thondhlana et al., 2016: 590). The study further revealed that distinct types of social capital can have differential effects and can sometimes even lead to unfavorable career outcomes (Thondhlana et al., 2016).…”

“…Although professional resources may facilitate access to information about job opportunities before and after migration, non-professional capital can have a negative effect by reproducing cultural and class-related values, such as “privileging economic capital over occupational status” (Thondhlana et al., 2016: 590). The study further revealed that distinct types of social capital can have differential effects and can sometimes even lead to unfavorable career outcomes (Thondhlana et al., 2016). Other studies on highly qualified migration have addressed how multiple circumstances can lead to the (re)production of inequality.…”

“…Social capital is frequently discussed as an asset which helps to reduce migration costs and risks, and as a factor that informs decisions to move to certain destinations, or to enroll in certain university programs or as contributing to integration in the host society (Beech, 2019; Meier, 2015a; Mulholland and Ryan, 2014; Ma, 2014). However, some scholars have highlighted diverse dynamics in destination countries that can affect the accumulation and use of valuable resources in competing for social positions in diverse fields, leading to adverse professional outcomes among migrants (Aksakal and Schmidt, 2019a; Thondhlana et al., 2016).…”