TY - JOUR
T1 - Refugees' career capital welcome? Afghan and Syrian refugee job seekers in Austria
AU - Eggenhofer-Rehart, Petra
AU - Latzke, Markus
AU - Pernkopf, Katharina
AU - Zellhofer, Dominik
AU - Mayrhofer, Wolfgang
AU - Steyrer, Johannes
PY - 2018
Y1 - 2018
N2 - This study explores how refugees relocate, acquire, and convert cultural, social, and economic capital when entering the Austrian labor market. Drawing on Bourdieu's theory of practice, we conducted 35 semi-structured interviews with Afghan and Syrian refugee job seekers to investigate how the value of the capital forms changes when they move to a culturally distant field, and what strategies they use to develop their career capital portfolio. Findings reveal that (a) all capital forms are strongly devaluated; (b) refugees striving to use their cultural capital encounter unfamiliar labor market rules, occupational identity threats, and status loss; (c) acquisition and conversion of new capital require both the intricate interplay of capital forms and refugees' proactivity. The article concludes with a discussion of theoretical contributions and practical implications for refugee labor market integration.
AB - This study explores how refugees relocate, acquire, and convert cultural, social, and economic capital when entering the Austrian labor market. Drawing on Bourdieu's theory of practice, we conducted 35 semi-structured interviews with Afghan and Syrian refugee job seekers to investigate how the value of the capital forms changes when they move to a culturally distant field, and what strategies they use to develop their career capital portfolio. Findings reveal that (a) all capital forms are strongly devaluated; (b) refugees striving to use their cultural capital encounter unfamiliar labor market rules, occupational identity threats, and status loss; (c) acquisition and conversion of new capital require both the intricate interplay of capital forms and refugees' proactivity. The article concludes with a discussion of theoretical contributions and practical implications for refugee labor market integration.
UR - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001879118300046
U2 - 10.1016/j.jvb.2018.01.004
DO - 10.1016/j.jvb.2018.01.004
M3 - Journal article
SN - 0001-8791
VL - 105
SP - 31
EP - 45
JO - Journal of Vocational Behavior
JF - Journal of Vocational Behavior
ER -