Culture and inequality in intra-European migrations

In this session, we are joined by dr. Simone Varriale from the University of Lincoln, UK. He introduces students to the ways in which key concepts from cultural sociology - such as cultural capital, habitus and symbolic boundaries - have been used in the study of international migration, with a focus on cultural and economic inequalities among mobile EU citizens. We will discuss how relatively privileged white migrants mobilise unequal resources in their strategies of social mobility and social distinction, and how migration triggers processes of boundary-drawing and stigmatisation connected to class, race, age and social mobility. Oliver C. and O'Reilly, K. (2010) A Bourdieusian Analysis of Class and Migration: Habitus and the Individualizing Process. Sociology 44(1): 49-66. Erel U. 2010. Migrating cultural capital: Bourdieu in Migration studies, Sociology 44(4): 642-660. Varriale, S. 2019. Unequal youth migrations: exploring the synchrony between social ageing and social mobility among post-crisis European migrants. Sociology 53(6): 1160-1176