Intra-European mobility and the formation of a European society? German mobile graduates’ early careers in trans-/national professional fields

Abstract

Despite current economic and political crises, the intra-European mobility of students and young, highly qualified professionals is still widely regarded as a central mechanism contributing to the formation of an emerging European society. Approaching this issue, the article draws on recent conceptual attempts, inspired by Pierre Bourdieu, Neil Fligstein and others, that conceive of a European society as a set of interwoven transnational fields, and asks how such “free movers” might actually contribute to the formation of such fields. Based on narrative-biographical interviews with Germans, who graduated abroad, this article examines three different types of trajectories experienced by these “free movers” as they move across country borders and pursue their careers in professional fields, some of which turn out as rather transnational, while others still appear to be fairly national in their setup. Contrary to general theoretical expectations, it is therefore argued that this kind of intra-European mobility only furthers the formation of transnational fields under certain conditions.

Keywords:

• highly skilled migration
• transnational mobility
• transnational fields
• Bourdieu
• European society
• graduates
• skills

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Sören Carlson is a postdoctoral research associate at the Europa-Universität Flensburg, Germany. His research interests include transnational mobility, social inequality, education and the sociology of Europe.

Notes

1. Since the analysis rests on the individual perspectives of free movers as they move, both geographically and temporally within or through different professional fields (using their biographical accounts as the data basis), it is important to stress that these battles are also highly dependent on and shaped by state institutions. As Dezalay and Garth (1996), for example, show for the field of international commercial arbitration, it is states that determine to a large extent the framework within which such professional contests play out, as they create and alter fundamental definitions. Indeed, this also applies to the question of the emergence and/or change of trans-/national professional fields: As stated at the beginning, national state and EU institutions have fundamentally changed the rules of the game in professional fields by establishing and accepting freedom of movement and non-discrimination rights and by agreeing, overall, on the mutual recognition of educational degrees and professional qualifications. Finally, it is necessary to note that, next to the influence of state institutions on professional fields, organizations can also play a decisive role, especially within the transnational domain (cf. Seabrooke and Henriksen 2017).

2. Usually, these studies use cross-national comparisons and not a field-theoretical perspective. This probably conceals existing differences between professional fields in terms of the transnational transferability of skills and qualifications as assumed here. Furthermore, most of these studies have not analysed how such mobile professionals experience this issue of cross-border recognition and which kind of strategies they develop in order to overcome anticipated or encountered difficulties (as a partial exception to this, cf. Tzanakou and Behle 2017).

3. Degree mobile students were chosen as the target group – rather than credit mobile ones, such as those participating in the widely known Erasmus programme – since these students are especially likely to be transnationally mobile during their later professional career (Wiers-Jenssen 2008). For a more detailed description of methodological aspects of this study, see Carlson (2019).

4. All interview quotes are translated from the German-language original. Short breaks by the interviewees are indicated with “..” and omissions by squared brackets; words that were stressed by the interviewees are set in italics.

5. “GTZ” stands for “Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit” (now “Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit”, GIZ), an organization for international cooperation, financed by the German government, where Petra had applied unsuccessfully for a position after having graduated in London.

6. Generally, one can discern here between strategies that are geared towards the transnational enhancement and validation of the free movers’ cultural capital and those that aim to increase and preserve their social capital transnationally (Carlson 2019). Among the former are, for example, the choice of a particularly prestigious university abroad, the symbolic depreciation of Erasmus students (as close competitors to one's own transnational cultural capital) and the attempt to diversify one's endowment with cultural capital by obtaining educational qualifications and job-related knowledge from different countries (e.g. by doing an apprenticeship in another country while studying or following a binational educational programme). The latter encompass all the different ways by which social contacts in other countries, whether of a purely professional or, at least at first glance, more private nature, are obtained and/or sustained over time, e.g. by internships, visits, the participation in certain professional conferences or other events.