Between a ‘student abroad’ and ‘being from Latvia’: inequalities of access, prestige, and foreign-earned cultural capital

ABSTRACT

This paper visualises tertiary-level students who study abroad as simultaneously both international students and members of an emerging diaspora. Coming from a country (Latvia) which is peripheral and relatively poor by European standards, students go abroad for multiple reasons not necessarily directly connected with study (e.g. family reasons, labour migration); yet their evolving diasporic status is instrumentalised by the Latvian government which wants them to return and contribute to the country’s development. Based on 27 in-depth interviews with Latvian students and graduates who have studied abroad, our analysis focuses on three interlinked dimensions of inequality: access to education at home and abroad; the varying prestige of higher education qualifications from different countries and universities; and the inequalities involved in getting recognition of the symbolic and cultural capital that derives from a non-Latvian university. Within a setting of neoliberal globalisation and conflicting messages from the homeland, students and graduates are faced with a challenging dilemma: how to balance their materialistic desire for a decent job and career with their patriotic duty to return to Latvia.

KEYWORDS:

• Students
• mobility
• diaspora
• neoliberalism
• inequality
• Latvia

Acknowledgements

We thank Russell King, Başak Bilecen and Christof Van Mol for constructive feedback to previous drafts of the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. In Latvian, female names end in ‘a’ or ‘e’; male names in ‘s’.

Additional information

Funding

Centre for Diaspora and Migration Research and the State Research Programme EKOSOC.LV 5.2.4., University of Latvia supported this research.