Upward mobility and questions of belonging in migrant families

Abstract

Introduction to the Special Issue Social Mobility and Identity Formation. This special issue analyses the question of the effects of processes of intergenerational upward social mobility in a thematic context which, at the same time, adds and highlights certain dimensions in both aspects of social mobility: (a) the specific structural barriers and conditions for immigrants and their children to insert themselves into the given social structure of the ‘receiving’ society; and (b) the implications of moving up the educational and/ or professional ladder in relation to their parents – and mostly also the majority of their peers from school and neighbourhood – for subjective feelings of belonging and being ‘admitted’ to social spheres whose codes do not correspond to those learned in childhood and youth, but that have also frequently not been particularly characterised so far by cultural and/or ethnic diversity