A Bourdieu-Inspired Analysis of Highly Skilled Migration: Comparing Migrant Recruitment in Sweden’s ICT and Restaurant Sectors

Abstract

This article presents a Bourdieu-inspired comparative analysis of migrant employment in the Swedish ICT and restaurant sectors. The study examines how firms in the two sectors mobilise different forms of capital in the recruitment of migrant workers. While existing migration research tends to focus primarily on the capital held by migrants themselves, this article shifts attention to firms as key agents in economic fields. In doing so, it analyses how firms deploy cultural, social, and financial capital in recruitment processes and how these forms of capital are converted under different sectoral conditions. The analysis draws particularly on Bourdieu’s work on the economic field and argues that migrant employment must be understood within specific economic sub-fields, such as the ICT and restaurant sectors. These sectors are characterised by different configurations of capital, recruitment practices, and patterns of labour market integration. The article also examines the role of the so-called “migration industry”, showing that ICT firms are more likely than restaurant firms to engage migration intermediaries in recruitment and migration processes. More broadly, the article demonstrates how a Bourdieusian framework can deepen understanding of the organizational dynamics and forms of capital shaping international migration and labour market integration.