Does Ethnic Social Capital Lead to Mobility? Turkish Belgian Women’s Educational and Occupational Mobility

This study builds on a rich field of existing research that stresses the importance of ethnic social capital in realizing social mobility. It does so by exploring inductively the impact this form of social capital has had on the realized educational and occupational mobility of a group of highly educated Turkish Belgian women. As a result, the research sheds new light on several important issues: (1) how realized forms of mobility are informed by ethnic social capital; (2) how the kind and influence of different forms of ethnic social capital can change over time in different domains of mobility within a particular population, and; (3) whether one mobility process (e.g. educational) can have consequences for the other (e.g. professional). In addition, by focusing on a group of individuals who have succeeded against the odds, this study enables analysis of changes in the coping strategies people employ to overcome both within-community constraints and external ones.The findings suggest that the importance and influence of various forms of ethnic social capital can change over time and in relationship to different (inter-related) forms of social mobility. The conclusions discuss implications for future research on ethnic social capital and social mobility.