Globalization has enabled greater mobility and social change through the expansion and diversification of international migration. Following immigration, people become embedded within varying fields of practice. Within these fields, which have been described as social spaces or settings (e.g. workplace) that are characterized by particular norms, certain forms of capital including language skills or educational credentials may be more highly valued than others (Bourdieu 1977; Moore 2008; Thomson 2008). The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how the differential value of immigrants' symbolic capital within the host societies' fields influenced their engagement in daily occupations and shaped their socio-economic integration. It is argued that the misrecognition of capital contributes to symbolic violence experienced by immigrants who must subsequently engage in a range of occupations in order to regain forms of symbolic capital that are lost and devalued following immigration. A study was conducted with a multinational group of immigrants in London, Ontario, Canada and Auckland, New Zealand, using narrative and visual methods. Data analysis adopted a theoretical framework informed by concepts from Bourdieu's theory of practice (1977, 1990). Results illustrate a reciprocal relationship between occupation and symbolic capital, whereby recognition of the latter facilitated immigrants' everyday 'doing'. Conversely, the devaluing of capital led many to attempt to acquire resources that could enable their opportunities within specific fields. These findings contribute to the literature on critical understandings of capital as shaped by social power relations, highlighting ways that misrecognition of capital contributes to symbolic violence in processes of socio-economic integration. © The Authors 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.

Migration Integration Field Capital qualitative

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