Symbolic Strategies in Migratory Contexts: Middle-Class Argentineans In Spain

Abstract

This article is aimed at exploring how migration has affected the class distinction of an immigrant group belonging to Argentine middle-classes in Spain, and the symbolic strategies that these immigrants have developed during the migratory process. With Pierre Bourdieu?s theory as a reference, we examine the ways in which agents leverage the cognitive dissonance between the classificatory schemes of origin and destination according to their habitus and previous social trajectories. Based on a qualitative methodology, we analyze these strategies relating to two classification axes that tend to position migrant subjects: immigration status and class membership. One of the research findings was how these classifications impact on the perception of possibilities present in the social space of destination, redefining the subjects migratory projects.