Contestations of linguistic capitals: the intersections of race and class in processes of migratisation

This article makes empirical and theoretical contributions to scholarship on migratisation (Tudor 2017; 2018), or the construction of some – and not others – as migrant figures out of place, belonging elsewhere. Drawing on biographical narrative interview data from a study on the migratisation experiences of eight racially minoritized privileged migrants, this article argues that class must be analysed at its intersection with race in investigating processes of migratisation. Despite occupying relatively privileged class positionings in Western contexts and possessing high volumes of linguistic capitals in ‘imperial’ languages such as English, French and German, study participants often faced migratisation underwritten by contestations of the legitimacy of those linguistic capitals. Arguing that race mediates readings of class such that class privilege does not necessarily outweigh racialization in processes of migratisation, this article proposes the significance of a threefold alignment between capital, field and embodiment in evaluations of linguistic capital in racially minoritized embodiments.