Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
interviewed by employers who are alumni of the same university.
16
To
cultural capital is then added the benefit of social capital as relations are
brokered among members of the same institutional network. As UBC's
alumni group in Hong Kong is said to be the largest outside Canada, the
social capital premium can be appreciable, if not as entrenched as the deeply
incised channels that meander from Oxbridge to corporate desks in the City
of London (Butler and Lees 2006).
The advantageous exchange and net growth of financial, cultural and
social capitals are outcomes of strategic moves across the transnational
social field. The important steps involve deploying the currency that gives
the greatest rate of return at different locations. New arrivals in Canada
typically have only financial capital to trade, but with it they can secure
cultural capital through purchasing education that is more highly valued in
Asia Pacific, where the salaries of university graduates are invariably higher
than they would be in Canada. As these 'trade routes' become deeper and
more widely acknowledged, so the social capital of recognition and trust
inflates the trading power of the cultural capital of western education.
This circular trade in the accumulation of varied capitals not only enriches
the most able students. Arguably, it is even more important for weaker stu-
dents, who would miss the cut in the highly disciplined and competitive
education tracks in East Asia. Western education offers a remedial path to
economic redemption (Chee 2005; Waters 2005). I interviewed Byron while
he was visiting from Hong Kong. He reflected critically on his early educa-
tion there:
The students there are just like robots, you have to do this, you have to do this,
you cannot do that, you cannot do that. For the exams or tests you must cover
the whole topic out of your brain, not [any] of your own ideas.
The family migrated for the sake of Byron's education, entering Canada
through the entrepreneur stream of the BIP. 'They didn't want me to stay
there. They wanted me to go somewhere else. Because in Hong Kong, if you
get an overseas university degree, it's better.' He had entered Canada with
his family in grade 11, but his scholarly achievements remained undistin-
guished. He struggled through secondary school but now is brandishing his
university diploma from Kingston College, a private institution established
in 1991 with the surge in migration from East Asia, and a branch plant issu-
ing degrees from 'the American University in London'.
I went to some private university and I get the British degree.
Which university was that
?
The American University in London.
So you went to London then
?
