Social capital in skilled migrants’ careers: why (not) rely on it?

Although resources accessible through social contacts (social capital) can enhance people’s careers and, especially, careers of migrants, a comprehensive account explaining why career agents do or do not rely on social capital for career reasons is currently absent. This article addresses this lacuna by utilising Realist Social Theory’s notion of reflexivity to explore careers of 82 skilled migrants in global (London) and secondary (Newcastle upon Tyne) cities. The analysis of the semi-structured interviews reveals that reliance on social capital for career reasons depends upon three factors: (1) need, (2) accessibility, and (3) costs. All three have proved to be shaped by both migrants’ reflexive agency and structural conditions of the urban environments where their careers are unfolding. This article contributes by offering a fine-grained and balanced explanatory account of social capital in skilled migrants’ careers, which further conceptualizes careers decision making as a relational phenomenon.