Social and Cultural Capital Across Borders: Exploring the Backgrounds and Aspirations of Vietnamese Students in Germany

Abstract

This article investigates how Vietnamese students explain their choice to study in Germany, by drawing on data from eight semi-structured interviews. The students’ accounts revealed that they all possessed specific, pre-existing social and cultural capital related to Germany. In terms of outcomes, all students focused on gaining a form of transnational institutionalized cultural capital, as they view a German bachelor’s or master’s degree primarily as a vehicle for further transnational mobility and personal and career development, rather than necessarily seeking to remain in Germany or return to Vietnam after their studies. This article also highlights how existing links between East Germany and Vietnam which developed prior to the 1990s continue to influence student mobilities by shaping the specific forms of embodied cultural capital, institutionalized cultural capital and social capital available to students. These insights add to the body of literature which seeks to extend Bourdieu’s theoretical concepts to the transnational activities of East Asian and other globally mobile elites. (Marginson, 2008; Norén-Nilsson, Savirini & Uhlin, 2023).