Rethinking the Role of the Intelligentsia Habitus in the Case of Polish Workers in the North of England

Abstract

This article considers upward mobility of UK Polish migrant workers by introducing a Bourdieusian habitus perspective. Drawing mainly on the interview data it was inquired whether the intelligentsia habitus understood as an example of embodied or learned “social expectations” concerning the position in the social hierarchy provides Polish migrants the motivational scripts for learning and innovating in the labour market. It was found that the intelligentsia habitus can legitimize successful jobs seeking strategies of some respondents. However, this paper also notes that a significant number of analysed respondents were unable to mobilize cultural capital resources and remained in a vicious circle of long hours of monotonous factory work that has created an additional constraint complicating their learning capabilities.