Pupils’ Plans to Study Abroad: Social Reproduction of Transnational Capital?

Abstract

This chapter analyses Dutch pupils’ plans to study abroad. The main question is to what extent these plans are related to their social class position, their parents’ and their own transnational capital and the school type they attend. The analyses are based on survey data of 549 Dutch pupils, aged 17 on average. The pupils attended the last year of one of the following pre-university level school types: internationalised streams, gymnasiums and regular pre-university streams. In line with prior studies, the results indicate that pupils of upper-class descent are more likely to have plans to study abroad. This study extends earlier analyses by showing that the effect of class descent is due to the transnational activities in these upper-class families, notably the frequency of holiday travels abroad. The latter finding points to the fact that the decision to study abroad is part of a broader socialisation process in which embodied transnational cultural capital is acquired. On the whole, the proportion of pupils who had plans to study abroad was less than ten per cent only. While there was no gender difference, pupils attending an internationalised stream or a gymnasium were more likely to have such plans than those attending a regular pre-university stream.