In Pursuit of Distinction

This book explores the experiences of South Asian international students at the nexus of mobility, education, and employment in the UK. The book adopts Bourdieu's theoretical lens to explore how South Asian students understand, seek, and achieve advantages in British education. Despite the ever-increasing volume of South Asian students going abroad in pursuit of quality education, their purpose, motivations to attend British education and their experiences are rarely discussed. This book aims to fill this lacuna by providing an insight into the students' experiences and strategies of capital accumulation in and out of edu-spaces. It is revealed that student migrants are not a homogeneous group but represent students coming from a variety of social-cultural background who achieve educational advantages differently. The author uses a four-part typology to make sense this diversity. Highfliers, Realist, Credentialist and Strugglers possess, mobilise and accumulate a varied combination of culture, social and economic capital to succeed in education. Likewise, they tend to develop diverse trajectories of progress in education corresponding to their social class characteristic.