PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

The link between international mobility, class, and social mobility is often framed in binary terms. While high-skilled labour migration is usually considered to lead to upward social mobility, forced or irregular migrants are often described as poor and marginalised members of their host communities. This article focuses on forced migrants’ own perceptions of their mobility experiences to uncover how they make sense of the links between migration, class, and social mobility. Based on interviews with migrants in Germany, I show that the value they assign to international mobility for social status enhancement is affected by their perceived range of choice over mobility and settlement options. Considering growing global inequality of access to cross-border movement and settlement, the findings contribute to academic debates on the factors influencing the relative importance of migration for increasing people's chances in life.