ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the social nature of mobility processes and emphasizes the particular importance of cultural and symbolic 'capital' for migrants negotiating the complex dimensions of stratification in a new land. Ever since Pitirim Sorokin's original work, social mobility has generally been conceptualized in a narrow way, in a way which places the overwhelming weight on vertical movements between occupational positions. The focus is on the Scots, a people for whom migration and social mobility have long been linked. In almost every interview the first, spontaneous reference to downward or blocked mobility came when a respondent gave reasons for the decision to emigrate. Few Scots migrating to Canada in the years after the Second World War found groups of fellow-countrymen or women or their descendents enjoying such obvious local economic power. However, in the course of the interviews the significance of family wealth gained in Canada and held within the immediate family networks of recent immigrants became plain.
