ABSTRACT
Educational stays abroad can be completed in different ways, the most common ones being participation in a student exchange program and attending a boarding school abroad. In either case, adolescents who stay in a foreign country for a sustained period of time and attend school abroad not only pass through the specific educational curriculum but also get to know additional aspects of school and social and cultural life in a particular country. Families' capital endowment may affect students' access to a year abroad both directly and indirectly, through class-specific educational objectives and educational practices. However, the relationship between class affiliation and access to transnational human capital is not deterministic. Instead, additional mechanisms influence adolescents' chances of spending a school year abroad, and moderate, reinforce or weaken, the effect of social class. Finally, schoolchildren's access to an exchange program that allows them to attend school abroad depends on their social capital, resources obtained through their own friends and social networks.
