Repatriation to France and Germany: A Comparative Study Based on Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice

A significant amount of German and French career agents are involved with international careers. Applying Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice, Matthias Walther compares the repatriation of German and French career agents into the external labor markets of their parent country career fields. A qualitative content analysis of 40 semi-structured interviews shows that the German and French career agents’ career capital and habitus develops during expatriation, which has an important impact on the re-integration into the parent country career field. The Author shows that in an international career mobility context, the rules of the game change compared to the rules in a pure national career context, which challenges the pertinence of national career models in understanding repatriation in a Franco-German context.