Paradoxes of racial capital: an autoethnography of the boundaries of Turkish citizenship and nationality

This autoethnographic paper explores how dual racial capital and status migration shape labour market exclusion and belonging for an Iranian migrant with Turkic heritage navigating life in Türkiye. Drawing on Alloul’s extension of Bourdieu’s theory of capital, the paper examines how intersecting forms of ethnicity, racialisation and legal status produce context-specific barriers and conditional privileges. The concept of dual racial capital helps illustrate how ethnic identity may be viewed as proximate to the majority in some contexts – such as Turkic identity in Türkiye – yet still insufficient without formal legal status. By doing so, it highlights how proximity to the majority can coexist with structural precarity, revealing the uneven and context-dependent nature of inclusion and belonging.