Recognition of foreign qualifications in Germany: Selectivity and power in re‐making professionals

Abstract This article conceptualizes ‘qualification’ as a transnationally negotiated social construct of this period. Those moving from the global South to industrialized countries often experience downgraded institutionalized cultural capital. Taking Germany as an empirical case and drawing upon Bourdieu's concepts of social fields and symbolic violence, this article empirically reconstructs the rating practices of foreign professional qualifications and reflects the implicit assumptions. The results reveal a social field of title struggles structured by somewhat trustful relations to the rated educating states, a stress field of liberal and protectionist market interests, and a spiral of institutionalized delegation of responsibility. Recent reforms in recognition law opened the door for highly demanded qualifications while simultaneously closing it for many. The article reflects on the social mechanisms behind this selectivity based on qualitative interviews with administrative practitioners.