Dual Cultural Influences and Career Paths: : Second-Generation Iranians in Sweden

Abstract: Nearly four decades after the peak influx of Iranian immigrants to Sweden around 1985-1990, recent academic inquiry has begun to shift its emphasis towards their second generation. These individuals, born to parents who arrived during that period, are now achieving notable positions across various sectors of Swedish society. The significant educational and professional accomplishments of this group, (achieved despite considerable cultural disparities and geographical distances from their parents' country of origin), are noteworthy. While previous research has primarily concentrated on the adaptation challenges faced by first-generation immigrants in Swedish society, the second generation, particularly concerning their educational and professional achievements, has received less attention. Studies indicate that second-generation Iranian migrants blend Iranian traditions and preferences with Swedish and global traits (Moinian, 2012), have greater proficiency in Swedish than Persian, and often prefer exogamy (Namei, 2012), without especially suffering from identity crises (Ahmadi & Ahmadi, 2012). Through an intercultural lens, this study examines how the second generation negotiates their identity between two cultures and strategizes their career paths, with education playing a pivotal role. Based on surveys and interviews with six second-generation Iranians born in Sweden, this essay particularly focuses on those whose parents migrated from 1985 to 1990, acknowledging the group's heterogeneity.  The findings of this study, framed within Bourdieu's concept of capital, reveal how the second generation of Iranians in Sweden strategically navigate their educational and career paths. Influenced by the culturally inherited emphasis on education from their families, this navigation exemplifies the embodiment and application of cultural capital within the fields of Swedish society. Additionally, the study shows that these individuals actively engage in both reconstructing their inherited cultural capital and constructing new forms within these societal fields. This process of adapting and creating cultural capital demonstrates a dynamic interaction that creates a pathway for their success, underscoring the fluid and evolving nature of cultural capital, habitus, and field dynamics in new societal contexts.