Invariably, these discussions are framed in terms of human capital (Becker, 1964), in recognition of the importance of skills, embodied in labour, to regional or national development, and the possibility of calculating economic returns on immigrant education using a form of cost-benefit analysis. Human capital theory has been criticised with explicit reference to its application in immigration policy (Boyer, 1996; Hanson & Pratt, 1995; Iredale, 2003; Ley, 2003). In Canada, The Globe and Mail described the dire need for health care professionals in Canada and the related assumption that there is a simple shortage of these workers to meet demand (_Credentials in Limbo’, 2003; see also ‘Doctors-in-Waiting’, 2003). In fact, it claims there are thousands of qualified doctors and nurses driving taxis and waiting on tables. The article continues,

The trouble is that the diplomas on their walls are foreign. In Canada, in any number of professional disciplines, foreign credentials are treated with suspicion or outright hostility. Dozens of self-governing professional licensing bodies—the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, for example, or the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario—set their own ground rules for entry. For immigrant professionals, the accreditation process can take years, span numerous exams and cost thousands of dollars. (p. A12)

The inability of human capital theory to predict the relationship between credentials and economic capital emerges starkly from these discussions. Most significantly, they highlight the fact that credentials do not travel unproblematically. Human capital theory, in its claims to universalism, fails to address the differentiated geography of credentials and credential recognition—credentials are socially embedded and their value varies over space and time.

9. Cohen (1997) noted that ‘a passion for certification’ is a distinctive feature of overseas Chinese families (p. 172).

10. This period is the most relevant to my research, as it was during this time that the vast majority of the students and graduates interviewed went to Canada.

11. In this book, I use symbolic capital and cultural capital interchangeably, although I generally favour the use of cultural capital.

12. There are no available official statistics indicating how many immigrants remain in Canada and how many leave. As I have shown, many move back and forth throughout their lives (see also Ley & Kobayashi, 2002 for some descriptions of circular mobility).

13. A database of Hong Kong-UBC alumni, comprising information on 1,000 individuals, was consulted.