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Published: 04 January 2018 Popular explanations of the Brexit vote have centred on the division between cosmopolitan internationalists who voted Remain and geographically rooted individuals who voted Leave. In this article, we conduct the first empirical test of whether residential immobility-the concept underpinning this distinction-was an important variable in the Brexit vote. We find that locally rooted individuals-defined as those living in their county of birth-were 7% more likely to support Leave. However, the impact of immobility was filtered by local circumstances: immobility only mattered for respondents in areas experiencing relative economic decline or increases in migrant populations.

Work experience placements are mandatory in the UK for all young people aged 16–18 in education, and their employability effects and associated wage premia are well noted in the literature. Through Bourdieu’s lens, this article analyses and conceptualises a unique data set of reflective testimonies submitted in response to a YouGov survey of over one thousand young people. Different capitals are detected, their distributions are observed, and correlations with key variables such as social background and school type are reported. Emerging through young people’s perceptions of employer engagement is a complex web of human, social and cultural capital accumulation. Overlaps are frequent, with newly acquired forms of capital often activating others. We argue that because of the cyclical nature of employer engagement gains, benefits accumulate exponentially for some young people while leaving others increasingly detached from the capitals that are most important for labour market success.