Doing the Business: Variegation, Migration, and the Cultural Dimensions of Business Praxis – The Experiences of the French Highly-Skilled in London

French highly-skilled migration to London arguably constitutes the largest and most significant manifestation of such mobility within Europe. As such, they represent something of a test case for understanding the dynamics shaping intra-EU highly skilled migration, and beyond this, ‘elite mobility’ more generally. Focussing on the working experiences of French highly-skilled professionals in London’s financial and business sectors, this paper explores the meanings attributed to business praxis, in the capital, by a migrant group motivated in large part by career escalation and accumulation. The paper aims to contribute to our understanding of the nature and effects of ongoing variegation in the national expressions of capitalism (in particular, its manifestation in the cultural dimensions of business practices), and its salience for grasping the motivations and experiences of particular instances of highly-skilled migration. The variegation thesis argues that national expressions of capitalism will endure, despite the forces of globalisation, as the latter will continue to be mediated by nationally-framed ecological, institutional, processual, cultural and behavioural divergences. The ongoing variegated nature of European political economies remains a fundamental explanatory backdrop to understanding both the motivations for, and obstacles to, intra-EU migration for the highly-skilled.  In line with such a thesis, the data (derived from one-off, in-depth, semi-structured interviews and a focus group), are indicative of the ongoing influence of nationally-framed, and culturally grounded, business practices, and of the equally nationally-framed manner in which these practices are signified by highly-skilled migrants. The data are also suggestive of the manner in which such variegation may challenge any seamless transferability of business-related social and cultural capital in contexts of inter-national migration. The paper explores the nature and signification of such variegation through an exploration of the cultural dimensions of business-related methodologies, language use, and communication praxis. Calling for a greater understanding of the particularities of specific instances of highly-skilled migration, this paper seeks to contribute to a fuller delineation of the specificities of French migratory motivations, experiences and meanings, as these pertain to their emplacement in London.