Predictors of intercultural capital embodiment in contemporary Mexico

Based on a nationally representative survey of 1,200 Mexicans aged 15 and older, the present article sets out to predict whether or not respondents possess intercultural capital in form of foreign language skills, friendships with foreigners, or time spent abroad. The corresponding logistic regression model reveals a panorama of striking differences in the likelihood of intercultural capital embodiment – between receivers and non-receivers of formal education, between the economically affluent and non-affluent, between internet users and non-users, and between men and women. The respective findings offer an empirically grounded critique of voluntarist notions of personal intercultural development. Most importantly perhaps, they raise the question as to how and for how long Mexico and other multicultural countries can afford to exclude important parts of their respective populations from the acquisition of intercultural capital in terms of foreign language skills, friendships with foreigners, and time spent abroad.