Social mobility refers to the ability of individuals and families to improve their opportunities and life outcomes across generation. The international conference The Future of Social Mobility brought together academia, the public and private sectors, NGO leaders, and philanthropists to offer different perspectives on this process, comparing data with lived experience and challenging the idea that talent will inevitably rise. The real task, the participants agreed, is to build the conditions in which people can move up without being pulled back down.

Convening across divides

For the Julius Baer Foundation, the conference was a living expression of its role as a convener on wealth inequality. Rather than treating social mobility as a purely academic question, or a purely philanthropic one, it brought together stakeholders who rarely share a room. “All of these actors need to be at the table in order to be able to create effective solutions,” says Laura Hemrika, CEO of the Julius Baer Foundation.

That convening role matters because social mobility sits at the intersection of systems. Research can identify patterns and barriers, but implementation requires organisations on the ground, patient capital, and a willingness to engage with uncomfortable realities. Evidence may show where mobility breaks down, but changing outcomes often depends on partnerships between educators, employers, policymakers, and funders – partnerships that rarely form without deliberate convening. Hemrika described the conference as creating a “virtuous cycle of feedback and echo”.

From research to real life

María Luisa Méndez, COES Principal Investigator and lead researcher on mobility trajectories in Chile, described the value of stepping beyond academic silos. The conference, she said, is about “opening a broader debate and dialogue” and recognising that social mobility is not just an abstract measure of income or education, but a lived and collective experience.

Urbanist Gautam Bhan, Associate Dean at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements, warned that in contexts of structural inequality, “even doing everything they possibly can is not enough for families to guarantee that their children’s lives will be better than theirs”. When the link between effort, education, and reward breaks down, societies need policies that lift people upwards, from well-located affordable housing to transport that connects people to opportunity.

Debunking the education myth

A clear message to emerge from the conference was that, while education matters, it is not a silver bullet. Sociologist Mike Savage of the London School of Economics (LSE) argued that the promise of meritocracy is “fraying”. “The idea was that education would unlock good jobs and a decent salary,” he said, yet many graduates now face insecure labour markets and stark differences depending on where they studied.

Jody Agius Vallejo, Professor at the University of Southern California, reinforced this through her research on Latino communities in the United States. “Even when people attain higher education and work hard, they still experience significant barriers that make their mobility fragile,” she explained. 

For example, a first-generation graduate may earn a degree, but without access to informal networks, mentors, or professional norms, they often navigate short-term contracts and stalled progression – not for lack of talent, but because the system remains unfamiliar. Education may open a door, but unequal institutions and weak safety nets can still dictate what happens on the other side.

The missing ingredient: social capital

If education alone is insufficient, what else is needed? Speakers returned to the importance of social capital: the networks, relationships, and unwritten rules that shape access to opportunity. María José Álvarez, Professor of Sociology at Universidad de los Andes, described how ties to people unlike oneself can act as “gate openings” to jobs, information, and higher expectations. These connections often determine who hears about an opportunity early, who receives guidance at key moments, and who has someone to call when plans go wrong.

But networks do not appear by magic. “We tend to assume that we put people together and the networks start to form,” Álvarez said. “That’s not that easy.” Building social capital takes “relational work”, often supported by institutions that create spaces for cross-class interaction, mentorship, and trust.

This insight resonated strongly with one of the Julius Baer Foundation’s areas of intervention “inclusive education and skills development”: initiatives that combine learning with exposure, mentorship, networks, and confidence-building, so that young people are not left navigating unfamiliar systems alone.

Mobility as a collective journey

Another recurring theme was that social mobility cannot be reduced to individual success stories. Vallejo’s research shows that for many first-generation middle-class professionals, upward mobility remains precarious because they retain strong ties to families and communities who lack safety nets. “You can’t rise fully unless those behind you and underneath you are secure,” she said.

Her work on Latino communities also illustrates an alternative model: many Latino professionals do not ‘leave’, but invest back into their communities, building scholarship funds, business networks, and financial institutions to close gaps in capital and opportunity. “Their mantra is ‘how do we build the Latino middle class?’” Vallejo observed. Social mobility, in this framing, is about lifting the whole community, not escaping it.

María Luisa Méndez echoed this collective dimension, noting that her research participants often saw their achievements as contributions “not only for their families but also for their communities”. Mobility, she argued, should be understood as a shared process, shaped by place, relationships, and history.

Trust, wealth, and responsibility

For philanthropists and wealth holders, these insights raise challenging questions. Supporting social mobility often means funding work that seeks to change the very systems from which wealth has benefited. That requires more than financial due diligence; it requires trust, an understanding of the risks of failing to address social mobility – such as social fragmentation, declining trust in institutions, and reduced long-term economic resilience – and ideological openness.

Here again, the Julius Baer Foundation’s convening role comes into play. By giving philanthropic clients access to researchers, NGO leaders, and social entrepreneurs, the Foundation helps build the understanding needed for thoughtful engagement. As the LSE’s Mike Savage noted, philanthropy is especially useful when it is willing to be bold, take risks, and fund innovative approaches that the public sector cannot yet absorb.

What social mobility means for philanthropists

For many wealthy individuals, the conference also raised a personal question: how to turn concern about social mobility into meaningful action. Caroline Piraud, Head of Philanthropy at Julius Baer, sees this moment of reflection as the start of a philanthropic journey. “People often come to us with a strong desire to make a difference, but without clarity on where to begin,” she explains. The discussions in Chile, she adds, reinforced that effective philanthropy must be strategic, relational, and grounded in trust.

Piraud notes that the conference echoed what she sees daily in her advisory work: the most impactful philanthropic strategies align personal values with systemic understanding. “Social mobility is complex. It’s not just about education or one-off support, but about networks, institutions, and communities,” she says. 

That complexity is why Julius Baer accompanies clients through a structured process, from values-based conversations to what Piraud calls the four Ts: time, talent, treasure, and ties. For many families, this process becomes a way to connect generations — allowing younger members to engage with issues of opportunity and fairness, while older generations reflect on the conditions that shaped their own success. The goal is to give with intention, whether through a personal charity, collaboration, or partnerships with established organisations.

Piraud observes that themes such as education, inequality and opportunity often create space for shared purpose within families. “Philanthropy offers a neutral platform where families can share values and discuss legacy and responsibility,” she says. In that sense, the lessons of The Future of Social Mobility conference invite philanthropists to see their own wealth as a lever for strengthening the social fabric on which long-term prosperity depends, and to explore how they might get involved with the Julius Baer Foundation in ways that are aligned with their values.

A virtuous cycle, in practice

By the end of the conference, the outlines of a shared narrative had emerged. Social mobility is not a ladder climbed alone, nor a problem solved by education in isolation. It is a collective process that depends on social capital, community resilience, and systems willing to distribute opportunity.

The Future of Social Mobility conference did not claim to have all the answers. What it offered was a model for how answers might be found. By convening across divides, connecting research to implementation, and grounding abstract debates in lived experience, the Julius Baer Foundation and COES demonstrated how dialogue itself can become a catalyst for change.