In a qualitative study based on 25 interviews, we examine
highly skilled workers’ accounts of class-based closure in
emerging occupational sectors in Sri Lanka. Our findings
reveal holes in the entrance criteria firms demanded to
secure their elite status. Highlighting how individuals who
were excluded at junior levels negotiate entry at mid/senior
levels, we show how ‘poachers turn into gamekeepers’,
illuminating the dialectical relationship between exclusion
and inclusionary usurpation. We contextualise organisational
closure, highlighting the influence of wider societal effects on
the process.