Intersectionality, Class and Migration

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvii

   PDF

2. Class, Intersectionality and Iranian Diaspora

   • Mastoureh Fathi

   Pages 1-19

3. Intersectionality and Translocational Class

   • Mastoureh Fathi

   Pages 21-47

4. Classed and Gendered Growing up

   • Mastoureh Fathi

   Pages 49-80

5. Classed Place-Making

   • Mastoureh Fathi

   Pages 81-96

6. Classed Performing

   • Mastoureh Fathi

   Pages 97-125

7. Classed Racialisation

   • Mastoureh Fathi

   Pages 127-144

8. Classed Belonging

   • Mastoureh Fathi

   Pages 145-168

9. Understanding Class Intersectionally: A Way Forward

   • Mastoureh Fathi

   Pages 169-182

10. Back Matter

    Pages 183-193

    PDF

This book offers critical analysis of everyday narratives of Iranian middle class migrants who use their social class and careers to "fit in" with British society.  Based on a series of interviews and participant observations with two cohorts of "privileged" Iranian migrant women working as doctors, dentists and academics in Britain—groups that are usually absent from studies around migration, marginality and intersectionality—the book applies narrative analysis and intersectionality to critically analyse social class in relation to gender, ethnicity, places and sense of belonging in Britain. As concepts such as "Nation," "Migrant," "Native," "Other," "Security," and "Border" have populated public and policy discourse, it is vital to explore migrants’ experiences and perceptions of the society in which they live, to answer deceptively simple questions such as ​"What does class mean?" and "How is class translated in the lives of migrants?"

• Iran
• Migrants
• Skilled Labor
• Belonging
• Nation
• Migrant
• Native
• Other
• Assimilation
• Class
• Intersectionality
• Gender
• Iran
• Britain
• Brexit
• Security
• citizenship

“Fathi’s work is of particular interest to anthropologists, political scientists, sociologists and other social scientists interested in transnational migration, class, race, gender, citizenship and intersectionality. Her work is particularly interesting too, to those social scientists, who are intrigued by the messiness and complexity of social life, as well as the possibility of ‘studying up’ within migrant communities.” (Joy Owen, Nordic Journal of Migration Research NJMR, Vol. 09 (1), 2019)

This book fills an important gap in intersectionality studies and stratification studies, providing a nuanced intersectional analysis of the experiences, understandings and social position of Iranian women doctors in the UK, with a much needed focus on the importance of the role of class subjectivities and performativities. It advances understandings of social location and social hierarchy in both empirical and theoretical ways and is an important contribution to the burgeoning area of applying a gendered and intersectional lens within research in migration and ethnic studies. This book is essential reading for students, scholars, and professionals who are concerned with the complexity of othering processes and how they are dealt with by subjects and particularly how racialisation, class, and gender can operate in multiple and contradictory ways. Floya Anthias, Professor of Sociology and Social Justice (Emeritus), University of Roehampton University, UK

• School of Law, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, UK

  Mastoureh Fathi

Mastoureh Fathi is Lecturer in Sociology at Bournemouth University, UK. She has published on the topics of belonging, gender, education and social class among migrants. She is a narrative researcher with an interest in Muslim migrants, and their everyday experiences of life in Western countries. Her current research looks at the intersection of religion, gender and parenting.  

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