ABSTRACT
While once a core concept of social science, class lost much of its explanatory appeal in the 1990s, as fundamental changes took hold in the global political economy that seemed to undermine the socio-economic basis of class and its usefulness as a means of analysis. This fading appeal of class as an explanation of social change was reflected in migration and diaspora studies no less than in other fields. Forms of social difference, affinity or allegiance such as ethnicity, gender, generation and religion rather became the key concerns, as questions of representation, identity, ‘identification’, and identity politics came to preoccupy migration and diaspora researchers. Though class is making a comeback in social science more widely (Bottero 2004; Savage et al. 2013; Wright 2015), this is less evident in migration and diaspora studies than in other arenas of social science enquiry.
