Middle class by effort? Immigration, nation, and class from a transnational and intersectional perspective

ABSTRACT

This article examines how highly skilled immigrants from Poland become middle-class in Germany through a transnational and intersectional lens. Hence, it asks what is the middle-class, and who and where belongs to it. First, it considers the fluidity of social class in post-socialist Poland to deconstruct middle-classness. Second, it draws on Reckwitz's distinction between the new and old middle classes in Germany and their factions to argue that immigrants cannot become middle class members by default. Based on the analysis of empirical material consisting of narrations of Polish immigrants, the article asks if Polish immigrants become middle class ‘by effort’. The analysis shows that Polish immigrants’ habitus locates them in-between different middle-class factions. The narrations suggest that these immigrants experience discrimination and exclusion, but – curiously – also demonstrate these immigrants’ lack of awareness of structural barriers in access to the middle-class factions in Germany. It argues that such ‘blindness’ to structural underpinnings of exclusion is a result of the entanglements of nationalism and neoliberalism, for example, the immigrants’ belief in meritocratic principles. Finally, the article suggests avenues for future theory-building by addressing the intersection of social class, gender, life course, and ethnicity to better understand middle-classness of immigrants.

KEYWORDS:

• Middle-class
• nationalism
• neoliberalism
• transnationalism
• immigration

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 In the German context, the Sinus Institute studies distinguish ‘migrant milieus’ and analyse them separately from non-migrant milieus.

2 Reckwitz also mentions the fourth characteristics, international character of middle class – for a critical discussion see López and Weinstein 2012.

3 Sinus data build a model of society in which people are grouped according to similar values and outlooks, as well as education and income. More information about the study can be found at the Sinus-Institute webpage https://www.sinus-institut.de/en/sinus-milieus/sinus-milieus-germany.

4 Project information removed for blind review.

5 I rely here on the analyses of SINUS data included in the respective publications.

6 For a critical discussion of the debate on immigrants’ ‘too high’ aspirations, see Spohrer (2011).

7 I do not claim that these problems are unique to immigrants, from Poland or in general; but while Germans, or those who grew up in Germany often struggle to find adequate employment or childcare, this does not impact their entry or belonging to the middle class in a way it influences the new immigrants’ struggles for belonging.

8 For the discussion of varieties of economic neoliberalism in Europe, see Birch and Mykhnenko 2008. For the discussion on variants of nationalism, see Bonikowski 2013.

9 The AfD (Alternative for Germany) a far-right party in Germany, gains popularity among native old middle-class factions (Lux 2022), and recently immigrants vote AfD as well. While scholarly analyses of the reasons for this immigrants’ voting behaviours are still missing, some observers of public life suggest that AfD addresses economic and social deprivation, and possible loss of status due to increased number of asylum seekers, which meets the concerns of various groups of immigrants, as suggested by group threat theories (Meeusen, Abts, and Meuleman 2019).