Status (in)congruence in migration - Transnational mobilities and class aspirations of French Muslim professionals

Aug 24, 2026

The social order is maintained through interlocked racial-class hierarchies. Drawing on interviews with transnationally mobile French Muslim professionals, the article examines how national entrenchment of these hierarchies shapes migrants’ encounters with distinct racial-class formations across borders. It shows how spatial mobility can enable racial and class mobility, granting access to middle-class privileges while making racism and Islamophobia’s national foundations more visible. The study highlights life-history based knowledge and racial socialization, arguing for the transformative potential of transnational mobility for intersectionality research.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages21

Reading Time53 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Racial-class hierarchies and national entrenchment

Intersectionality through a transnational lens

Research questions and embodied dispositions

Method and empirical data

French Politics (2025) 23:480–500 [https://doi.org/10.1057/s41253-025-00300-8](https://doi.org/10.1057/s41253-025-00300-8) ORIGINAL ARTICLE Status (in)congruence in migration Transnational mobilities and class aspirations of French Muslim professionals Margot Dazey1 Accepted: 9 October 2025 / Published online: 24 October 2025 © The Author(s) 2025 Abstract The social order is sustained by interlocked racial-class hierarchies. Building on a case study of transnationally mobile French Muslim professionals, this article examines the national entrenchment of these racial-class hierarchies. It unpacks the various racial-class formations migrants encounter during their transnational journey, and how these formations manifest as embodied dispositions. For many French Muslim professionals, spatial mobility serves a project of racial and class mobility, providing access to middle-class privileges previously denied to them in France. It also renders more tangible the national foundations of racism and Islamophobia, making strange taken-for-granted situations in French society. Drawing on extensive interviews that center on life histories, the article emphasizes how minority individuals acquire knowledge about racism and make sense of these experiences as they move across borders. Ultimately, it argues that spatial mobility can have transformative effects on the incorporated sets of racialized dispositions that propel individuals to see, feel, and act in certain ways, pointing to the heuristic value of a transnational approach to intersectionality studies. Keywords Status incongruence · Class aspirations · Transnational mobility · Migrating racialization · Racial socialization · Islamophobia Social class classifications are racially coded, with class positions being shaped by racial assumptions, while racial identities are simultaneously layered with classbased representations. In the US context, for instance, blackness is frequently associated with lower-class culture, while whiteness is linked to socioeconomic affluence. Other racial minorities, such as Arabs or Asians, often occupy intermediary position within this racial-class spectrum (Feagin and Sikes 1995 ; Gans 2012) . * Margot Dazey [margot.dazey@cnrs.fr](margot.dazey@cnrs.fr); [margot-dazey@hotmail.fr](margot-dazey@hotmail.fr) 1 CNRS/CERAPS, 1 Place Déliot, 59000 Lille, France These intertwined processes result in what can be described as racial-class hierarchies—systems of classification that emerge at the intersections of racial and classbased judgments. This article examines the national entrenchment of these hierarchies, drawing on the conceptual framework of intersectionality (Collins 2009) and extending it through a transnational lens (Purkayastha 2012) . It explores how minority individuals navigate shifts in these social-class hierarchies and encounter new forms of classification as they move across borders. In doing so, this article contributes to phenomenological approaches to race and racism, which consider how racially constituted difference is lived and experienced by minority individuals (Essed 1991 ; Lamont et al. 2016) . It asks: How do minority individuals understand and reflect on the shifting regimes of (class-inflected) racialization they encounter? To what extent are their cross-national efforts for upward mobility constrained by race? And how do they navigate new forms of racial-class categorization in their migratory destinations, especially in relation to the classificatory frameworks they developed in their home country? Addressing these questions requires attentiveness to the embodied dispositions that shape how individuals “conceive and navigate their racialized position daily”, as well as how they “categorize others and interpret the world along racial lines”(Brun 2022: 212–213) . Methodologically, the entry point to study nationally bound racial-class hierarchies is transnational mobility.1 Mobility entails the recon

FAQs

What does the article mean by “status (in)congruence in migration”?

It refers to how migrants’ class position and racialized categorization do not align across borders. Spatial mobility can therefore reorganize how individuals experience and interpret racial-class hierarchies in new contexts.

How does transnational mobility affect French Muslim professionals in the study?

The article argues that mobility can function as a project of racial and class mobility, enabling access to middle-class privileges that were previously denied in France. It also clarifies the national bases of racism and Islamophobia.

What data and method does the article use?

The empirical material consists of biographical interviews with 27 French Muslims who have experienced or are currently experiencing transnational mobilities.

Aug 24, 2026

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