Social class in transnational perspective: emotional responses to the status paradox among Ghanaian migrants

Migrants often experience a low-class status in the countries to which they migrate and a high one in their home country, because of their remittances. This paper takes that analysis further by examining the emotional reasons for return migration and retirement. Ghanaian migrants’ social class debasement in the United States through their work in home health care leads to strong emotions about their class status. They mitigate their humiliation through transnationalism, in which they direct their energy towards an alternative social field through house construction in Ghana. Through a house, they hope to gain social status, recoup their years of humiliation, and afford to retire. I analyze what these processes mean for the understanding of class projects within the context of a global capitalist system.Peer reviewe