How Class Makes a Difference : The Importance of Class for Racist and Negative Distinctive practices

Previous research concludes that working-class people in general exhibit more negative attitudes towards people with immigrant backgrounds than people in more privileged class positions. However, whilst primarily drawing on quantitative methods, these studies fail to explain how class comes to matter, and even less is known about tangible everyday practices. The thesis examines how class positions affect racist and negatively distinctive practices against persons of immigrant background. The aim is to explore (i) class differences with regard to which negative distinctive practices mainly occur in relation to different class positions and (ii) to identify generative mechanisms of importance to the practitioners, with particular attention to class-specific contexts, such as the workplace, the labor market and housing. This class-comparative study draws on data from twenty qualitative interviews: ten interviews with people in working class positions, living in a working class area; ten interviews with people in more privileged class positions, living in a socio-economically more privileged area. In addition, participant observations were conducted in the two residential areas. The sampling relies on a combination of Marxian and Weberian class criteria, in which conditions of production, occupation and income have been the main criteria for constructing the two different groups. To enable comparisons, eight categories of practice were constructed on the basis of theoretical and empirical arguments. The result shows that categories of practice vary between class positions; e.g. exploiting and corrective practices are characteristic for those in more privileged class positions, while excluding and avoidance practices are more common among those in working class positions. The study also shows that the causes of these practices can vary depending on the class position of the practitioner. The class structure is a mechanism in itself and has different effects on people in different class positions. Perceived class interests in relation to workers of ‘immigrant background’ and the degree of authority in the workplace are both examples of this. Moreover, several other mechanisms are identified, negative notions of persons of immigrant background underpinned by imagined and actual norm circles, exclusion mechanisms linked to profession and language and the pursuit of class and upward status mobility in hierarchically racialized labor and housing markets