Introduction

While the British ethnic minority middle classesmiddle classes may be socio-economically ‘well-off’, they are part of a minority ethnoracialethnoracial collectivity that has suffered (and is still suffering) from social, economic and political exclusions. The consequences of this positioning for class and racial/ethnic identity is both an interesting and under-researched area in the social sciences. This chapter will outline the histories and social mobility trajectories of the dominant groups which comprise the British South Asian diaspora, outlining their occupational and socio-economic positionings with due historical detail. It will thereforegive necessary context for the analysis of middle class formation and socio-political identity across the British South Asian middle classes featured in the later chapters.