Similarly to race, ethnicity determines class differentiation of people. Ethnic minorities are frequently unprivileged social groups in the American society which is not much enthusiastic about the immigrants. Sometimes, they are even treated as flawed people: those who have to abandon their motherland and search for a better place to live must be very unfortunate. That is what some of us think.
Both ethnicity and class are socially determined concepts. Therefore, in various societies, ethnic groups occupy a different social class. It usually depends on their education, occupation, and assets. However, in all societies, a ruling class comprises representatives of one and the same privileged ethnicity.
Social stratification is a universal phenomenon. People enhance this division even more creating extra points which characterize our class position. For example, if we try to tell whether a person belongs to a higher or a middle social class, we judge upon their material qualities like income and assets as well as upon non-material characteristics. These are ethnicity, status, power, etc.
Trying to define the influence of ethnicity on a class membership, we shall take into account the traditional attitudes and tolerance of every particular society to the ethnic groups. For example, immigrants from wealthier countries frequently belong to the higher social class. And those who move from poorer countries automatically belong to the lower class.
Of course, such stratification of society is very subjective and primarily based on the material properties. Occupation and education play a certain role in defining one’s place on the social ladder, and they are followed by race and ethnicity.