immigrant class

6.1

A group of people who moved from another country and have little money and few chances to get a job

noun
/ˈɪmɪɡrənt klæs/

: clase de inmigrantes

The immigrant class often faces language barriers and limited job opportunities.

Examples

Many policies failed to address the needs of the immigrant class living in urban neighborhoods.
Many members of the immigrant class struggle to find jobs.
Sociologists have studied the integration of the immigrant class into mainstream society.
The immigrant class often faces many challenges.
Many policies failed to address the needs of the immigrant class living in urban neighborhoods.
The immigrant class often faces language barriers and limited job opportunities.
Sociologists have studied the integration of the immigrant class into mainstream society.

Antonyms

upper class

15 3.4

A social group with the most money and power

affluent

1 6.0

A person who has a lot of money

Surface Forms

immigrant class singular

immigrant classes plural

Morphology

immigrant + class

The sense 'a category or social class made up of immigrants' is directly derived from combining 'immigrant' (a person who moves to another country) and 'class' (a category or social/economic grouping). This is a compositional, non-idiomatic meaning that is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Immigrant class is a phrase that joins immigrant, meaning 'people who moved to a country', and class, meaning a 'social group' by income or job. It likely comes from the image of recent arrivals living and working in the same poor neighborhoods, so immigrant class refers to a group of new immigrants seen as a lower social group.