Caste across borders: Persistence and transformation in diaspora

This Special Issue examines caste as a social structure that persists and is reorganized through migration, challenging assumptions that movement across borders weakens inherited hierarchies. Drawing on historical analysis, ethnography, legal scholarship and policy studies, it situates caste within diasporic social life across contexts, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Nepal, Malaysia and additional national settings examined here. The contributions build on Dr B. R. Ambedkar’s early caution that migration would not dissolve caste relations, demonstrating how caste continues to structure access to work, housing, religious participation, legal protection and forms of community belonging in host societies. Rather than framing caste as a cultural remnant left behind in South Asia, the articles show how it is recalibrated through family networks, institutional arrangements and collective organization abroad. The Special Issue also documents the uneven recognition of caste discrimination within legal and policy frameworks that prioritize race or ethnicity, often rendering caste-based harm difficult to name or address. Alongside persistence, it traces forms of resistance through civic mobilization, legal advocacy, religious reorganization and diasporic activism. By positioning caste as a transnational structure with material and institutional effects, this collection expands migration scholarship and argues for sustained analytical and policy engagement with caste as a global justice concern.