William Roseberry, Class and Inequality in the Anthropology of Migration

Abstract

■ This article addresses the ways in which Roseberry's work advances our understanding of the processes of transformation under capitalism. Looking at his use of class in selected writings, I explore Roseberry's ideas on class and class analysis by applying them to the case of international migration. While Roseberry did not engage with the subject of migration, I will argue that his discussions of social differentiation, petty commodity production, fields of force and social class nonetheless have heuristic value in the study of contemporary international migration. They provide the conceptual and methodological tools to enhance our understanding of the nature of social reproduction and dynamics of capital formation in different social and economic sites that are configured by migration. Roseberry's analytical insights are applied to cases of migration within China, as well as migration between China and France.