A Child of the City: a Longitudinal Study of Stratification and Migration in a Rajasthan Village

By reference to a multi-caste and tribal village in southern Rajasthan the paper examines the degree to which caste and tribal membership impacts on different aspects of migration, e.g. commencement, form, destination, duration, and types of work undertaken. Using a livelihoods approach, supplemente...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational review of social research Vol. 6; no. 3; pp. 107 - 117
Main Author Jones, J Howard M
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published De Gruyter Open 01.05.2016
Subjects
caste
India
livelihoods
migration
Rajasthan
stratification
tribe
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Summary:By reference to a multi-caste and tribal village in southern Rajasthan the paper examines the degree to which caste and tribal membership impacts on different aspects of migration, e.g. commencement, form, destination, duration, and types of work undertaken. Using a livelihoods approach, supplemented by other perspectives and concentrating on four migration streams (three domestic, one international), data collected over a period of nearly thirty-five years indicates that patterns of migration are far from random. It is argued that the use of official stratification categories in migration surveys can obscure important differences within caste groupings. Short-term circular migration, underestimated in national surveys, is shown to be substantial, especially for the tribal migrants in the village. While position in the social structure differentially affects aspects of migration across the village hierarchy, examples are given of individual migrant agency overcoming structural constraints.
ISSN:2069-8534
2069-8534
DOI:10.1515/irsr-2016-0014