Research

Factor determining migration among hill tribe people in Northern Thailand

Vasavat Sutinyamanee and Patcharawalai Wongboonsin

College of Population Studies (CPS), Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

In Thailand, internal migration research has recently been of marginal investigation. Yet, this study is of the notion of the need to keep it on track of interest, particularly from the perspective of the public and intimate spheres. While rural development program since the 1997 economic crisis has contributed to a rise of return migration from urban to rural areas, there are certain parts of Thailand where there is an on-going flow of rural-urban migration of labor. This is particularly the case for vulnerable and marginalized hill-tribe people. Besides the problem of children and elderly left behind, the prospects of their sustained economic and social development are also expected to be jeopardized. This study focuses on the Karen community, the largest community of hill tribes in Thailand. This is based on a comparative case study of migrants and non-migrants in Pateung Village in northern Thailand, where there is a very high rate of migration of up to nearly 30%.

The study adopts participatory observation and in-depth interview approaches of qualitative investigation to comparatively study the experience of individual movers and non-movers, from the perspective of the household members of the family of both migrants and non-migrants. To seek an understanding of the characteristics of migrants and non-migrants, their family background, as well as of what has caused the out-migration stream and non-migratory phenomena in the area of investigation, the study examines a combination of factors – determinant, prohibiting, and neutral – affecting decision making to migrate or not, along neo-classical economic theory and new economics of migration. This study is expected to come up with an appropriate approach to help the minorities and their family to achieve sustainable ways of lives while contributing to sustainable demographic dividend in the community.