The impact of overseas labour migration on rural Thailand: Regional, community and individual dimensions

The impact of international labour migration on rural areas of origin in less developed countries has been extensively studied in the context of the well-established, regional, labour-market systems focused on Western Europe, North America and the Middle East. There is little comparable research on the most recent international-migration system to emerge, that founded on the appreciable economic and demographic inequalities within Eastern Asia. This paper provides a case study of the impact at origin of recent labour migration from rural Thailand to East Asian destinations. It does so through survey information on 63 villages and detailed biographic interviews with recently returned workers. It is concluded that work abroad is regarded by migrants as a strategy of life support; it is sometimes life-enhancing, but only rarely life-changing.