Wheels within Wheels: Poverty, Power and Patronage in the Cambodian Migration System

Abstract

This article presents evidence for an adjusted and refocused systems theory of labour migration in Cambodia. Specifically, it seeks to highlight first, how migration in Cambodia may be understood as a multi-scalar phenomenon characterised by pragmatism and flexibility; secondly, it emphasises the undergirding role of traditional rural norms in shaping and mediating the systematic process of labour movement; and finally, it presents evidence concerning how these structures constitute a vessel of social change, not only from urban to rural, but also from the rural to urban. In this way, a picture is presented of Cambodian migration as an adaptable, but nevertheless highly patterned process which is rapidly reordering the Kingdom’s cities and villages alike.

Acknowledgements

This research was made possible by a grant from the International Development Research Centre of Canada. The authors would like to express their thanks for the assistance of both the IDRC and our many former colleagues at the Development Studies Faculty at the Royal University of Phnom Penh.

Notes

1. For the purposes of this study, non-migrants are defined as people who were either born in Phnom Penh (or what is now Phnom Penh given the expansion of the city), or who have lived there since the 1980s, during which time the city was gradually repopulated.