Intergenerational strategies: the successes and failures of a Northern Thai family's approach to international labour migration

ABSTRACT

International work migration from rural Thailand is not new, yet relatively little is known about the decision-making processes regarding this livelihood strategy at the family level and across generations. Drawing on concepts of transnationalism and livelihood pathways and trajectories, this case-study traces the agency that underpins labour moves over two generations of a rural family in Chiang Rai province. The focus is on individual trajectories that exemplify how the first generation of migrant labour entered the market and the degree to which the second generation is replicating or modifying the migration patterns of their elders. We also show, from an emic perspective, who is deemed to be the most and least successful in their livelihood approach. To do so, we draw on data gathered from life stories, conversational interviews, and village visits, focusing on 45 individuals and spanning a 30 year timespan of international work migration. Moves to Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Australia and a failed endeavour to reach New Zealand are analysed, in an attempt to contribute to debates on transnationalism while highlighting individual and generational differences in migration stories, the specific roles of brokers and informal social networks, and diverse spatial practices.

KEYWORDS:

• Chiang Rai
• Thailand
• intergenerational change
• labour migration
• livelihood trajectories
• transnationalism

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the members of this lineage for their time and patience with our numerous questions. We also extend a large thank you to Thomas Kettig and Sarah Delisle for initial research assistance on this paper, and to our two reviewers and the editor for their constructive feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 All names in this study are pseudonyms. Sukhum in Thai (สุขุม) combines the meaning of being shrewd while discreet.

2 1987 exchange rate. A case study of 295 farm households in two provinces, one in the Central Plains and one in the Northeast recorded the average annual real household income to be USD3,915 in 1987 (Cherdchuchaia and Otsuka 2006, 414).