Household Strategy, Return Migration and the Role of Remittance in Nang Rong, Thailand

Yuying Tong, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Martin Piotrowski, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

This study examines the effect of remittances on return migration using social survey data from Nang Rong, Thailand. We use a longitudinal design spanning three waves of data, which avoids problems inherent in many existing studies. Our findings are consistent with the view that migration and remittance are part of a household strategy whereby migrants leave in order to earn money, which they send back as remittance, thereafter returning to their origin household. While remittance is positively related to return migration, it is especially so if the household owns agricultural equipment. This suggests that migrants pursue a self-interested strategy motivated by the inheritance or safeguard of property.