Abstract:
The aims of the study are: 1) to examine trends of gender differentials in
migration to Bangkok; 2) to study the influence of gender differentials in migration on
Bangkok population composition; and 3) to study the influence of social networks on
gender differentials in migration to Bangkok.
The study used population censuses from 1970-2000 to examine the differentials
in migration to Bangkok and in the occupational sex segregation. In addition, data from the
Demographic Responses to a Changing Environment in Nang Rong Project were used to
investigate the influence of social networks on differentials in migration.
There is an obvious female predominance in the migration flow to Bangkok. The
export-led economic orientation has been a crucial influence on female migration to the
capital city and to the five peripheral provinces while the new urban economy, which favors
female laborers, has affected the occupational sex segregation in Bangkok. By using the
decomposition technique, it was found that the 5-year migrants comprised the major
component of the change in sex ratio of Bangkok population only in the 1970-80 censuses.
This may be partly due to the accumulation of lifetime or longtime migrants who thus
became Bangkok non-migrants, according to the definition of 5-year migration.
Furthermore, it was found that the occupations that Nang Rong migrants in
Bangkok engaged in reflected the labor demand of the new urban economy and the impact
of the 1997-2000 economic crisis. In the multivariate analysis, some of the Nang Rong
migrants’ social networks were found to influence the likelihood of their being long-term
migrants. Female migrants’ networks appeared to have more of an influence on the
propensity to move out for the long term than those of male migrants. This reflects the
stronger ties of female migrants to their origin households compared to those of male
migrants.
Thus, any future policy should focus not only on Bangkok proper (BMA), but
also on the five peripheral provinces. Strategies should also be devised to ameliorate the
implications stemming from the female sense of obligation. For future research, due to the
significant effect of migration networks on migratory behavior, network-related questions
should be included in the census and migration surveys, which should be given to both
migrants and non-migrants. This would make the study of networks’ influence on migration
more precise.