Labor Migration of Highlanders of Northern Thailand : Research on the Mien-Yao's Labor Migration and Its Social Influences

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To understand an overall trend of the labor migration of the Mien-Yao (Yao) in Northern Thailand, we conducted the questionnaire investigation to the village headmen in 76 Yao villages, about half the number of all Yao villages in Thailand at the first phase of the research. We collected data concerning the general conditions such as population, agriculture and other occupations, education, traffic and others, and the situation of labor migration of each village. As a result, we found that there were regional differences in the conditions of labor migration such as jobs, destinations and others. As for overseas labor migration, a lot of regional differences at the province-level and the district-level are large. We found that cases of overseas migration were concentrated in a region around Chiang Kham and Pong districts of Phayao Province and a region of northern part of Chiang Rai Province. On the other hand, there were characteristically few cases of overseas labor migration in Nan P … More rovince.At the second phase of research, we selected twelve villages from among the 76 villages investigated. The twelve villages were classified into three categories ; (1) villages with many overseas and inland labor migrants, (2) villages with many inland labor migrants and (3) villages with relatively few labor migrants. We carried out the household-survey and the interviewing with persons who have worked outside the village and returned in the twelve villages. The complementary investigation was conducted at the third phase of research.The labor migration as a whole has been much increased since 1990. Its main push-factor was the slump of swidden cultivation caused by the environmental change in the hills and by the logging ban policy of the government, and its main pull-factor was the economic boom in East and Southeast Asia (ecological and economic factors). The agricultural change increased the necessity of investigation in cultivation and the increase of nuclear family also acted as a promoting factor of migration. Another factor was their grading-oriented tendency and upward intention that were observed in their ritual and world-view. The tendency was transformed into the competition in building new houses and making fruit orchards. In some region, traditional technique that could be applied in a new occupation also accelerated the inland migration. Education was a large accelerating factor of the inland labor migration. As for the overseas labor migration, the regional information network acts as a promoting factor.The influences of the labor migration were observed in phenomena such as the increase of educational investment, the improvement of female status, the increase of competition in prestige within a village, and the increase of cases of inter-ethnic marriages. Less