Rural-urban mobility in Thailand: a decision-making approach.

Area of Science:

• Sociology
• Economics
• Geography

Background:

• Migration decision-making is complex, influenced by numerous individual and macro-level factors.
• Understanding the determinants of rural-to-urban migration is crucial for regional development planning.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze a theoretical model of mobility decision-making based on individual-level factors.
• To evaluate the model's robustness across different origins and destinations in Thailand.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of a theoretical model incorporating variables such as mobility history, social contacts, information, evaluations, and plans.
• Empirical evaluation of four submodels for movement to Bangkok and Northeast Thai towns.

Main Results:

• Individual mobility history strongly predicts subsequent movement and decision-making processes.
• Social contacts enhance information access, which significantly impacts evaluations and migration plans.
• Migration plans and prior mobility are the most significant direct predictors of actual movement.

Conclusions:

• Information is a key, modifiable variable for influencing migration patterns and promoting regional urban growth.
• Directly altering evaluations or migration plans is challenging, but can be indirectly achieved through informational interventions.
• Prior mobility history is a critical, yet difficult-to-manipulate, factor in migration decisions.