Factors Influencing Livelihood Security among the Fishing Migrant Households at Places of Origin in Thailand

Abstract

This article examines the factors influencing upon livelihood security among fishing migrant households at their places of origin. The research employed a quantitative approach to the research methodology. Interview schedule was used to collect data from 385 fishing migrant household samples in the Provinces of Surin, Burirum, and Sri Saket, who had members working in the fishing industry for at least one year. Data collection was conducted during April 2018, and descriptive statistics and path analysis were implemented in the data analysis. The results found that a majority of the sampled households had a low-medium level of livelihood security (62.1 percent), while 10.7 percent of the sampled households were observed as having a low level of livelihood security. Path analysis presented factors having a direct effect including land, household assets, human capital, social capital, physical capital, natural capital, and household risks. Factors providing an indirect effect through household risk consisted of year of migration, reason for migration, frequency of remittance received, annual household income, agriculture-based income, none-agriculture income, household assets, social capital, and natural capital, with a statistical significance between the 0.01 level and the 0.05 level. The explanatory variables accounted for 59.38 percent of the variance in explaining livelihood security among the fishing migrant households (R2 = 0.5938). Research recommendations focus on livelihood diversification and the mitigating guidelines for the fishing migrant households to reduce risks of livings