Gender, Values, and Intentions to Move in Rural Thailand

Abstract

"This article explores gender differences in the intentions to move among a sample of young adults in rural northeastern Thailand. Based on the value-expectancy framework of migration decisionmaking, an explanatory model is tested which includes migration-related value measures along with individual, household and community-level determinants of both intentions to move and change in intentions to move. Multinomial logistic regression results based on data from the 1992 Thailand National Migration Survey provide some support for the hypothesis of gender-specific determinants of both intentions to move and the reconsideration of migration intentions. For men, value measures of affiliation and comfort, social networks, the presence of young children in the family, and land holdings are significant determinants of migration decisionmaking; for women income and comfort values, the presence of elderly persons in the household, community size, and crop losses are the salient factors."