Research & Article

This essay seeks to explode some of the prevailing myths regarding migration and settlement in Thailand. Between 1961 and 1982 for example, the rural population of Thailand grew from 24 to 43 million people. The question is: "where have all these people gone ?" Did they crowd and fragment the farms ? Did they lose their land and migrate to the urban areas ? Did they descend on Bangkok ? Did they crowd in its slums and squatter settlements ? Did they settle in government-sponsored rural land settlement schemes ? There is emerging evidence that they did none of these things. Where have they gone then?