Determinants and Consequences of Internal Return Migration in Thailand and Vietnam

SummaryThis paper draws a distinction between local return migrants, who move back to their home village, and regional return migrants, who return to other places within their home provinces in Thailand and Vietnam. Using multinomial regressions we firstly analyze determinants of internal return migration and find that while local return migrants are lower educated than continuing migrants, this negative human capital selection cannot be found for regional return migrants. Secondly, after returning local return migrants often engage in agriculture, while regional return migrants continue in nonfarm employment, thereby diversifying the household income and consequently bringing potential for future economic development.