This dissertation consists of six chapters. Chapter1 introduces, in particular,
the meaning of international migration and reviews related theories and research.
Chapter 2 highlights the socio-economic impacts of international migration on the
place of origin in Thailand. Chapter 3 explains the research methodology and its
objectives. The author aims to identify the two major aspects of international
migration, namely the social and economic effects on migrants’ households and on
their communities. The research adopts two research techniques; a questionnaire
survey for quantitative analysis and an in-depth interview for qualitative analysis.
The first two sets of questionnaires were prepared for the return migrants and also for
their relatives with similar questions in each regarding economic and social
dimensions. The economic aspect focuses on the financial status of migrants and their
families, including consumption, debts and savings, household appliances,
occupations, investment in land or business and working skills learnt while abroad.