An interest in, and a concern about, internal migration was first evident in the
academic community and among policy makers over thirty years ago. This concern was
shown in several in-depth studies on “internal migration” dating back to at least early
1970s. It is important to note that initial attention of both national and international
demographers and social scientists centered on the “negative” impact of migration.
Attention to shifts in population distribution began in the 1960s when worldwide alarms
about the population explosion that had begun in the 1950s were spread among the
national and the international agencies. The rapid growth of population especially in
the rural areas was seen as a factor in the fast changing population distribution that
resulted in a large movement of people from rural places to urban areas that place over a
short period of time. Although this was not confined to Thailand, it did spark a body of
research on internal migration in Thailand by national and international scholars that is
perhaps unparalleled in the developing world.