Remittance Behavior of Migrants from Nang Rong Thailand: The Role of Social Pressure at Village of Origin

Martin Piotrowski, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The literature on migrant remittance is dominated by microeconomic explanations, which overstate a utility maximization scheme while understating the importance of social context at origin villages as a determinant in remittance behavior. This paper contributes to existing literature by using multilevel statistical modeling and social survey data from Nang Rong, Thailand to examine how remittances between migrants and households in rural origin villages are related to intergenerational transfers, social networks and social capital, and community effects. Findings show that households that are isolates in the rice harvest are sent less monetary and goods-in-kind remittance. Furthermore, goods-in-kind remittance is more subject to network size and density than monetary remittance. Also, the presence of parents in the household is a strong determinant of remittance. These findings support the idea that social capital considerations and social pressure at origin villages impel migrants to repatriate money and goods in order to fulfill parental obligations.