Advancing Theory and Evidence about Migration and Cumulative Causation: Destination and Gender in Thailand

In this paper, we examine longitudinal data from Thailand and compare gendered migration patterns to three substantively different destinations (a regional, primarily agricultural wage laborer market; a primate city and its surrounding suburbs; and a newly industrialized, state sponsored export processing zone). By examining the differential effect of migrant networks on migration propensities of men and women across destinations, we aim to extend our theoretical understanding of the role of cumulative causation for influencing migration patterns. Because each destination is defined by different labor market characteristics related to gender and places of origin are also marked by different gender relations, we propose and find that there are significantly different patterns of migration when disaggregating the accumulated migrant experience by sex, destination, and place of origin (household or village). Using a unique data set from Thailand that allows us to observe variation across villages, households, and destinations over time, we observe that migrant characteristics as well as the effect of prior migration experience change dramatically by destination. Disaggregating migration experience by destination, we then find that experience in each destination increases the propensity of migration to that destination significantly. However, the magnitude of this increase is different in each destination. Further disaggregating migration experience by sex, we find that in all destinations, female migration experience has a stronger effect than male migration experience at each level of observation (individual, household or village) upon the probability of migration. Finally, modeling men’s and women’s migration separately, we find that the effect of migration experience also depends on whether the migrant is a man or woman.