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- Title
REGIONAL INCOME GAP AND MIGRATION: THE CASE OF THAILAND.
- Authors
Ikemoto, Yukio; Takei, Izumi
- Abstract
Contrary to the general perception that the wide income gap between Bangkok and the Northeast, the poorest region in Thailand, is still pushing poor farmers to Bangkok to earn livelihood, this paper shows that the income gap is not so wide as generally believed. The image of "desperately poor Northeast" is created and often made use of politically. While acknowledging that poverty and income disparity still continue to plague the country, the paper notes that poverty decreased steadily except for a short period after the crisis in 1997. Likewise, the situation of internal migration in Thailand is no longer of the "flooding" type. The fact that the Northeast continues to be seen as the poorest region in spite of these changes suggests that the exaggeration of the economic gap is politically motivated. By misappropriating statistics so validate politically-motivated images of poverty in the Northeast, Thailand may be overlooking the needs of the real poor.
- Subjects
THAILAND; INCOME gap; CLASS differences; SOCIOECONOMICS; POOR people; POVERTY; INCOME inequality; EMIGRATION &; immigration
- Publication
Harvard Asia Quarterly, 2004, Vol 8, Issue 3, p4
- ISSN
1522-4147
- Publication type
Article