Why don’t more Thais migrate overseas?

I notice that the overseas Thai diaspora is relatively small compared to other major Asian countries. Thai-Americans make up one of the smaller groups of Asian-Americans. Likewise in Europe.

Indians & Chinese will have large oversea diaspora by the nature of their very large populations. Skilled Indians also seem to view moving overseas (particularly to Western countries due to the ability to speak English) as a given. Filipinos are also famously migration-happy and moving to work overseas is almost a rite of passage. Koreans & Vietnamese also migrate overseas in large numbers.

Thais on the other hand, the numbers are very low. Unlike the groups above where many of the migrants who go to Western countries are highly educated, the Thai migrants in these countries tend to be low-socioeconomic background and moved with a spouse.

One might say language is an issue, but this hasn’t stopped Vietnamese, Koreans & Chinese whose English are just as poor yet they migrate overseas in large numbers.

Some might say they’re low-skilled & don’t have resources to migrate, but Vietnamese & Filipinos are just as poor or even poorer, yet they seem to migrate fine.

The richest Thais who are happy to attend elite colleges in the West seem to overwhelmingly return to Thailand at the end of their graduation, despite this country being a bit of a mess with low pay.

Why do you think this is?

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