Paper short abstract:

Currently, two strands of migration research are producing seemingly conflicting narratives: one emphasizes the potentiality of migration, while the other one its link with precarity. In this paper, we seek to understand the interrelatedness of this disparate empirical evidence.

Paper long abstract:

Publications addressing the developmental impact of migration and its role for climate change adaptation often highlight migrants' positive potential for resilience, while research on labor migration indicates migrants' precarious working- and living conditions. We argue that this seemingly disparate empirical evidence results from both different foci and socio-spatial scales in analyzing migration and its impacts. To decipher the interlinkages between these two sides of migration and resilience, we propose a translocal approach which addresses multiple socio-spatial scales and the simultaneity of mobility and situatedness of migrants and non-migrants across space. How are the socio-economic conditions in places of origin and destination linked and what do such connections imply for the resilience of migrants and rural households?

To address these questions empirically, we refer to the case of rural-urban migration in Thailand. Our results show the interdependence of translocal connections (e.g. through remittances) and the embeddedness of migrants at the place of destination. Furthermore, comparatively poor conditions of rural households are associated with high burdening of migrants. We conclude that both the type of embeddedness and the exposure to precariousness determine the extent to which migrants' sojourn proves to be a risk or an opportunity for the migrants and their household at home. Migration does thus not in all cases lead to improvements of household conditions at the place of origin. Rather, rural poverty is often reproduced in urban precarity, and migrants working and living under particularly precarious conditions have difficulties supporting their households of origin in a way that can contribute to higher household resilience.