Title: Yunnanese Chinese youth’s aspirations to migrate and migration infrastructure in Doi Mae Salong, Chiang Rai

Author: Chingen Chiou

Year: 2025

Keywords: Yunnanese Chinese, Migration Aspiration, Migration Infrastructure, Doi Mae Salong

Themes: Migration,Human Development and Human Security

Advisor(s): Jiraporn Laocharoenwong

The full thesis available here.

Abstract: This thesis examines the migration aspirations of Yunnanese Chinese youth and the migration infrastructure in Doi Mae Salong, Chiang Rai. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and semi-structured interviews, it analyzes the social and economic conditions that drive their future mobility and migration routes. In tandem, it explores the migration infrastructure that mediates the realization of their mobility. It argues that institutions originally established as sites of diasporic cultural reproduction have reassembled into migration infrastructures that further shape and direct the younger generation’s mobile futures. This research expands on youth perspectives and their conditions within Thailand’s Yunnanese Chinese community. It contributes to discussions of identity and educational institutions that are less addressed in migration infrastructure literature.