Transnational Brokers and the Desire for Labour Migration: Decision-making Process of Myanmar Migrant Workers in Thailand

Labour migration is a dynamic process involving information gathering, motivation formation, and a series of actions of labour migration. This paper is an attempt to explain the process from a desire for the decision-making of potential migrant workers at the micro-level, including the input of labour brokers. Focus group and in-depth interviews were conducted in the Samut Sakhon City of Thailand. Myanmar migrant workers were interviewed. Thailand is a popular receiving country of unskilled migrant workers in Southeast Asia. Existing migration studies regarding intermediaries are less concerned with the micro-process of migrants’ decision-making. The findings enrich the understanding of the labour migration decision-making process, motivation building and the facilitating and bridging roles of brokers. Sternberg’s (2000) motivation building model has been incorporated into Spaan and Van Naerssen’s (2018) threshold of decision-making. Key obstacles are identified during the realization process. A micro-level decision-making process model is constructed involving information gathering, desire creation, aspiration realization, and motivation formation which finally contributes to the action of labour migration.