This article was aimed at studying the factor influence to close-knit family happiness of the northeastern rural households that have overseas migrating laborers using the quantitative research method and the household level as the analytical unit. Data collection was conducted in July, 2017 by means of interview with 334 households having overseas migrating members in Chaiyaphum, the province that has the second highest number of overseas migrating laborers. The analysis of data was based on descriptive statistics and Multiple Regression technique. It was found that the use of household‟s livelihood strategies, relationship between the migrating laborer and his or her family, the amount of investment from remittance sent by the laborers significantly influenced closeknit household happiness at the level of 0.01. Incomes from remittance, use of benefits from investment and average annual household income significantly influenced close-knit family happiness at the level of 0.05. All factors explained happiness of having a close-knit family at 36.1% and led to a conclusion that the close-knit family happiness influenced for migrating laborers‟ households include factors of households, economy, livelihood, and use of resources.
FACTOR INFLUENCE TO HAPPINESS OF THE NORTHEASTERN RURAL HOUSEHOLDS THAT HAVE OVERSEAS MIGRATING LABORERS, THAILAND Nattawat Auraiampai1 Dusadee Ayuwat2 Wanichcha Narongchai3 1, 2, Department of Sociology and Anthropology Labour and International Migration Service Center Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand Abstract This article was aimed at studying the factor influence to close-knit family happiness of the northeastern rural households that have overseas migrating laborers using the quantitative research method and the household level as the analytical unit Data collection was conducted in July, 2017 by means of interview with 334 households having overseas migrating members in Chaiyaphum, the province that has the second highest number of overseas migrating laborers The analysis of data was based on descriptive statistics and Multiple Regression technique It was found that the use of household‟s livelihood strategies, relationship between the migrating laborer and his or her family, the amount of investment from remittance sent by the laborers significantly influenced closeknit household happiness at the level of 0.01 Incomes from remittance, use of benefits from investment and average annual household income significantly influenced close-knit family happiness at the level of 0.05 All factors explained happiness of having a close-knit family at 36.1% and led to a conclusion that the close-knit family happiness influenced for migrating laborers‟ households include factors of households, economy, livelihood, and use of resources Keywords: Happiness, Livelihood strategies, Labor household, Overseas migration Introduction Migration is one type of rural lifestyles commonly found in the Northeast of Thailand3 Migration begins from a rural area to an urban area and has developed to overseas migration, with the number of workers involved continuously being increased This can be seen in the statistics of 2016, when the number was approximately 69,000 workers6 The consequence of overseas migration is a great amount of money remitted by these laborers into the country, which averages 66,161.1 million THB per year (National Statistics Bureau, 2012) Meanwhile, the households receive both positive and negative impacts from the members‘ migration resulting from working behaviors and lifestyles of the workers at the destination4 Living and working behaviors of migrating laborers also affect their households since they leave their families for 3-5 years according to the 440 employment contract, such as TIC and EPS (Office of the Attorney General, 2014) It can be said that the success of migrating laborers leads to a lot of economic and social chances Nevertheless, their households have to withstand many pressures from the missing of a member to help with the family occupation The household adjustments in this regard involve occupational management, management of debts incurred from sending one member abroad as a form of investment2 as well as adjustment of mental, social and living situations These have brought impact on the close-knit family happiness, covering the love and unity among family members expressed through moral supports, discussions and consults on every matter, regularly joined activities that used to make the family warm and secure The said relationships are a sort of immunity and mental support for the family members and the migrating laborers in the future or during the time when there are obstacles This is consistent with the finding of the Office of Health Promotion Fund15 Thus, knowledge is required on factor influenced to close-knit family happiness of the households having overseas migrating laborers in order to appropriately recommend ways to enhance happiness in these households Research objective To study the factor influence to close-knit family happiness of the northeastern rural households with overseas migrating laborers Relavant theoretical concepts The key concepts in this research include livelihood and happiness concepts as follows : The livelihood concept - for the concept of livelihood strategies related to social, community, powerful and cultural relationship in the economic perspectives, the importance is given on concrete risks (Long, & Roberts, 2010) Risks may lead to livelihood failure Therefore living can only be secure when the household possesses or have access to resources and earns incomes (Chambers, 2005) Livelihood strategy as viewed by Ellis (2000) is the setting of activity patterns and living practices in order to survive These are appraised from the household processes and community activities both in rural and urban societies where social relation and institution as well as community norms bind the strategies together These elements illustrate differences in access of resources and create differences in livelihood strategies through factors comprising human, social, natural, physical, and monetary capitals and various activities Livelihood Strategies means the range, a cluster of choices, and activities requiring capital and asset to achieve the goal of livelihood The choices constructed are connected to income seeking, security, happiness and the target of production and other reproductions The basis of such choices lies in the capability to use capital or asset (Chambers and Conway, 1991; DFID, 1999) Livelihood strategies judge a household as ―the actor‖ and not as ―the one acted upon‖ in the economic, political and demographical changing processes Livelihood Strategies comprise major components: 1) Choices - The choice of livelihood strategies depend on the surrounding context and the capital found by the household Each household has different ways to gain access 441 to livelihood capital, both in the respect of diversities and quantities as well as balancing of capital and resources (Long, & Roberts, 2010) 2) Struggle - As active agents, the household members have to struggle to survive; and in so doing, the impact arises on the interaction between the actors and the socioeconomic, political, cultural and ecological surroundings (Chambers and Conway, 1991; Long, & Roberts, 2010) 3) Solving of problems - The households rely on their strategic perspectives and make their own decision to take responsibility over poverty problem and existing partiality, in order to face uncertainty, tension and panic, to acquire fairness and fair distribution of resources, competency and chances so that double standards will be diminished (Long, & Roberts, 2010) 4) Survival - Survival refers to the attempt to find a means to survive from occurrences of various crises such as drought, famine, low product prices, etc In so doing, the emphasis is placed on living things that depend on one another, locating or building a place to live, financial management, food provision in the family, exchanging of products at the market, and co-performing missions necessary for existence (DFID, 1999; Scoones, 2009) 5) Sustainability - Sustainability refers to ability to maintain and improve livelihood, the process of which goes far back in the history This includes ability to increase the resources the household has to rely on Therefore, livelihood is the ability leading one towards success and to proceed sustainably (Chambers and Conway, 1991) In this study, the components of livelihood strategies, namely: choices, struggle, problem solving, survival, and sustainability of the households having overseas migrating laborers were studied by means of investigation of livelihood through the household‘s use of financial, human, physical, natural, and social capitals The concept of happiness Happiness is a social indicator that reflects wellness of a family The word ―happiness‘, however, has been defined in multiple dimensions For instance, the Department of Mental Health, Ministry of Public Healt15 defines happiness as a happy-life condition that results from ability to manage problems in living and potentiality to develop oneself for good quality of life The meaning covers goodness in the heart under the changing social and environmental conditions Layard (2007) defines happiness to cover the issues of finance, employment, health, freedom, values, family, society and friends This definition is consistent with the Office of Health Promotion Fund, which stipulates happiness components, namely: (1) Happy Body ,(2) Happy Heart, (3) Happy Relax, (4) Happy Brain, (5) Happy Soul, (6) Happy Money, (7) Happy Family, and (8) Happy Society These are indicators for happiness in the context of those who are employed rather than indicators of household happiness This research applied the concept of the Office of Health Promotion Fund for studying household happiness by emphasizing good family and good society The dependent variable was close-knit family happiness of migrating laborers‘ households 18 Research methodology The Quantitative Methodology was applied in this research to obtain the factor influence to close-knit family happiness of the households having overseas migrating 442 laborers The analytical unit was at the household level The research population comprised rural households in the Northeast that had overseas migrating laborers whose period of overseas stay was months and over Data was collected by means of the questionnaire developed from the concepts, theories and results of primary qualitative study The questionnaire was composed of parts :household characteristics, information of overseas migrating laborers, patterns of investment from remittance, relationships between the family and the laborer, household‘s access to capital, livelihood strategies, and happiness of the household having overseas migrating laborers The questionnaire had been examined in terms of content validity by qualified experts and tried out with 30 households that had overseas migrating laborers in O-lo Sub-District, Phu Khiaw District, Chaiyaphum Province The reliability level of the questionnaire was found to be at 0.910, which indicates quality and appropriateness for use to collect data Data collection was conducted during June 2017 with the sample group consisting 334 households The sample size was achieved by means of Roscoe‘s17 approach The data was analyzed based on descriptive statistics and multiple regression in order to factor influence to the close-knit family happiness of households having overseas migrating laborers The data was then presented by description Research results The research results comprise characteristics of the households having overseas migrating laborers, characteristics of overseas migrating laborers and social factors as follows: 5.1 General characteristics of the households having overseas migrating laborers The analysis of the general characteristics of the overseas migrating laborers‘ households showed that most (47.6%) consisted of members at the most The percentage of dependent members was 77.2% (aged 0-14 and over 60 years old) As high as 45.2% was found being extended families It was noted that one out of households were a crossgeneration household This finding agrees with the study of Narongchai & Ayuwat (2014) The average income per year of 41.0% of the sample group was from 150,001 Baht and over and more than half (56.8%) received less than 20,000 Baht monthly from remittance 5.2 Livelihood and resources The analysis showed that 58.4% of the households had moderate level of relationship with the migrating laborer It should be noted that the household members never consulted the migrating laborer related to household decision-making This indicates the fact that the migrating laborers did not take part in different decision making of their households When considering livelihood strategies from the households‘ actions for survival (with multiple choices, struggle, solving of problems, survival, and sustainability), it was found that most of these households (64.7%) had a moderate level of livelihood strategies One out of four of the households was found to have a low level of livelihood strategies, especially when dealing with struggle As high as 70% of these households never claimed their rights of fairness nor did they make a request for budget support to 443 mitigate their troubles It was found that 45.8% invested at a low level from remittance money; 53.6% invested in children‘s education whereas 37.1% invested by buying household utilities This finding is consistent with Ayuwat, Boonkwang, & Chumnanmak (2016) It was noted that 26.0% of the households utilized benefits from access to capital at a low level, especially the natural capital, i.e., subsistent land, where over 30% could not have access because some households with migrating laborers were not able to hold farming occupation due to shortage of labor and so rented out their land 5.3 Close-knit family happiness of overseas migrating labor households From the analysis, it was shown that the average happiness score of the family in terms of being close-knit was 30 (S.D.= 3.7) with the lowest being 12.0 and the highest being 36.0 points Most of the households (58.1%) showed a high level of close-knit family happiness, followed by 39.8% that showed a moderate level of the happiness When considering each item, it was found that most of the households had the highest levels of close-knit family happiness in the dimension of members‘ supporting one another and members being able to consult one another in every topic, at 77.5 and 71.3%, respectively In time of one member‘s trouble, other members (96.4%) will help at their full and fullest capacity However, it was found that 57.2% of the households had members not understanding one another at the highest level and 16.8% showed that they joined in activities together at a low and the lowest levels 5.4 Factor influence to close-knit family happiness of overseas migrating labor households The analysis of the factor influence to close-knit family happiness of overseas migrating labor households was conducted based on the Multivariate Analysis and Multiple Regression Analysis, which stipulates that the independent and dependent variables must be measured at the interval scale or ratio scale If any variable showed measurement of a nominal scale or ordinal scale, it had to be adjusted to a dummy variable and the reference group indicated Therefore, in this research, the extended families and cross-generation families were adjusted to be dummy variables, whereas the single families were classified as the reference group In the multiple regression analysis, no pair of variables brought for analysis should have a correlation higher than 0.75 in order to avoid the problem from multi-collinearity because it will lessen the values from predicting equation (Prasitratasin, 1995) Analysis of the correlation coefficient between pair variables which would in turn be used to analyze the factor influence to close-knit family happiness indicated that no pairs showed correlation value higher than 0.75 Thus, the multiple regression analysis was applied using the Enter Method It was found that the factor influence to close-knit family happiness of the northeastern overseas migrating labor households (Table 1) had the following factors: Household factors - The relationship between the household and the migrating laborer laborers had a positive influence on the happiness of having a close-knit family, with the multiple regression coefficient (b) of 0.059 This demonstrated that when the relationship between the household and the laborer increased one unit, the close-knit family 444 happiness increased 0.059 unit since they were able to share different feelings.Layard similarly explained that good relationship in the household leads to increase of happiness, especially in the family per se, arising from interactions and joint activities Economic factors include: 1) The average annual household income had positive effect on the close-knit family happiness of the rural northeastern households having overseas migrating laborers with the multiple regression coefficient (b) of 4.146 This means that when the labor household had a one-unit increase of the average annual income, the close-knit family happiness will increase at 4.146 units This agrees with Jebb, et al., who found that money influences happiness, for it fulfills both physical and mental needs 2) Monthly income from remittance of migrating laborers had positive effect on close-knit family happiness of northeastern rural households with the multiple regression coefficient (b) of 5.934 This shows that a one-unit increase of earning from remittance means a 5.934-unit increase in close-knit family happiness This finding is consistent with the research work by Joarder, Harris & Dockery and Hendriks, who found that remittance from laborers is the key item leading to happiness of their households, for the money enables ease of financial management 3) The amount of remittance had negative effect on close-knit family happiness of the rural northeastern households that sent laborers abroad, with the multiple regression coefficient (b) of 0.157 This means a one-unit increase of remittance money brings a 0.157 decrease of close-knit family happiness The finding became an interesting issue when the household had money to invest According to (Alemayehu, Beuving & Ruben, 2018), happiness is reduced because investment brings about risk in the livelihood Livelihood and use of resources are composed of: Utilization of capital had a positive effect on close-knit family happiness of the rural households in the Northeast with overseas migrating members The multiple regression coefficient (b) was 0.029, demonstrating that an increase of one unit of capital utilization brings a 0.029 unit increase of close-knit family happiness This agrees with Mularska who found that capital influences the inhabitants‘ good quality of life by indicating their wellness Use of livelihood strategies had a positive effect on close-knit family happiness or rural households having overseas migrating members, with the multiple regression coefficient (b) of 0.131 This shows that an increase of unit of livelihood strategies brings a 0.131 unit increase of close-knit family happiness It was noted that the number of household members, the number of dependents, the number of working-age members, and the characteristics of the household of overseas migrating laborers did not show significant influence on close-knit family happiness of the overseas labor households at the level of 0.05 When comparing the factor influence for close-knit family happiness of the rural northeastern households that had overseas migrating laborers from the multiple regression coefficients (Beta), it was found that close-knit family happiness of these households were 445 mostly influenced by the use of livelihood strategies (Beta=0.267), followed by the relationship between the household and the migrating laborer (Beta=0.186), the amount of remittance (Beta=0.181), income from remittance (Beta=0.139), utilization of capital (Beta=0.128), and average annual household income (Beta=0.101) All of the independent variables brought into the analysis significantly explained the inconsistence of close-knit family happiness at the level of 0.01, by explaining household happiness at 36.1% (R2= 0.361) Research conclusion It can be concluded from the analyses that the determinants for close-knit family happiness of rural northeastern households having overseas migrating laborers were: use of livelihood strategies, relationship between households and migrating laborers, amount invested from remittance, income from remittance, utilization of capital, and average annual household income.Therefore, relevant organizations should encourage the households having overseas migrating laborers to appropriately use livelihood strategies while their members are working abroad They should interact with and join in activities with the community and enhance the mechanisms that reduce risks from investment that is based on remittance money Meanwhile, overseas migrating laborers‘ households should make an agreement on remittance before migration of the member and set the agreement for household‘s use of capital Acknowledgments This article uses the information from the research study on Happiness of Northeastern Thailand Households with Overseas Migrating Laborers, which was supported by the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Khon Kaen University The research team is grateful to the Faculty‘s administrators who see the importance of research work and supported the study Thanks are extended to all of the northeastern households that had overseas migrating laborers who helped provide the useful information for this research References Akaeda, N (2018) Social Contact with Family and Relatives and Happiness: Does the Association Vary with Defamilialization? 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Thus, the multiple regression analysis was applied using the Enter Method It was found that the factor influence to close-knit family happiness of the northeastern overseas migrating labor households